The Results of the Poll
Based on the poll in my LinkedIn group, I can see that most of you fully understand the necessity of having social media accounts. Today the artists simply cannot exist without a decent presence on social media.
Secret 1) Your Time vs Someone Else's Time
There is no shame in outsourcing social media posts. The prices vary from 2 posts per week for 1 month costing around 300 EUR up to 6 posts a week per month for 3000 EUR with at least 3 months long contract because social media is not an overnight miracle.
Even so, you can schedule the posts & stories, it is a full-time job, so you have to plan carefully what is more convenient for you. Either to pay someone else to do it for you, and spend your own time creating more artwork or you do it yourself and put your own creative artwork on halt.
Regardless of whether you want to do it yourself or not, you need a strategy. To have a good strategy you have to know 3 basic things. First of all, you have to know who you are then what you offer, and thirdly how is your audience.
I will share with you a list of questions that you have to know the answer to if you want to have an efficient strategy and results.
As an example of the answers, I have used my own business because I want to stay on the safe side. If I use my own business then I don´t have to be worried about a possible lawsuit for sharing my business secrets. I am pretty sure that I would not suit myself.
Secret 2) Basic Marketing Lingo - Brand Purpose
The first basic thing you have to know is your brand purpose, taking into consideration that every artist can be considered as a brand to make it easier on us.
You have to be able to explain why you as a brand exist. Focus on the practical side and the philosophical one.
In my case, it is to help artists raise awareness about their art practice.
Brand Mission
Then your brand mission which is an explanation of what you are here to do. How your company is helping create the future.
By helping artists to raise awareness about their art practice, they can reach a wide and dedicated audience to secure a stable income floating in from their art practice
Brand Values
Another important factor is your brand values. Here you can list up to 5 values for how you will conduct yourselves in support and pursuit of your mission and purpose.
For me the values are international, resourceful, critical
International because I want to connect people passionate about art from across the globe
Resourceful because I am based in Berlin, so I am focused on Berlin-based artists, local art galleries, and non-profit art organizations. I organize or participate in local events such as art tours in artist´s studios, Peer2Peer sessions, art shows and etc.
Being critical is also an important value for me because I know that I cannot cater to all and that´s why I maintain my curatorial approach on identity, feminism, migration, memories, and past vs present, so I have a clear focus on a range of artists that I am interested in.
Brand Personality
Next is your brand personality. Here you share the adjectives you’d use to describe your brand. Are you friendly and approachable? Professional and efficient? Big or small? Fun and youthful?
In my case, I have chosen Friendly & Approachable because many artists are rather shy, doubting themselves, and do not know how to communicate their art practice with the audience.
I keep my language plain and not too complicated so that people feel safe approaching me even if they don´t know fancy words in English. This goes hand in hand with my brand value of being international.
Getting Deeper in Marketing Lingo
Let me share a few more questions that you should focus your attention on.
What is your brand promise?
In my case, it is to show artists how to own their online presence.
If your brand was a celebrity, who would it be?
I am a great fan of Jerry Saltz
Because he talks about art through emotions and uses uncomplicated explanations. Saltz is not trying to create some sort of a foggy myth about contemporary art.
What other brands do your company admire and why? And it is also good to know what brands does your company dislike and why?
Secret 3) What is your product or service
Now when you know who you are, it is time to spend your energy explaining what do you actually do.
Create a positioning statement to provide a brief summary of what your business does, and who you do it for. Be as specific as you can. You can use the following as a guide and see my example:
We do _raise awareness about art practice__ (the thing you do) for Berlin-based artists (your target customer) which sets us apart from _traditional commercial galleries_(industry reference) because we put emphasis on an online environment (insert your USP/ reason to believe).
You also have to think about the emotional and functional benefits that people get from engaging with your brand or product. Here you can get inspired by my art business
emotional benefits: you will be competent and stay in control of your online presence
functional benefits: you will gain resources of marketing for artists to secure a steady income from your artwork
Secret 4) Your Audience
So far we have talked about who you are and what you offer but now is the perfect time to discuss who is our audience.
Be specific because that´s the goal here and describe your target audience. To get this information I have used Google Analytics, my Instagram accounts, and analytics from my LinkedIn page and group.
I don´t have to mention that it is largely generalization which means if the data says that I am mostly approached by women aged 28-55, it does not mean that I would not help a guy or any other gender age 24 for example.
What demographics do the audience operate within?
(Age, sex, marital status, location)
- mostly women, age 28 – 55, any marital status, Berlin-based
What is their psychographics?
(interests, hobbies, lifestyle, beliefs, values)
- art, DIY, pigment making, freelancers, harmonious beliefs
What are their goals? What do they want in life?
- recognition for their artwork, secure income from their artwork
Why do they use your product or service? What pain points does your product/ service solve?
- lack of knowledge in marketing and lack of willingness for self-promoting
Why would they be attracted to what your brand has to offer?
- approachable with guidance in self-help solutions
Secret 5) Step Up - Content Framework
Once you have all answers to the questions above then you can create a content framework for your social media which will have 3 pillars Brand Story, Product or Service Story, and Audience.
The brand story is a short summary of the key things the company stands for and what makes the company's or art practice personality unique. e.g:
- Beliefs / values of the company - facilitate access to the art scene in Berlin and beyond
- Mission / vision / unique philosophy - helping artists to own their online presence by educating them in marketing
- Lifestyle / culture - freestyle & inclusive culture, friendly & approachable
The product or service story outlines the functional and emotional benefits of what you offer to solve. e.g:
- The pain / problem of the customer (lack of knowledge and lack of willingness to promote themselves) and the solution provided by the product / service (providing them with knowledge & confidence to establish their online presence)
- What the customer gets from using the product (outcomes / results / benefit to life) Artists will increase their credibility and gain relevant knowledge in marketing to create an efficient presence online & gain an audience willing to spend money on their artworks
- Features (characteristics of the product itself - could be anything from… what does it look like? How much does it cost? What’s the customer service like? Battery power? Subscriptions for blog posts, webinars, crash courses about marketing for artists, and consultations.
The last pillar of the content framework is the audience where you can list 3-4 wider topics your audience is interested in and that your business also has the authority to talk about. These can sit out of what your business directly offers its customers.
- in networking in the art world & marketing for artists
- my thoughts about current art events & artworks I come across
Each of the pillars has space for content ideas. For example, in the section of the brand story, you list all the content ideas you can think of related to your brand story.
- visits to Berlin-based artists' studios or art spaces (galleries)
- post about marketing concerning the art world
And the social network where you can share them such as in my case IG @temporaryspaceberlin & LinkedIn Page Temporary Space Berlin.
The second pillar is a space to list all the content ideas you can think of related to your product story such as in my case
- webinars
- blog posts
- crash courses
And these ideas are shared on my website and IG profile @temporaryspaceberlin.
The third pillar is for listing all the content ideas you can think of related to your 3 to 4 wider topics
- blog posts about curating & my reviews of art shows that I attended
- art events organized by me eg. art tours, shows, dinners or live events
- posts from the artists' studios, art tours & Peer2Peer sessions
These posts can be found on my FB & IG profile @hykovaveronika keeping this mind you should avoid reposting the same kind of posts across the social media channels. For example, whatever you post on FB should not go on Tik Tok because each of the platforms is used for different purposes.
Here you can download the pdf version of the content framework that I have been talking about in this blog post. I would highly recommend you spend the time on it, so you exactly know what are your goals and give clear instructions to freelancers on what you expect them to do.
Secret 6) Annual Editorial Calendar
Once you have your ideas on what and where to post then you have to look for related events to create an annual editorial calendar.
In my case, I aim my attention at well-known annual or bi-annual art events such as Gallery Weekend Berlin, Berlin Biennale, and various art fairs like the most famous one in Basel.
Conclusion
As you can see it is no laughing matter to create a coherent social media presence and that´s why you should not feel shame to outsource it.
The reason why I share the tips on how to make a strategy for your online presence is not to brag about myself but rather to provide you with a cookbook on how to do it within your own community.
Due to the easily accessible internet today, it does not really matter if you live in a capital city like me or in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere as long as you have access to a decent internet connection it can be done.
I hope that my article will help you in achieving your goals and if you need help feel free to sign up for a Strategy Session with Jason who runs his courses The Art of Selling Art. and helping artists to turn their art practice into a full-time profit generating career.
The reason why I am happy to recommend Jason´s courses is that the courses offer round-up guidance on how to succeed as an artist and created a steady income from your art practice.
In case you want to become a part of my network feel free to sign up for my newsletter.