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A note from the FNO
newsletter editor...
Hello to our FNO Artists and Craftspeople,
We're glad to see that more and more of you have begun to upload photos
to your profiles!
Now the Festival Biz
Directory is tied to your FNO Community profile, with
those who have uploaded photos being listed first, so get a photo
uploaded today! We are also starting to see some good information in
the Community
Forums - drop by and post your own questions or tips for your
fellow FNO members.
This month's article comes to you from Alyson Stanfield at artbizcoach.com.
Alyson
discusses the
benefits of online networking and how important it is to carve out some
time to promote yourself and your business.
Best
wishes!
The FNO Staff
800.200.3737
festivalnet.com
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Carve out time for Online
Networking by Alyson Stanfield
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 It happened again! I talk to a group of
artists about using social media like blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and
LinkedIn. I tell them that this is part of a marketing program and
that, yes, it will take time. I warn them not to get sidetracked using
social media and forget to go into the studio–that the studio is always
the priority. Still, they grumble, whine, and make excuses. (I had
spies at the lunch table after my talk!)
ALL worthwhile marketing takes time. You would love for me to
hand you the name of an agent that will sweep you off your feet and
whisk you off into the stars, wouldn’t you? You’d prefer that you can
just buy a bunch of ads or send out a single mailing and have all of
your dreams come true. Yeah, that would be nice all right. But what
planet are you living on?
This is Earth. April 2009. We’re
bombarded with hundreds of marketing messages each day. You have
to learn to build meaningful relationships that will propel your career
forward. You must keep your name in front of people you’re in contact
with. Networking online is one of the cheapest, easiest, and most
effective ways to do that.
In order to avoid being
overwhelmed by all of the social media opportunities available, you
might be best served by carving out time for them. This isn’t
something you do in a block of time one day a week. Instead, you need
to do a little bit every day. I suggest starting with 15-30 minutes a
day for logging in to sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
That’s enough to create and maintain a presence.
You could spend longer on these sites, but I advise you to monitor your
time. It’s easy to get caught up in other people’s tweets, questions,
and photos. Whenever you catch yourself doing this, stop and remember
that you only have 15-30 minutes. Ask yourself: Do I really need to
spend time on this right now? Is it the best use of my time? This
awareness will pull you back to reality and what is most important for
your art business.
Tara Reed, of Art Licensing Info, has a
Twitter philosophy to reduce your stress about this fast-paced site.
She calls it the “Zen of Twitter.”
Don’t worry about what you
might have missed when you
weren’t looking, just
assume that the tweets you are meant
to see are the ones on the
screen when you are inspired to look.
It’s perfect, and it might easily be applied to Facebook and LinkedIn.
Look only at what’s on the screen. There’s no need to dig for older
posts.
In carving out time in
your schedule for online networking, select a time of day that is best
for you and your working rhythms. For instance, if your best
creative time is 9 a.m. to noon, don’t spend your time on the computer
during those hours–unless you use the computer to make your art! One
last piece of sage advice is to use a timer. Set your timer to the
minutes you have allotted and spend no more time than that. It’s
amazing what you can accomplish under the pressure of an anticipated
buzzer.
KNOW THIS———-~>
You have 100% control over your time.
THINK ABOUT THIS—~>
Are you carving out the time you need to promote your art most
effectively?
DO THIS————~> Carve
out time for online networking. Don’t whine or complain–especially to
me. Just to it. There are too many artists out there for you to sit
back and hope this is a passing fad. Be grateful for all of these free
and low-cost self-promotion tools that artists a generation ago didn’t
have.
Alyson Stanfield is the
author of I'd Rather Be in
the Studio! The Artist's No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion. She has
been consulting with artists to help build their art businesses since
2002. Visit her website and blog
or find her on twitter and facebook!
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Featured
FNO Artist - Kathleen Masterson of KEM Designs
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 This month's
featured artist comes to us from Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Kathleen Masterson of KEM Designs has lived on the Cape for 24 years
has always had an insatiable love of the sea and collecting the stones
she finds along the shore. Several years ago, she began making jewelry
out of these stones by combining them with sterling silver and leather.
Kathleen does not tumble the stones or otherwise alter them in any way
other than drilling a hole or an occasional engraving. Rather, she
leaves the polishing and smoothing to Mother Nature for an intriguing
finish. Each of her pieces is unique, just as no two stones are the
same. Visit Kathleen's FNO profile as
well as her website to see more examples of
her lovely work!
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| Make
money while working shows! |
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Did you know you can make 5 bucks for every
new
member
you refer to FNO? Get cash or apply it to your next renewal!
To get more info about or join the FNO Affiliate
Program go here.
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Print these and hand them out at events to start making money today!
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&
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