Marketing art online and how it could help you

I've been taking some time out from work recently. I've returned to a great passion of mine, which is drawing. I was pretty good at art at school but never made anything of it because I didn't practice enough. I've dabbled back and forth over 20 years, doing night classes in Hong Kong and at Edinburgh Art College but didn't really put my heart and soul in to it or went to classes every week due to work commitments. So I eventually gave it up. But with time on my hands just now, I've started classes on Lamma Island where I live, and love it. So what has this got to do with this blog? Well, I've also recently learned a few practical PR tips from the art world in the past six weeks that I'd like to share with you

While researching advice on how to draw better, I came across thousands of artists who integrate blogs, websites, Facebook, trade magazines and Etsy (online craft mart similar to ebay) to market their art.  Press coverage on their work is featured on their blogs (and websites) together with exhibition details, videos of their work and tips/advice to other artists.  Visitors to their blogs can register for updates via email and RSS, so maintaining engagement with their audiences. Some artists have their own shops too. The artists integrate all these communications channels and methods to produce powerful, and reasonably priced, campaigns.

One such artist who has embraced new media and social marketing is ADEBANJI ALADE, from London, England. You can find his blog here. He has had the blog since 2006 and it includes video tips, links to his website, his drawings, magazines he likes, other artists he likes, exhibitions, his awards and links to work he has done with third parties. Alade''s biography is fascinating too.

One of Alade's sketches from his blog

Alade at work

The internet has given artists an amazing portal to reach their audiences, build their reputation and sell their work. Small businesses everywhere could learn a lot from them.

Social media – how impactful is it?

I’ve watched with some interest as many of my peers have got very excited about social media.

I'm intrigued by social media's power and ability to spread information. I especially like the fact that it is global. I’ve been a member of facebook for nearly two years, Linked-in and blogger for three. And I joined twitter a couple of months ago. Currently I am following Obama on twitter. Yesterday I joined Xing. You can probably tell that I’m a little obsessed with it. And it seems that everyone else is too judging by all the headlines in the marketing and PR magazines/blogs. But who is using these applications? And should PRs and marketers consider them?

You would think the whole world was at it from the miles of media coverage on social marketing in traditional media, online and in PR and marketing literature. But not everyone is using social networking. While nearly all my friends use facebook, and even their parents in some cases, not everyone is logging in as regularly as I do. Busy mums log in about once or twice a month. Only 1% of my friends are using twitter. About 5% use Linked in. And a handful of my friends have a blog – mostly about traveling or living as an expat. We're in our thirties so perhaps we're not the target audience. And this is why I don't consider it as the "white knight" that everyone else does.

I believe that social media can complement traditional communications channels but will not replace them, for now. We should not rely on social networking sites entirely to promote our brand especially if our target audience is not using it (which goes without saying). However, PRs and marketers should consider it, investigate it and find out whether it fits their company's objectives and is used by their target audience. Time will tell though and you never know, the majority of people over 40 might be on facebook and tweetering daily by the end of 2009. But as yet, I'm not convinced.