Many thanks to Dave Caolo for an excellent presentation on Blogging for Artists tonight at the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod. I particularly loved the exercise in which he asked us which of the alleged benefits of blogging were we skeptical of — I really admire a presenter that asks for that kind of feedback right up front, and at several points throughout the presentation.
Several artists are already on their way with setting up their own blogs, and I think a few really got inspired to start tonight. But Dave seemed to have something for everyone, no matter where on the scale of things they were.
If you have started a blog, and you are in this class, please link to it in the comments to this post! I will happily add each artist blog to the sidebar on the right, so thatwe can all watch them evolve over the next few weeks.
And really – don’t be shy! We are all beginners here. 🙂
We’re looking forward to Week Two of What’s Your Story: Personal Branding, PR and New Media for Artists! We had to relocate to a room at Cape Cod Community College last week, but we are all set this week to return to our natural home at the offices of the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod.
Jessica Burko will present our second session focused on branding: Refining Your Message, Defining Your Targets. Building on Jim Hill’s fantastic presentation last week on Branding for Artists, we’ll be delving deeper into this topic with Jessica.
Jessica Burko has been a working photographer since 1985 and has exhibited her photographic work in solo and group shows throughout the United States. Burko is originally from Philadelphia and currently lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She holds a BFA from Rhode Island School of Design, and an MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology.
As an artist, independent curator, and arts marketer, Burko divides her time between working in her studio, and working on-site with artists and arts organizations. Recent exhibitions of Burko’s photography based, mixed-media work include: New Voices, Gallery 181, Lawrence, MA; Among Us and Curious, Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR; Open Call/Size Matters, RHYS Gallery, Boston, MA; Small Works: Spirits and Shrines, Fiber Art Center, Amherst, MA, and several of Burko’s images have been published in Room Of One’s Own, Vancouver, BC, and in PennMed Magazine, Philadelphia, PA.
We talked a little about Twitter at the first session of What’s Your Story: Personal Branding, PR and New Media for Artists, and I know a couple of you have already given it a peek.
Twitter can be a little confusing to the uninitiated, so I’m posting a few guides here to get you started.
First, watch this short and very informative video:
So the first thing to do is go to Twitter.com and set up an account. This takes two seconds, and only requires you to give your name, email address, and password. No long and complicated account set-up.
I recommend leaving your updates public. This will help people of similar interests find you. It’s really hard to meet new people when you “protect” your updates.
Now you’ll need to start following some people. This means that you’ll be able to “see” their updates. They won’t “see” your updates until they follow you back.
First, why not follow me? Just go to www.twitter.com/bethdunn and click “follow.” Now go back to “home” and you will see my “twitter stream.” Now choose some other people to follow.
Here are a few very friendly artists I have met on Twitter who would be delighted to meet you:
genevate (Chris Corriveau, part of the team who will present on social networking)
genevangelist (Leslie Fishlock, part of the team who will present on social networking)
It’s like a dinner party — in order to have a conversation, you need to invite people in to your living room. Otherwise, you can’t hear them and they can’t hear you.
Most people will follow you back pretty soon after you start following them.
Another good way to find people to follow (which is the only way to make this Twitter thing work) is to go to TwitterPack. Just click on a topic of interest to you, click on the user’s name, and follow them.
Then, say hello.
If you want to say hello (or anything else) directly to somebody, just type the @ symbol directly in front of their twitter name (no space).
That should get you started — have fun and explore!
I just got home after finishing up the first session of What’s Your Story: Personal Branding, PR and New Media for Artists — and it was an adventure!
We lost power at the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod offices in Centerville at about 4:15 pm. Poof — no lights, no computer, no projector, no phones. When it became clear after a few minutes that the power wasn’t coming back on immediately, we swung into action to find a back-up location for the class with less than an hour to go.
Fortunately, our good friends across the street at Cape Cod Community College were able to offer us a room that would fit all 35+ attendees of the sold-out class.
And what a room! Jim Hill, the branding expert who presented tonight’s class, on Personal Branding for Artists, obviously felt right at home in the “black box” theater on the first floor of Tilden Hall Performing Arts Center. And no wonder — it turns out that Jim is an alumnus of Four C’s, and has performed in several productions on that very stage.
Jim brought us through the finer points of developing and maintaining your personal brand, culminating in an exercise that allowed each participant to brainstorm some of the facets of their personalities, elements of their work, and strategic goals and ambitions.
The final step of this exercise is to boil down all that brainstorming into one brief, pithy statement that summarizes one’s own personal brand.
In the discussion that followed this exercise, we talked about what it meant to build a reputation — to eventually be known as “that guy.”
When people think about your brand as an artist, when they think about your personal brand of “that guy,” what are they thinking? What words, images, or emotions come to mind?
What can you do, today, to establish or strengthen that brand?
We’re busy setting up for What’s Your Story: Personal Branding, PR and New Media for Artists, which begins tonight with Jim Hill‘s presentation on Personal Branding.
The class, which the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod offers each spring on a topic of concern to artists and cultural organizations on Cape Cod, is sold out this year, so we’ll be a full house here at the Arts Foundation this evening, with about 35 artists and other creative people in attendance.
If you need directions to the Arts Foundation, you can use this google map to get directions from your destination. You can also print out and use the directions found on the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod’s website, here.
Plan to arrive between 5:30 and 5:45 pm, so that you can nibble delicious cookies, get a cup of tea or coffee, and meet your fellow students. The class will begin promptly at 6:00 pm. Bring plenty of business cards!
I’m excited about this class — the subject matter is a personal passion of mine, and while many of those enrolled are artists whom I have met through other Arts Foundation programs, many more are new to me. I am looking forward to welcoming you all here this evening, and for the next eight weeks, as we explore new and traditional ways for you to get the word out about yourselves and your art, to meet other artists and creative professionals, expand your networks beyond the confines of Cape Cod, and, of course, to achieve your goals in wider markets and spheres of influence.
And, of course, we are all looking forward to the cookies from Buckie’s Biscotti.
Welcome to What’s Your Story: Personal Branding, PR and New Media for Artists, an eight-week class offered by the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod. I’ve set up this blog as a centralized online place to talk about the class, continue the conversation, and store links to some of the resources we’ll be talking about in the class.
Here’s the class schedule:
April 1 – Branding I – What’s Your Story? Creating Your Personal Brand
April 8 – Branding II – Refining Your Message, Defining Your Targets
April 15 – PR I – Written Press Materials
April 22 – PR II – How to Get Published in Print and Online
April 29 – Free Artist Websites I – Blogging for Artists
May 6 – Free Artist Websites II – Selling Your Art Online
May 13 – New Media I – Podcasting and Videocasting
May 20 – New Media II – Social Networking for Artists
The first class is tomorrow evening, and I’ve just gotten off the phone with Buckie’s Biscotti, who will be providing us with a delicious tray of handmade Italian cookies for the kick-off week of this exciting class.
Our speaker tomorrow evening will be Jim Hill, a personal branding expert who lives and works here on Cape Cod. Jim was a featured plenary speaker at the Arts Foundation of Cape Cod’s first annual Creative Collaborative Conference in November 2007. His presentation was a big hit, and we expect great things tomorrow night when he faces a packed house of this sold out class.
I’ll be posting more here as time goes on, but in the meantime, why not introduce yourselves in the comments section?
What's Your Story? 