Charm FX

Posts Tagged ‘goals’

Just because you make Art or express yourself creatively doesn’t mean you’re completely different than the rest of the planet. Social networking technology and the business of getting what you do in front of those who may have an interest in it is similar to any other form of internet marketing in many ways. To begin with you need accounts..quite a few. If you have accounts on the short list to the right you’ve accomplished something. If you have more portfolio or video accounts, great!

This is the basis of your social presence and it should reflect what you’re trying to do as a creative. Sure you can put up some personal details and some background, but the content should reflect your goals and work you want seen.

Why have all these accounts? Well, if someone likes what they see they’re going to be likely to follow a link to your personal web site domain back to your blog or portfolio site where they can see more, right? In internet marketing terms this is called a funnel. The comparison is not entirely accurate because many, many people will never follow your posts back and of those who do not all will subscribe to your RSS feed or email list. You’re going to want them to do that to maintain contact with them. If these people really like what you do then they’ve filtered themselves and found their way to you and have accepted your invitation to read your feed or emails now and then…that’s the beginnings of keeping you and what you do on the minds of a community of people who find some value in what you do and that’s your goal, right?

As long as you’re posting useful and interesting content related to what you do and provide, those folks won’t be disappointed when they follow your links back to your domain. You’ll actually be assisting them to find work they’ve genuinely been looking for.

In this sense, technology has combined with creativity in one more way, in addition to whatever technologies you may already use to express yourself.
I personally believe that social technologies are becoming more and more inextricably linked to self expression. Some are using these things badly and some are being quite sophisticated about the use of these technologies.

Uses of these technologies by creatives for purposes of self promotion and finding and communicating with their audience does create some problems and there are ways you can misuse or not use this stuff as effectively as you might…more soon.

With my last post in mind, it seemed the most useful thing might be if YOU could just see what someone else was doing online, as they were doing it. Modeling is a good way to learn new things, to see what works and what doesn’t, and it helps a lot if you have something or someone to model.

Some tell me I’m crazy, that just putting myself out there is only inviting criticism or making it too easy for others to just do the same stuff…and then it will stop working for me. Am I asking for trouble? I don’t think so. Seems to me that kind of thinking assumes there’s only some minimal threshold and if too many do the same things, it’s bad…that if you have things that work you shouldn’t tell anyone. That’s the same kind of reasoning ‘gatekeepers’ use in any field and we’re especially aware of how this works in creative fields.

The truth is the internet demonstrates how this kind of thinking is NOT TRUE….especially, in creative fields. If you have a skill or a point of view and you are about something and you know who you are and what you’re doing, it’s possible you’ll be able to succeed without the necessity for galleries or gallery owners, for studios, agents, record companies, etc. With this in mind there isn’t any reason to fear showing up and showing others how I’m doing what I’m doing…warts & all. In fact, it’s especially important to show what happens when something isn’t working. While I know you’d like to know what does work, wouldn’t like to know what doesn’t?

My personal experience includes –

• providing services to clients
• working jobs for employers
• and working my way through a variety of academic programs in the arts and communications as well as having varied background in other subjects

One overwhelming thing I’ve learned is that there will always be those who’ll tell you it won’t work and if you listen to them, it won’t! If you don’t listen to them and DO pay attention to others who are actively doing what you’re interested in, you will learn and you will be closer to doing what you want because of the efforts of others.

As this blog evolves I’m simply going to show you where I am, what I’m doing and tell you why. I’ll just aim at moving closer to the goal of facilitating my own creativity, producing creative projects and finding ways to sell, distribute or just exhibit my projects. While I’m doing that I’ll document what I’m doing and how I’m doing it and put it up here for all to see. If you’ve been here before you may note some changes to the page layout so that’s something you may see evolve as content and features grow.

I’m hopeful my successes will be useful to others and some may contribute their own experiences in hopes it might be useful to others.

Keep it real!