My resolve is to write one blog a week, a real diary type blog and step back from the inane waste of hours on facebook and twitter. I have always found that writing helps me to focus on the job in hand. When my mind starts wandering off in a huff at the deluge of information I am asking it to process, I can drag it back by picking up a pen, writing a list and numbering everything in order of priority.
Increasingly over the last few years I have found myself losing the ability to concentrate or focus and I know that the computer is the main culprit. My reason/excuse for obsessive computer use has been that social networking helps to direct traffic to your website - being involved in lots of projects, businesses and sites, this has meant lots of networking. The more you are mentioned on twitter and facebook, the higher your ranking on google, the more chance someone will stumble across your site. My big question now is, so?!
I have a website for my Pet Portraits (here goes the searchable link which means I'll pop up on google search:
www.petsbyjosie.co.uk ). I have had one order placed through this site and that was after someone had seen my brochure so it has generated precisely no sales. The website is there so people can see examples of my work, check my prices, see guidance on how to provide good reference pictures and find out how to get in touch. I don't want to be doing commissioned pet portraits full time so this is all I need it to do - going global and attracting hundreds of orders via paypal every week is not what I want so directing traffic there by building up social networking'links' is not necessary.
Jim and I run Accomplice Ltd, a Graphic Design business in Hailsham and a printing.com franchise. It definitely makes sense to direct traffic to our business website and we get a large proportion of our business through the internet - but this is via the franchise website, part of an national site that already rates highly in the google ranking (if you're interested
www.printing.com), not our own graphic design website as we don't yet have one set up. We have a simple blog page ( OK, if you must it's
www.hailshamcreative.com) which I created as a stop-gap so that potential customers could search for us on the internet, see that we do exist, find out our opening hours and how to get in touch. The simple fact is that Jim does not have the time to set up a proper site and we can not afford to pay someone to make one for us. Placing a monthly update, usually with a special offer on print, on our facebook 'page', the blog page and twitter is a nod to promotion through social network but we don't expect business from it.
Events publicity has been the big one for me - yes, I have had people come along to exhibitions because I sent them details on facebook and twitter! I had 2 visitors to my last open studio purely because they saw it on twitter and would be in the area. More visitors were attracted by the road signage so If I spent the hours painting and putting up more road signs instead of faffing on twitter and facebook, I probably would have had greater success.
I'm not cutting off the social networking completely, just limiting my use to once-a-week event or business posts and keeping in contact with family abroad. I have found my routine when I switch on the computer is 1, open the email application and while that is loading 2, open facebook and twitter and see who has interacted with me. If I haven't had any comments, likes, mentions or retweets I am disappointed and will keep checking back in, making new comments and posting tweets until something gets a response - yes, I know, very sad! And this is often instead of doing the job for which I have switched the computer on and instead of responding to a conversation with a real person!
So why have I got so obsessive? Myspace and facebook were fun to start with, they were intuitive, I could work out what to do and find people with similar interests. It started with finding artists on myspace and I saw some fabulous work that really did inspire me. It was all about the visual stimulus - I didn't 'chat' to anyone, just looked at photos they posted of their latest paintings. It was a gallery in my own home! But then I heard about using social networking for business and how you have to use facebook every day, grab your audiences attention, get loads of 'likes' and retweets otherwise there's no point. Once I started I felt I couldn't let up otherwise all of my efforts would be wasted. Talk about hooking you in and making you an addict! Blimey, is there some other agenda here?
When my son has come in from work in the evening, sat on the sofa next to me, eaten his tea and gone to bed at midnight then I realise I don't actually remember the conversation I had with him because I was exchanging tweets with someone I don't know about a photograph they had taken, I realise I'm being an idiot.
For business, face to face networking is by far the best source of new and repeat work. Trying to promote my art via the internet is not going to work - I have to bite the bullet and sell myself to galleries, get the pictures out there in front of people's noses. So bye-bye to inane cyber interactions, look out for more proper blog posts and I hope to actually talk to you soon :)
Oh and apparently I should always put a picture in my blog posts so that people share it - I don't care if anyone shares this or even reads it, it's my mind-focussing tool and now I've written it, I've got to act on it!
