Post Social Media Marketing Roundtable Notes
Yesterday I hosted and moderated the first WAN Roundtable @ the Working Artists Studios in NW Industrial Portland. The Panel Guests were:
Rebecca Shapiro [Rebecca Shapiro Art],
Jeff Fisher [Jeff Fisher Logomotives] and
Tim Christy [Asst. Prof. of Communications and Advertising at PSU].
The conversation they had with the artists and creators attending the session was amazing – and just the very tip of the iceberg when it comes to social media marketing.
Social media is changing every day. If you’re a Facebook user you’ve seen them on a weekly, sometimes daily basis. Sometimes the changes are big – like interfaces changing completely. Sometimes they are refinements – tools showing up in the foot of your browser that makes navigating the site a breeze.
Almost every social media site has more tools than an average user has time to learn about let alone use. And time, it turned out, was everybody’s top concern. How much time does it take to set-up a social media site? How much time should I spend every week, every day on the sites? How often do I need to blog on my blog site or on the blog portion of the social media site?
The second top question was about results. How do you know you’re being successful with your efforts? How do you measure results?
There were two really great things about yesterday’s presentation:
- Not one person mentioned money as an issue or barrier to their getting involved with social media – because there is hardly ever any money involved, and
- The guidance being given away was by people who have spent a considerable amount of time researching and using social media tools to successfully promote their businesses.
Their responses regarding…
TIME: It takes quite a bit of time to setup the social media tools in the beginning, and after that it’s a matter of personal preference re: how much time you then devote to your social media marketing plan.
RESULTS: It depends on what you consider success and the measurements you setup to measure that success. For Jeff and Rebecca, conversions (sales, registrations, sign-ups) were important. For Tim as an educator involvement was important – posts and comments on his blog site, receiving question and queries. For all three building the right kind of community was critical.
At the end we summarized a pathway for folks to follow to effectively use social media for marketing they and their art (whatever form that came in). It was simple:
- Create a body of content that you will use on ANY social media website that includes a great headshot or picture of you, a username that’s consistent across all your networks, a recent bio, your favorites, listings of upcoming events, etc.
- Pick one social media platform to start with [we talked about Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter - and Facebook seemed to be the tool of choice with which to start] and dig in deep to understand all its parts, and;
- Fill out the profile COMPLETELY, and then use its tools to share about you, what you do and with/for whom. It’s amazing how hard that profile will work for you!
Then, after you’ve become somewhat proficient at that tool, go investigate and setup another.
I asked each presenter to send me their 10 Tips for harnessing the power of social media marketing. I compiled them into a handout with links, tips and advice as it was clear there wouldn’t be enough time to cover every site that’s made a difference in people’s businesses, causes and lives. If you’re interested in getting your copy of this wonderful resource, sign up for one of WAN’s free newsletters and I’ll send it to you as a bonus. CLICK HERE TO GET THESE VALUABLE NEWSLETTERS AND YOUR BONUS
The attendees to the event are receiving a second bonus for attending the Roundtable – one of the worksheets from my tutorial on social media marketing I created for Portland Open Studios: Creating Content Buckets. [The tutorial and all the worksheets are included as bonuses for people who join WAN at any membership level.]
WAN offers classes, consulting and coaching support in this area. Check the “Calendar” page to see the schedule of upcoming classes, workshops and presentations -AND- visit the “Programs and Events” page for more complete descriptions and to register.
Of course you are welcome to write to myself or any of the Roundtable presenters to get more information on social media marketing and ways we can help you. Here’s our contact information:
Adrienne Fritze
Business & Marketing Consulting for Artists and Creatives
a@workingartistsonline.com
http://workingartistsnetwork.com
503-349-6075
Rebecca Shapiro, Artist and Business Consultant
studio@rebeccashapiroart.com
http://rebeccashapiroart.com
503-381-3395
Dr. Tim Christy
Assistant Professor of Marketing and Advertising Management PSU
tpc@pdx.edu
http://profchristy.typepad.com
Jeff Fisher, Engineer of Creative Identity
Jeff Fisher Logomotives
jeff@jfisherlogomotives.com
http://jfisherlogomotives.com
503-283-8673
What exactly does Working Artists Network mean by ADVOCACY, BUSINESS INCUBATION and COMMUNITY? Find out here: ABOUT. Thanks for visiting!
Thank you Adrienne for a great round table discussion! There is so much to learn about social media and the presenters were very knowledgeable. I’m hoping you will have more of these in the future. Any possibility of having a workshop on this topic where participants bring their laptops and we work through some of these sites?
YES! We actually have two workshops coming up – the first is on May 9th from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. lead by Ryan Lewis of Bonfire Social Media, and is for advanced social networking users. We haven’t committed to a date for the Intro level to social media marketing, and once we do I’ll post it here as an announcement, one the Events & Programs page, and schedule it on the Calendar page.
I’ll probably also be leading a workshop on standalone WordPress applications for artists and creatives who are using WordPress as their content management system for their websites (such as we do here on WAN, and on my personal website http://adriennefritze.com).
This was a terrific round table. Thanks for coordinating the speakers and facilitating the discussion. I learned a lot about how free internet social networking sites can help drive traffic to my website and increase sales. This was incredibly informative. Thanks, Adrienne. Great Job!
~Mark Lysgaard