Part One:

It takes more than having a beautiful website to make it in the art world. Too many artists do not put a lot of effort into promoting themselves. If you do not lead people to your website, you end up in never never land.

I have only sold one piece of artwork from my website. Just one. Which says to me it is not a place to sell from but a place to show whom, what and why. There have been a couple of times that I have gotten into galleries through my website though.

So how do you promote yourself as an artist? Recently I took a class from smArtisttelesummitt where three of the speakers talked about social networking. Facebook, twitter, linkedin, Myspace, Myartspace and numerous other sites. These are not just for teenagers.

Artists you are messing out if you are not on any of these sites or all of them. Start getting your artwork up on these sites. These are people who never go into a gallery and maybe never will, but will love what you do.

Everyone is a sales person. EVERYONE! You sell your kids on what you want them to do; you sell yourself with everyone you meet; you sell yourself if you are a boss and on and on. When you realize this, the word “Sales” takes on a different meaning. It is all about learning how to sell ourselves as artists and today the Internet is IT!

So how do you do it? I find Twitter to be awesome. It is like a mini blog. Since being on twitter I have many advocates for my artwork. Go here for the how to use twitter http://help.twitter.com/portal.   Please check out my site and join me at: http://www.twitter.com/cath4art I put up tips for how to be more creative and share ideas about the creative process. My real passion is the creative process and I am fascinated to hear about process artists go through to create.

Once set up you can search artists, galleries and museums and potential clients and add them to your followers.  Yes even museums are using twitter, face book and LinkedIn.

Then what do you do? There are so many twitter sites and more all the time to help you do a simple and better job of communicating with others.  I hear you saying,” I don’t have time to do this stuff, right?”  Yes you can make time to promote yourself. How are people going to feel your excitement about being an artist if you do not connect with them in some way?

 Tip #1- beware the sites that say they can get you thousands of followers in a short time. Twitter has rules that you need to comply with. Please read the 2,000 rule http://snipr.com/m9qfz

Tip #2- Set your site up to have am image of one of your favorite artworks in the background.

Tip #3- Don’t worry, you can go in and delete the porn stars and sites that offend you.

Tip #4- you can advertise openings, new artworks etc. You can even direct people to pictures of your artwork. www.ustream.tv/recorded/1489435

Tip #5 what kind of people do you want to attract? Do searches for the kind of people that can afford your artwork and appreciate it.

Tip#6- Follow people who follow you. It is common etiquette. In the twitter world, You will be deleted from the people who know to do twitter if you: do not follow; people who never put up a picture of themselves; people who do not allow a direct message; people who talk bad about other people; people promoting their bodies for sex etc.

Tip #7 Every Friday there is something called  #Follow Friday or shortened #FF. You can refer people you believe in and want to help support. Lots of fun.  You get a lot of exposure too.

I am always looking for tips on how to make this simple for us to give us more time in the studio. I like “tweetdeck”. I can view all messages, direct messages, and replies  I like tweetlater for you can go in and set up many messages and have them go out at different times. Saves a lot of time!
I keep learning more all the time. You can go to my blog for part 2 and 3 coming soon. http://www.catherinefoster.com/blog.

Let’s connect
Twitter- http://www.twitter.com/cath4art
Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Catherine-Foster-Art-Studio/79799161779?ref=ts
You Tube- http://www.youtube.com/cath4art
Linkedin- http://www.linkedin.com/in/catherinefoster
Artists2Artists: http://www.artists2artists.net/profile/CatherineFoster
Podcast where you can learn and also post your own classes: http://www.podclass.com/cath4art/

MARI SMITH  is considered the queen of Twitter and Face book as far as knowing how to do all of this: You can get her free tips and more here: http://bit.ly/m2lCc