Platform and Marketing

1. What kind of magazines are you looking for? Art magazines? Writing magazines? Fiction magazines? Something else? The Christian Writers Market Guide has a great index of different publications to submit to if you’re looking for options.

2. The internet is great for this. Figure out who your ideal audience is (age, gender, interests, passions) and figure out where they are online & who are the main people they follow. Then build connections via blog comments, forums (when applicable), guest posts, and other applicable ways.

3. There are other options than just a PO Box like going to your church and seeing if you could list it as your address, but if you don’t want people to know your city & state, you’re probably out of luck since reputable email service providers do require that by law (and if the provider doesn’t require that, I wouldn’t trust that provider since it’s already breaking the law and may do other things like steal your mailing list). :/ I will say that I don’t think putting your state or city out there puts you in any real danger (thanks to white pages & similar sites, people can either already figure out your address w/o that information most of the time, or they can’t even find it with that info), but if you’re not comfortable with that, I understand.

4. Depends on your audience demographic. If you have a big art focus, Instagram is probably your best bet, but it may be helpful joining others as well. Facebook would probably be helpful, but I wouldn’t say it’s necessary. I’ve heard Pinterest is really good for marketing if you use it well (the KP Pinterest has been dead since July, but we’re still getting lots of leads from it without even touching it), but I’m not a Pinterest user, so I can’t comment much on that. 😛

Each social media site works differently in terms of how to grow it. The most important thing is to be regularly posting content that attracts your ideal audience. On Instagram & Twitter, you also want to find similar people in your niche whom you like, follow them, and engage with them via likes and comments, and there’s a good chance they’ll follow you back. The major things are persistence and research.

@mariposa –

I will probably be more help with the “artist” part of your dream 🙂 So, here goes:

— As far as putting your address down for an email list: I use MailChimp and you have to add an address in there. One idea is to just put a bunch of X’s in place of your actual address. (It’s been awhile since I went through this step, so I don’t remember if it even worked ;)) Another idea is to make up a fake address like “625 Dreamer’s Ln. Magical City, NY 70000” – I don’t know if that would work either, but it might be something fun to try. I do not like putting my address out there either, so I understand your concern.

— Building an audience on social media: For Myrtle Glen Market I have an Instagram page and a Facebook page (I don’t have a personal FB [which is what you would need before building a business page], it’s under my mom’s account) – Honestly, I really don’t like Facebook that much so I don’t spend the majority of my time advertising, etc. on that particular platform. However, I do get quite a few orders for my jewelry through there, but with the things you are going to do I don’t think Facebook has to be a necessary tool in your belt.

Instagram seems to be a great place for artists. It allows you to have a “public portfolio” for your work. (I love your page, btw!)

I started Myrtle Glen Market at the end of 2016. So I’ve only had it for little over a year. Here are a few marketing tips that I’ve learned that might be helpful.

1) Patience – I had to learn that right at the beginning as my growth was small and customers were few. This is just a tip that I think is a result of whatever you do. 🙂

2) Personal – I would say one of the biggest things on social media is to be as personal as possible. And by personal, I mean “build relationships” – After people comment on my posts, I try to comment back. I also try to keep my posts somewhat regular. If I make it a priority to post at least twice a week, it keeps my audience engaged. Also, by occasionally posting a picture of yourself working on your art, or writing at your desk, shows your audience that you’re a real person just like them. People like “behind the scenes” and they like seeing who is the artist behind their art or who is the author behind the story – However, if you want to keep pretty private, then maybe just posting a picture of your hand “in motion” of drawing, or the back of you looking off into a sunset, etc. 🙂 (I know one girl who doesn’t post many pictures of herself, but her profile picture shows who she is) Those are just some things I’ve been told/learned. 😀

3) Building A Theme – not until a couple months ago did I really try to do this. It’s another form of art. I try to use the same “filter” on all of my pictures so they “flow” – I also do Picture, Lettering, Picture, Lettering, etc. That’s just what my theme looks like, but others create different themes. Some people “highlight” different colors in their theme. This is definitely not at all necessary, but it’s just another fun form of art for me to do 🙂

4) Gaining followers – I started MGM with a private account because I wanted to know who was following me and who was going to comment on my posts. Then I opened it up and started using hashtags, but what I found is that a lot of, we’ll just say, “unsavory characters” were finding my account and liking my posts. That made me uncomfortable. So, I locked my account down again. Eventually, I went public and instead of using hashtags, I did a few different things: I started commenting on posts of accounts I really liked, (this just started getting my name out there). I also learned this tip from another friend:  Follow people and then they may follow you back. I find accounts that “look safe” and maybe they have a Bible verse in their description or something and then I request to follow them. For the most part they follow me back. This gets my name out there, as well as, allows me to somewhat “choose” who follows me, so I know what’s going on. Eventually, if you don’t want to follow them anymore, you can just unfollow. Or if someone follows me that looks shady, I just block them. (I still use hashtags occasionally, but am very selective on what hashtags I use) I’m sure there are lots of other ways to gain followers, those are just a few things I have heard/learned from other people.

5) Authors and Instagram – I follow Author S.D. Smith (who wrote The Green Ember series) and have really appreciated his account. He posts pictures of him and his family, his books, “fan art,” etc. and it really allows me to get to know the author behind the books. This is something that I think would be fun for authors! 🙂 It really personalizes the book.

All of that to say is like @daeus said, social media isn’t necessary at all, however, with the world getting more and more “techy” I’ve found social media to be very helpful in building a platform. Some people go all out and try to cover all of the social media bases, but for now I just use Instagram and Facebook. Instagram being my primary go-to. The other good thing about social media, is that it allows you to stay in the comfort of your own home, yet “interact” with your following. (Which is really nice for Introverts!! :))

I hope some of that helps. The tips I mentioned above are just things that I’ve done and I’ve learned, but are by no means “the way to go” 🙂 A lot of other people on here probably have way better ideas 🙂

But, if you have any other questions just let me know 🙂

I fear I only recently started an email list, FB page, etc. so I don’t have any advice to give you about it. I wish you luck, tho, and am glad you’re deciding to put effort into platforming now rather than later. 🙂 It can all seem pretty overwhelming, but you can do it. 🙂

@aratrea, thanks so much for pointing that out (about the fake address breaking the law and such) – I didn’t know that 🙂 I am always learning 😉