Last week I went to the Artisan Tile NW monthly meeting. There was an interesting and informative presentation called “Social Media Marketing for Artists” by artist and comedian Meredith Arnold http://www.mereditharnold.com/. Meredith covered a range of topics including types of social media and various apps for cross-referencing sites and managing these services. I’ve always been slow to explore the latest tech tools, be it hardware or software, so my head was spinning by the end of the evening. Nevertheless, I retained enough info to use these tools more effectively. As Meredith pointed out, the trick is not to try to do everything but rather find what works best for us and build from there. So far, I’ve had some success reaching interested buyers with Facebook.
An interesting chain of events started a couple of months ago. I finally set up a Facebook account this year (like I said, I’m kind of slow). One of the pages I follow is the Seattle Humane Society http://www.seattlehumane.org/. That’s where we adopted Sam and where I still get inspiration for my “Scratching Dogs” tiles. It’s fun to see the photos and videos they post. One morning they posted a video of Sarge – the beautiful black Shepard mix that I made a portait of. After a year at the shelter he was still looking for a home. I responded to their post with a comment and photo of my tile. Jenny, a staff member at the Seattle Humane Society, had been working with Sarge and searched my Etsy site for his portrait. In the process, she saw a portrait of Georgia, a sweet little dog she had recently adopted (that’s Georgia’s portrait on the bookcase). She was so happy with the purchase that she ordered custom portaits of her other two pets. Then she posted one or more of her tile portaits on the Seattle Humane’s Volunteer Facebook page. I got a ton of views from her post. Another Facebook user, Charly, saw Freya’s portait (the golden Pit Bull mix posing with her new portait). I’m currently working on three new custom orders as a result of Jenny’s post. Thanks again Jenny!
In unrelated news, Sarge was adopted last week 🙂