Everything I write about on this blog has one end goal: to help you to sell your work. More bums in seats. More CDs or paintings sold. And one way of doing that is to create relationships based on trust with your audience.
About a week ago, John McLachlan, whose blog I am really enjoying these days, put up a post called The “Sweet Spot” for Audience Development, where he talks about exactly that–how social media can allow us create an intersection of audience, artist and producer–in a spirit of interaction and connectivity.
Here’s an excerpt:
I work with a lot of artists and arts presenters and my background is as a touring artist who was booked by arts presenters. I remember what it was like to be virtually unknown, show up in a community and perform.
When you perform, you make a connection with an audience (at least you try). When that happens, you have magic and delight for all involved. When an artist opens up and lets an audience in on their art, a strong connection is made. In a sense, you become friends even though you’ve never met in person.
I’ve been thinking about how to extend that friendship to before and after the actual performance. Until recently, this was very difficult for artists.
Click here to read the rest of the post.
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The Art of the Business 
“I’ve been thinking about how to extend that friendship to before and after the actual performance. Until recently, this was very difficult for artists.”
Nope, I think not difficult anymore.
Why? – Everyone, (artists included), you have, WE ALL HAVE, a “VOICE”, and I say use it, that is why we have one.
And perhaps by using our voice(s) and “spreading the word” using our voices a beautiful friendship will emerge and survive!
I agree, Susan. AND, emerging technologies are making it easier than ever to do. Bonus!
Right on, Rebecca!
And thanks to your involvement and leadership we can “voice”, “text”, “tweet” and “Blog” on too!
There is a great German expression – “Berg auf!”
Thanks for posting this Rebecca. I think we’re all working on the same goals of connecting. It’s great that it’s becoming possible now.
Thanks for re-posting this, Rebecca. I agree with you and John that the possibilities for connecting with audiences are exponentially greater with social media than without. What I’ve been wondering lately (given the ratio of people who now know about my work and are ‘following’ me in various ways vs showing up to events and purchasing art) is whether anyone has developed any metrics around thresholds or conversion rates (ie 1,000 Facebook fans = 500 newsletter subscribers = 50 people at events = 5 people buying artwork, or whatever). I’m sure there are no formulas, but maybe there are trends or examples?