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One of the neat things about social media or social networking is that you end meeting people that you would likely never meet unless for the deployment of said social media. I just cam back from a little social media event in Bloomington. It was a tweetup hosted by a local photographer and it was a nice little event. I got to meet some folks that I would have never met before and probably people I would never meet in any other situation. Twitter brings together for common discussion and sharing of ideas.

I also had an opportunity to talk to two very diverse businesses this week about social media and its use. One was an artist and gallery, and the other was a doctor’s practice. Both had attended our social media seminar and wanted to delve a little deeper into its use. Both have different reasons for using the media, and it was fun to explore their business issues, their goals and the best ways to exploit the medium.

Artist Gallery — So how does an artist use social media to grow it s business? First of all what is the business model. In this case the artist operates his own gallery and sells almost all of his art through his gallery. He said tha most of his art can be found within a 50 mile radius of his gallery. He and his business partner/spouse work very hard on promoting their gallery and the art scene in Bloomington Normal. My advice to them was to establish their Twitter account (they already have a Facebook page) and begin slowly to build up a following of friends and followers in Twitter. Here is some other advice I gave them and that other artists might consider:

1. Post tweets about other local artists. Send information about shows and new work by local artists in the area.
2. Re-tweet their tweets. Be kind and tell your followers about the work other artists are doing. Hopefully they will do the same in return.
3. Tweet about thoughts or inspiration you are having about new art you might create. Use twitter as a tool to inform your art.
4. Obviously tell people about events you are having in the studio.
5. Follow other artists.
6. Send pics of your own art…not to often though. Although a simple landscape with no words attached can be a powerful message.
7. Encourage others to follow by using other SM sites.

Are there other suggestions for artists? The Creative class, particularly artists are often overlooked as business people. However they add a lot to the community. They bring new money to the community yet their footprint is usually fairly small. A concentration of artists can contribute large levels of economic impact.

Visit a local artist. Buy some original art. You will be happy you did.