Making A Mark on Art Business and Marketing

Yesterday I created a new Facebook Page for Art Business Info for Artists https://www.facebook.com/artbusinessforartists/. It replaces the sections in "who's made a mark this week" relating to matters artists have to get to grips with relating to:

• the art business
• marketing in real space and online
• techie matters about the law, money, tax and being online.

If you need help in these areas you might want to take a look!

my new Facebook Page about the art business and marketing matters - for artists

Ever since I stopped doing my marathon weekly "who's made a mark this week" posts (which used to take HOURS to do!), I've been trying to find a much more efficient and effective way of  doing the same thing i.e. finding items of interest and then highlighting them to a wider audience.

On the way I've discovered that Facebook Pages are a really great way of creating a very focused newstream for artists with a particular interest.

Below I tell you:

• why Facebook works for niche interests
• how to get a name (rather than a number) for a Facebook Page
• the process I followed - and the impact it has had.

Why Facebook works for niche interests

Making A Mark - who's made a mark this week?

My Making A Mark Facebook Page is where I post all my blog posts. If you like the Page and click and read them on a regular basis via this Page then they'll turn up on a regular basis in your news feed.

It has also effectively become "who's made a mark this week?" on a daily basis with a wide span of posts relating to the sort of topics I used to cover - artists, art competitions, art exhibitions, art galleries and museums, art business and marketing, techie aspects of artists being on the web.

However I've been thinking for a while that it might be more helpful to stream news in a different way.

Botanical Art and Artists

On February 24th this year, I started an experiment and a new Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/botanicalartandartists for my longstanding interest in botanical art.

This has proved extremely effective at:

• maintaining regular contact with activities in the botanical art world - for me and others. 
• introducing people to my website Botanical Art  and Artists
• It's now got over 900 likes (in just over two months) and streams lots of news about botanical art to those who love it - without boring the pants off those for whom it holds no appeal!
• It's also stimulated email subscriptions to the dedicated blog.

For me the experiment has worked. Creating and using a dedicated niche Facebook Page works really well for sharing my news and those of others - on one niche topic.

However it only works well if it's a topic you are genuinely interested in.

Art Business Info. for Artists

Having had a lot of success with the above, I decided to create a new Facebook Page associated with the website I started last year Art Business Info. for Artists.

I'm still building this website from the content I used to have on a lot of separate websites - but I'm getting there.

For me, the big bonus that using a hierarchical topic based page structure on the website means I can highlight one very specific topic or niche interest and its associated page very easily.

A Facebook Page for the site means I can also highlight very useful links that I am adding in to specific pages very easily without needing to write a blog post (which in my book is over-kill!).

It also means I can create a news feed - via 'liking' other related Facebook Pages - which then makes it very easy to share their news if it has value to add to my readers.

How to get a NAME for your Facebook Page

It's so much easier to share the URL of a new Facebook Page - and have it remembered - if you have a name rather than a title followed by a lot of numbers.

The thing is you can only get a name if your Page has been liked by at least 25 people.

Which is why yesterday I did a soft launch of the page on a Saturday afternoon with a targeted group of friends. After a couple of hours I had my 25 likes and was able to choose the name for the Page.

This can take a few goes because like any domain name you can only have one that hasn't already been taken. (Even if the name was taken by somebody who gave up on it five years ago!).

So after looking at three alternative options I decided on https://www.facebook.com/artbusinessforartists

Do you like the new Page?

For all those who used to like my "Art Business and Marketing" and "Techie/Internet" sections in my "who's made a mark this week" posts, this is where - in future - you are going to be able to read:

• links to features - written by myself and others - related to everything that isn't about making art!
• the art business 
• marketing and selling art - in real space and online
• techie matters relating to artists being online
• techie posts relating to money and legal matters relevant to artists
• news updates about what's changing in the environment we all operate in (notwithstanding I'll definitely miss stuff - and you can share with me news you've found!)
• links to blog posts on my dedicated blog Art Business Info: NEWS about art for artists

Why not take a peek? It's now up to 60+ likes and I haven't yet made it properly public - until now!

Do you like it?

[Update at 4.00pm: It's now one day old and has got more than 200 likes!]