Monday, September 3, 2012

#Pinning with @SocialSprite & @NWCreativeUnion




Using Pinterest to Market Your Artwork

Last week I gave you some ideas on how to protect your images online so you could start using Pinterest to get your work out there. If you missed the basics check out this article.

This week I’ll give you some ideas on how to market your work.

Create one or more boards for your work. This may seem obvious, but I saw an artist online say that he hadn’t done that yet…he was having too much fun exploring other artists’ work. What kinds of boards you create depends on your work. If you create in various mediums you’ll want to create a board for each medium. If you have various styles you might want to create a board for each style. Break it up in ways that seem appropriate to your work.

Create boards for your other interests. You’re a whole person with other interests. Share those with the world, too.

Interact with friends and make new ones. Though Pinterest is not Facebook or Twitter it is still social. “Like” other people’s pins. Repin their images if they would go great on one of your boards. Comment on their pins. Interact. Remember, marketing is not all about you. Engage others!

Create an “inspire” board. What inspires your work? Share those things on a board. People like to see how the artist works.

Create a “behind the scenes” board. People not only like to see what inspires an artist’s work, they like to see the work process. If your art entails an involved process perhaps you can map that out in images on a board. Create an experience.

Create a board that shows pictures of your work in the new owner’s home. This can show people how great your work could look in their home or office.

Don’t push sales. You don’t want to be pushy, but if you are out to sell your work it’s a good idea to do three things:

·         Add prices. By doing this your pin will show up in Pinterest’s “Gift” section which you can find at the top of the Pinterest website. This section lists gifts of varying prices and will help get you more visibility.
·         Write a good description. This will make your pin more searchable. You can add your website address here as well to help remind people to visit.
·         Make sure the pin of your work links back to your website. Every pin links back to its origin so pin from your website. This will make it easy for potential buyers to purchase your work.

For more information on what I do, please check out my New World Creative Union profile.

4 comments:

  1. Joanne, when you were helping me with my networking, you used numerous platforms and my numbers increased dramatically. For someone just getting their feet wet, what basic platforms do you recommend for ease of use AND productivity?

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  2. great post Joanne, with lots of good tips for pinterest ~ I love seeing and sharing others boards on there but have to set up some of my own work specifics - thanks joanne - lib

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  3. Thank you libithina!

    Natasha: I would recommend people start with Facebook because it's relatively easy to understand compared to Twitter. Facebook also has the numbers. If you want to use social networking to market yourself or your business FB has the most users. Also, Google+ is a good social network for beginners, but it doesn't have the numbers that FB has.

    I recommend people keep it simple to start. Get on one social network and use it until you feel comfortable and then try another one. If you are using social networking to promote your business you may want to sign on to the major ones and get your business name before someone else does.

    Also to help save time you can use Hootsuite and Social Oomph to schedule your posts ahead of time...during your off hours.

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  4. Once again you have provided us with some pertinent information Joanne. I sincerely appreciate it and will make use of it!

    Thanks again,
    Roger ☺

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