Successful Art Business, Planning and Marketing Tools and Techniques You Can Use

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Recently I visited the Santa Fe Arts District 1st Friday Artwalk in Denver with two of my fine art photographer friends Jeff Taylor – Uncommon Photography and Zach Singer – Zachary Singer Photography with the purpose in mind of checking out our local art and getting some images for this blog.  Denver’s many 1st Friday Artwalks attract thousands of visitors each month and this month was no exception.  One of the things I noticed was that some galleries were getting noticed by the crowd and others were not.

Some ideas on getting noticed: Read more

A basic part creating your business and marketing plan is conducting what is called a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis.  SWOT analysis is a staple in most business programs but I bet you didn’t hear much about it in art school.  The first part of conducting a SWOT analysis is doing an inventory of you or your firm’s business strengths and weaknesses.  Your strengths are areas which you can capitalize on, they help identify your competitive advantages and provide ideas on how to market your brand.  Weaknesses are areas on which you need to improve and they may be a hindrance to your success and growth – either fix your weaknesses or figure out some way to get around them.  You need to know your strengths and weaknesses in order to develop effective strategies for your business. Read more

As a photographer specializing in business and personal brands am I finding that more and more of my images are appearing on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin as well as small niche sites built using programs such as Ning. These sites are a great way to build your brand and expand your network for either business or personal purposes – if done right!

When I work on a personal brand I like to get to know my clients. It helps me paint a better story and really hone in on what their brand is all about – kind of like the marketing audits I used to do with companies only now for people. Here are some things you need to think about before you embark on your social media efforts. If you have already started you may want to think about areas you need to improve on or fine tune. Read more

There is an old saying – nothing make you crazy faster than hanging out with crazy people.  The same could be said for being successful – nothing makes you more successful faster than hanging around with other successful people.  One common thread with successful people is that they say that they had the help of the people they surrounded themselves with – few say they did it alone.  Make it a point to associate with interesting and successful people.

Here are a few ideas on the types of people you should get to know: Read more

Recently while participating on Twitter I ran across a reference to a blog post by Seth Godin about how your profile picture on sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn affect your brand. I have been writing articles on Your Brand Image on just this very subject and I thought I would check out what the author of the best selling book “Tribes” had to say on the subject. If you have read my previous articles you would have seen that I recommend having a great profile picture that supports your brand, a picture that is authentic and honest.

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I recently watched a very interesting program on PBS Frontline entitled Digital Nation that has some major implications for your business or personal brand. We are spending more time on our computers, notebooks, netbooks, PDAs, Smart phones iPhones, and soon the iPad – increasingly we are using more than one of these devices at the same time. Read more

Brand is usually associated with the marketing world. For some the definition of brand means your logo or logo type. Today brand has come to encompass much more than marketing to include your product or service, the quality you provide, how you treat your customers and the total experience provided by your company. It goes across all business functions and is determined by your employees, customers, suppliers and stakeholders. Read more