Building a Community

Today I'd like to talk about why it's so important to build a community and some ways of doing so. 

What I even mean by "building a community": Since this blog is about selling online that means your buyers and those that could potentially help you out are also online. So in the same way you build friendships in person, it's time to build those friendships online. The example I know best is obviously the vintage clothing world. For me I find Instagram useful for finding like-minded people who love to share their vintage finds, talk about history, and so on. In this sense, we may not know each other but we are able to share knowledge and learn from each other as well as build relationships with buyers. Having professional friendships with your buyers is always a great thing because people love knowing they are buying from someone they respect and can relate to.

If you are an artist you can network with other artists and interesting fans, or even search for art galleries and art directors who could potentially help you out. Remember if you are an artist, even your Instagram is like a public portfolio and you never know who might spot your work! 

So let's stick with a few networks that I find have been useful for people to build a community: blogs, instagram, and twitter!

Instagram: 

(A great little conversation between customer and artist, as well as a lovely comment from a fan that says a little more than the typical "this rocks".)

So as I've been saying, start searching for your fellow like-minded people. Follow those that interest you and then remember to comment on things and show interest in their life/work. The "this is awesome" or "great work" comments are great, but the "wow, I'm really impressed by your brush strokes" can go even further in having them notice you and want to follow you. Commenting and liking other artists images as well as posting images with questions such as "I can't decide what colour to paint her hair! Any suggestions?" are a great way of building connections. Basically you really want to spark audience participation. 

Blogs: 

(No, these are not the most interesting comments in the world, but they really show that they fully read the article and had opinions on the review that where worth sharing. This is enough to spark more of an interest in who you are vs. passing by you)

Almost every artist, or designer, etc have a blog. Most of which allow comments (sometimes they just review them first). So first of all, you should have a blog! (we will go over this later). Blogger seems to be a good place to start because it's highly used by other bloggers and it's easy to comment, but tumblr and wordpress are also commonly used. Every time you post a comment it will say who posted it, so think of something interesting to say to a blog post that may spark someones interest to find out who you are. This way you can get more followers. Do not however comment and say "YOU SHOULD FOLLOW ME", or expect attention if all you say is "that outfit rocks". Useful, informative, or well worded compliments will get you more attention than just saying something is cool. Again, this is how you build a community, you bring something to the table and therefor are useful and people want to connect with you and share your world. 

Twitter: Now, I am still new with Twitter but I have known it to be very useful for a lot of people. Twitter is an online website you can use with your phone, mobile device, or computer. It literally just posts "statuses" or updates. This is a place to post new items in your shop, markets you may be selling at, interesting information about the art scene you are involved in, etc. You can also comment on other tweets just remember to follow the rules mentioned above. You can also re-tweet a status you find interesting / important and it will still give credit to the original person that made the "tweet" but shows you have an interest in it. 

Most importantly, building a community should be fun! This should be the relaxing part of your work day where you have some interesting conversations and post some fun updates on your work! 

Please leave questions in the comments!