Lexington, KY - "Who doesn't have Facebook?" The question was recently overheard in a local coffee shop. The words rang out loudly so as to be heard across the room and registered the incredulity of the speaker.
Who, indeed?
With over 700 million active users, 50 percent of whom log in every day, Facebook has emerged as the clear leader on the social media front and grows in popularity every minute of every day.
Far beyond a fad or a fluke, social media is a force and is bringing much needed, far reaching, access to an audience for many artists.
In addition to a great way to share news, video, photos and gossip among friends and family, Facebook is rapidly becoming the go-to method of advertising for small businesses, and artists have found the social media outlet a perfect platform to share their work.
As with any small businesses, artists need exposure; they need doors to open and ears and eyes on their product. And social media, Facebook in particular, provides a powerful marketing tool to gain that kind of reach into the world. The average user is connected to 50 to 100 groups, events, or businesses.
The viral nature of Facebook "sharing" is key. If one can amass a large "friends" list, then with one click of the mouse at your computer, you have the beginnings of a marketing bonanza. Sending an invitation or message to your "friends" on your list reaches your friends' pages immediately and if they choose to share the information, it reaches all their friends and their friends' friends, and on and on and, and well, you get the picture.
As singer/songwriter, Cora Lee,who performs with her band, "Cora Lee and the Townies" learned," I can create a Facebook event on our band's page and send it out to our 2000 Facebook "friends" in about 10 minutes. The impact of my singular effort is compounded so quickly. Images of our gig posters, links to our music, videos of shows, press clips; it all tears through the online social network in no time."
According to Eric Sutherland, the founder of Holler Poets, an organization that supports the writing and sharing of local poets' work in a monthly series of poetry readings in Lexington, social media has been a big plus. He explains, "For me it has made it easier to amplify the work I'm doing both personally and for the writing community. The way a post can be picked up by a person online and then promoted throughout the social media community is astounding to someone like me, coming from the old cut and paste, do-it-yourself posters, and word of mouth days."
And it's free.
For those watching overhead costs and operating within tight margins, as many artists are, free is good. Facebook offers for-purchase marketing products also but the majority of users utilize what is offered with their own free account.
The Morris Bookshop, located in Chevy Chase, helps promote many local writers, musicians and visual artists and has taken full advantage of the social media boom. Store manager, Hap Houlihan explains, "For our store, it's mostly about driving attendance for events. As a small business that hosts lots of book signings and other events, we find social media invaluable. We can post our own events and also repost news about local writers from the literary industry and reach a lot of people. It is a great addition to our other traditional methods of advertising like print ads and radio spots and of course our website." Houlihan agrees Facebook is the most popular of the social media sites but also utilizes others such as Twitter and is watching Google + as a potential new social network that may be useful in the future.
As mobile devices get more prevalent, increasing numbers of people get their social media on the run. A smart phone keeps your Facebook account, your texts and email in the palm of your hand throughout the day.
Measuring effectiveness can be as easy as seeing business numbers swell in attendance and sales or you can take advantage of some social media site's reporting function and receive updates complete with numbers and percentages of viewers, those who commented or shared the post. This can be essential information when growing a business as an artist. Facebook is user friendly and setting up a page is within the limits of most people's computer skills. Some amount of cultivation of new "friends" is required and for the best success rate, a near constant maintenance of your page content and adding new information is recommended to keep you in the flow and current on everyone's news page updates.
Social media is growing exponentially and artists continue to be more and more creative about how to use it to expand their reach. "I think that absent a collapse or backslide of Western civilization, social media is here to stay for the foreseeable future. It will only get higher per-capita use as these all-digital youngsters grow up and move to the center of the demographic map. The first generation of kids to use Facebook in college are now turning thirty," states Houlihan
Fire up the laptop and log on. It is likely a visual artist, musician, poet or performer has something very interesting to share with you and you're going to want to tell all your friends.