PR and Promotion Advice from an Artist

O sure you're saying after reading the title of this post, like what's an artist know about PR and promotion?  It may amaze you that there are some artists who really want to get their work out there and sold.  One of these folks is Chad Sorg, a very talented illustrator, fine artist and video dude.  He posted this last week on Facebook and is letting me repost it here.  I think there are some worthwhile ideas here.

1) When it comes to social networking, there are only events. If what you're selling isn't an event, make it into one.
2) Interesting photos or videos tell more than your boring words ever will; not only do we want the info–dates, times, etc.–but we might pay attention if know what being there is going to 'feel' like. *Stylish examples of these will always get you more mileage.
3) Comments are your friend–ALWAYS. Inspire commenting.
4) Pretty girls make the world go 'round.
5) Repetition seals the deal. 3 or 4 updates in a row are the most you can get away with without annoying your peeps, but a couple updates a day, the week leading up to the event, now that's the dog's nuts.
6) If you're just being lazy, we can spot it. Don't be lazy.
7) a LOGO is not a photo.
8) I can't stress HUMOR enough–but I can mention it here without being funny.
9) Social networking/marketing is ALL about giving.
10) People will thank you if your marketing gives them an experience.
11) If your event is beer based, link up with the beer people; if it's theatre based, link with the theatre people, and if it's beer AND theatre based, refer to bit #6–link with both groups.
12) Action is attractive while humor is contagious.
13) Promoting others is the best way to promote yourself.
14) The more people that stand to gain from your event the easier your job will be; put them all to work promoting themselves.
15) Add to your credibility by NOT advertising constantly. Offering links related to your topic from YouTube or blog sites works nicely.
16) In promotions, playing the game works; NOT playing the game works better!
17) Be conscious of analytics, in other words, be sure you can measure your results.
18) Target the popular people, they know how to network your networking.

*Video has found a perfect marriage with social networking. The SorgSorg Fan page here on Facebook is the spot where you'll be seeing examples of my videos. Above all, I hope you find them entertaining. Get a hold of me if you think I can help your efforts; I'm affordable.

If  you're on facebook, you can find him here
or cut and paste the following into your browser
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=141974013321#/pages/SorgSorg/262604065594?v=wall

or you can find him here
http://sorgsorg.blogspot.com/2009/03/commissions_8589.html
or here
http://www.facebook.com/l/14c40;www.SorgSorg.blogspot.com.

If you have a project that needs illustration, video or promotion, contact Chad.  He knows what he's doing and he's a nice guy too!

To Twit or not to Twitter

Social media is the hot new PR topic right now.  This includes sites like FaceBook, My Space and Twitter.  But not everyone is thinking that they all make sense:

"Twitter has become a playground for imbeciles, skeevy marketers, D-list celebrity half-wits, and pathetic attention seekers: Shaquille O'Neal, Kim Kardashian, Ryan Seacrest. Sure, some serious people, like George Stephanopoulos and Al Gore, use Twitter. And a lot of publishing companies and bloggers (myself included) use Twitter to send links to articles we've published. But most of what streams across Twitter is junk. One recent study concluded that 40 percent of the messages are "pointless babble."

The quote above is from Daniel Lyons who writes for Newsweek Magazine and is included in the September 28th edition.  And I think he's right!

I set up a Twitter account last year, but have rarely used it.  I might just try to use it for a client, but I would put a caveat in the short post so it could be tracked.  For an artist it might be, come to the reception and get a free 4 x 6 print if you tell me that you saw this on Twitter.  At least that way you would know if it worked.

However, looking at the way most people are celebrity-focused, why would anyone want to listen to my twits, except perhaps by a twit.

Win-Win PR

When you or your company can do something good for those less fortunate, but also garner some headlines doing it, I call this a win-win situation.  When I was involved in an artist-run coop gallery a few years back, I always tried to make sure we could help someone while doing something a little different to gain some press coverage.  We asked artists to donate pieces of mail art to the gallery so that we could sell the work and then give 30% of the proceeds to a nonprofit group called the Women's Wisdom Project, which provides art classes and a free lunch to any woman who is undergoing some kind of crisis. 

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This was a very small way to try to give back to those who needed help in the community while positioning ourselves as compassionate gallery owners.  They are now doing this in France but in a far bigger fashion!  They have asked famous artists to donate work for a sale that will benefit an AIDS organization.  But they have an interesting twist to it.

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Details are HERE

Don't be like XM Radio

Why would a huge company like this bill someone for a service that they didn't even want?  And then when asked by the credit card company to rescind the charge, refuse to?  Thus we have the curious case of XM radio.  It seems strange that a company, which already has quite a number of complaints with the Better Business Bureau, wouldn't realize that their telephone representatives are the first line of public relations for any company.  When a telephone representative is told of the circumstances and then tries to hard sell the service even though the customer is requesting a cancellation, this is not good PR. 

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But perhaps it's because the merger of  XM with Sirius thios past July, is causing financial difficulties. Or maybe company executives don't think honest, good customer service matters.  Good customer service is your best word of mouth PR campaign.  It's something that advertising will never give you!

Social Media

Is it really the NEW PR tool? Or is it a way for people to waste time at work? It is a good way to develop a group of friends and co-workers and you can post events there. Only time will tell if it's a good way to get people to come to your events and shows and what have you.

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However at the Mashable.com social media website, they did list 10 of the best social media sites for PR folks. Here's the link.

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or if that doesn't work, try cutting the pasting the following into your browser:
http://mashable.com/2008/10/30/best-social-media-tools-for-pr-professionals-and-journalists/

Welcome

I've decided to also blog about PR, something that I've been doing for over 15 years now, in addition to my art blog at Waiting for the Muse. I started doing PR after leaving a 10-year career in radio and print journalism. This gave me a unique background compared to most practitioners in that I had been on the receiving end of PR for many years.

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What is PR you might ask? It's simply the flow of information from a company or group to the general public via mass media and now, social networking. This can take the form of news releases, event announcements, media interviews, newsletters and blogs. I often call PR a crap shoot in getting a message to the public via mass media. Why? You might have a great, "sexy" story that you think the media will go with, only to be upstaged by a large local event like a huge fire, or a murder or a scandal involving a public figure.

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Although many think PR is more credible than advertising, the one thing you can't do really is control PR the way you can advertising. PR must be thought of as a long-term strategy that works together with your marketing and advertising plans.