PPT, PDF1,244 views

Brand & Message Essentials for Creatives on Social Media

Erin Blaskie discusses branding and messaging essentials for creatives on social media, emphasizing the importance of understanding one's 'why' for engaging on these platforms. She encourages artists, who often resist social media, to embrace it as a means of sharing their work and connecting with audiences. The document outlines the need to choose appropriate platforms and develop a strategic plan for content sharing that reflects one's brand.

Business◦Technology◦

Brand & Message Essentials for Creatives on Social Media

1.
Branding & MessageEssentials for Creatives on Social Media
2.
First, I wantto thank you .
3.
My name is Erin Blaskie . A.k.a @ErinBlaskie. A.k.a Facebook.com/erinblaskie. On the web at erinblaskie.com. E-mailable @ erin@erinblaskie.com.
4.
I started myfirst company, BSETC, when I was 21 years old .
5.
Me, Back inthe Day. (Note the size of that monitor… Yowza!)
6.
I am atiny bit of a serial entrepreneur (also known as having entrepreneurial ADD…)
7.
I’ve been onTwitter since March 15, 2007 …
8.
I’ve been onFacebook since Facebook had only a paper sign in its office window…
9.
I write alot of social media updates and over 65% of them are not for me .
10.
I am heretoday to talk to you about branding & message essentials for social media .
11.
We’ll cover branding . We’ll cover message essentials . We’ll cover social media .
12.
More importantly though,we’ll chat about the why , the how and the what as it relates to using social media when you are creative .
13.
But first, meet Drew Beson .
14.
Drew Beson isan artist who has adopted social media to share his art and his creative endeavors.
15.
16.
Drew utilizes Twitter , Facebook , YouTube & his blog to connect with his audience.
17.
Drew brings theart & the creative process down to a level that is less intimidating for his audience.
18.
Most artists andcreative types resist social media.
19.
There is fear around selling and marketing art and other creative projects.
20.
There is alsothe idea that social media will take too much time and therefore make less time for art .
21.
Lastly, the ideaof sharing ones life online is a bit scary / tricky / unappealing.
22.
Putting the resistanceaside, you want to embrace social media so you can achieve your why.
23.
Let’s talk aboutthe why .
24.
Your why is simply the reason you want to spend your time / energy on doing something.
25.
There are many why’s . As we share common why’s, think about your why .
26.
The why isvitally important because it will give you a sense of purpose while interacting and engaging.
27.
Once you knowwhy you want to use social media, you can then look at the what .
28.
The what isgoing to be the platform(s) you choose to use to spread your message.
29.
Depending on whereyour audience is ‘hanging out’, your what might be different from the next person’s what.
30.
The best wayto find your what is to spend some time in each place to see who has the best greeter.
31.
Go ahead and secure your brand / name on all of the platforms but focus on your best performer.
32.
Extend your creativityonto your social media profiles : they should be an extension of your brand .
33.
34.
Once you figureout your what , you need to set out a plan for your how .
35.
Think about what you want to share via these new channels.
36.
Stuck for ideas?Think relevancy , interest , transparency & informative .
37.
Pre-schedule wherepossible.
38.
Re-cycle yourcontent where possible.
39.
Think about how often you want to share with your channels.
40.
Set aside sometime in your day for real-time interaction and engagement .
41.
Think outsidethe box .
42.
Mostly, just be you .
43.
Connect with me . @ErinBlaskie [email_address] www.erinblaskie.com

Editor's Notes

#3 Thank you for coming to my session today - I appreciate that even though you had four choices, you ended up here and I’m really hoping that I can help you today.
#4 Easily found on the web but not winning any awards for creative branding here.
#5 No, BS, ETC does not stand for what you THINK it stands for. Business Services, ETC is a virtual assistance company that helps small to medium sized businesses with their creative, online projects. Our team of 22 supports entrepreneurs with social media, web design, graphic design, Internet marketing and more.
#6 Also note the poster that just screams “Here’s Johnny!” in the background and the fridge. Every 21 year old starting a business needs to be that close in proximity to a fridge. It contains the fuel to keep us surviving the tortorous hours (aka Redbull).
#7 I have written over 15 e-books, hosted over 20 online training programs, have launched a membership-based business, a coaching practice, a training website, have 50% of my first print book written and I have monetized 95% of my hobbies - including creating an alter ego to leverage my love of video games.
#8 That’s right. I was on Twitter when Twitter was a giant echoey chamber of me and five of my closest friends.
#9 Needless to say, I’ve spent a lot of time on social media and have gotten to know the platforms pretty intimately.
#13 A lot of people assume that social media is a series of tactics that get executed on a series of tools and while that is a huge part of it, and even part of what I’ll be sharing today, I want to use this session to encourage you to think bigger. Understanding your why will lead you to the how and the what parts. You need to know your why - the reason you are joining social media and the reason you will devote time and energy to these platforms - before you’ll see a return on investment.
#16 Drew’s website has been connected with social media in a way that encourages people to share his art, connect with him to build an on-going relationship and allows him to develop his why. For Drew, he wants to be able to connect with people who share his love of the creative and he wanted to be able to sell more of his art by making it more readibly accessible and shareable.
#17 Drew’s why (connecting with his audience and making the artistic process more transparent) has carried over onto the what’s (aka the platforms) and have morphed into the how’s. On Twitter, Drew will often Tweet about his upcoming gallery appearances, he will TwitPic photos of his art after it’s been finished and once it’s hanging on people’s walls, he will create videos of himself going through the creative process and put those sessions on a sped up time warp and he blogs regularly about things of interest to the artistic community and to art lovers who may end up buying his art.
#18 By bringing the artistic process and the finished projects to his social media streams, he is making the process less intimidating but at the same time, he’s involving his audience in a way that makes them get invested. When someone watches a piece of art take shape and morph and grow, they grow an attachment to the piece - whether it is something they can explain or not.
#20 Yes, it’s true that a lot of people on social media are there to sell however, you can still use the platforms and not sell anything AND still achieve your why. By focusing on valuable content, sharing the creative process and shining the spotlight on other people, you can see the same results as someone who is shooting out marketing type messages without actually having to do that.
#21 As with anything else you choose to do in your business, social media can be manageable or it can over take your entire existence and leave you wondering if you even had time to shower that day. All things are good in moderation so the key is to create a structured plan around your why and stick to it as much as possible.
#22 While social media does help to create a little less mystique, you control the level to which you are sharing content and information. You don’t have to throw a bunch of Tweets out that are personal in nature. You can stick to what you are comfortable with and keep the message highly targeted to one area of your life or business. That being said, feeling comfortable enough to interject some personal information will create bonds with your network in other areas besides just the business side of things.
#25 Your why needs to be the reason you are going to take action on something and spend your time and energy on it. Ask yourself right now - why do I want to be on social media?
#26 If you aren’t sure of your why, here are some of the why’s we often hear when we ask our clients: I want more clients, I want to feel like I am surrounded by community, I’d like to meet other like-minded people, I want to share my message/gift/product/service with the world, I want to keep up with trends in my industry.
#27 If you aren’t sure of your why, here are some of the why’s we often hear when we ask our clients: I want more clients, I want to feel like I am surrounded by community, I’d like to meet other like-minded people, I want to share my message/gift/product/service with the world, I want to keep up with trends in my industry.
#29 The primary options for people include Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for social media. There are many, many other social media sites out there but these three are the most popular and widely used.
#30 For me, Twitter is the best social media platform for my business. However, someone else might find that they have enormous success on Facebook because their target market tends to spend their time at Facebook.
#31 You know how Wal-Mart has that person at the front door who greets people as they come in? Well, some of the social media platforms are going to have their very own Wal-Mart style greeter. You’ll know you’ve found your what when the platform you choose to use creates valuable connections for you in a short amount of time. Just like how at Wal-Mart you don’t need to get to the back of the store to be warmly greeted, the proper platform for you and your business will yield results fairly quickly.
#32 Since your company name or your personal name is the biggest aspect of your brand, it is vital to secure those across all social media platforms. You can use a tool called www.KNOWEM.com to check your name and company name across all platforms (550 of them at last check) and quickly secure them. Even if you don’t plan on developing the platform, holding that real estate space is vital to your business equity.
#33 On Twitter, make use of the Twitter background area by creating a creative yet informative background. List other sites, contact information and of course a portfolio item or two. On Facebook, get a custom Facebook fan page created so you can build a list from the page, sell art/products/services from the page and more.
#34 Sunni Brown is a graphic artist who doodles a lot of meetings and conferences. She extends this brand onto her Twitter background so that people understand, even from here, that she is an artistic and creative person.
#36 What is the content that you want your audience to be connected to? Is it your own? Is it someone else’s? Knowing what you want to share will help keep you on track and on target. Without some form of a plan, you’ll wander onto social media and get caught up in Tweeting about everything under the sun. The best content to share is highly targeted content for your ideal client / customer with some sweet interjections of your personal life.
#37 You want to keep your social media updates relevant - they should be related to your expertise / topic area and on target with something your ideal client would be looking for. Updates should also be interesting - you want to encourage your network to listen to you and follow you so keep things interesting. Transparency will help break down some of the walls between you and your customer and shorten the know, like and trust factor. Information will help your customer navigate through your world better and help them make decisions.
#38 One of the big myths around social media is that it all has to be done in real-time. This is just not true. Use tools like Hootsuite or Social Oomph to pre-schedule your content ahead of time so that you aren’t having to write every Tweet in the moment.
#39 Another myth is that content needs to be fresh and new each and every time. If you have blog posts, articles or other things you’ve written in the past, break them up and link back to old content for a way to “refresh” those old posts. Don’t reinvent the wheel each and every time -- especially if you already have a wheel at your disposal.
#40 It has been proven that 4-5 Tweets per day and 2-3 Facebook updates per day is the number of updates that are recommended for you to get maximum exposure on your streams. However, not everyone will want to Tweet that often. Choose a minimum number of updates each day and try to be consistent in delivering that number of updates.
#41 Getting onto Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. is one piece of the puzzle and posting content to these sites is another but taking the time out to really engage and interact with your network is vital. This doesn’t just mean replying to @ replies and direct messages and Facebook inbox messages. This means seeking out new people to introduce yourself to and stretch your network beyond where it currently is today.
#42 Social media doesn’t just have to be on-going updates to your audience. Think outside the box. Develop some contests or live-streaming events to engage your audience. Create videos that show you in the creative process and share those on your social media profiles. Host impromptu art shows in locations in a pop-up format where you also extend discounts on your art pieces. Be unique and inspirational.
#43 Staying on brand and keeping your message interesting, relevant, informative and transparent really just means being yourself. Continue to be yourself, even online, and you won’t have to worry about having a set of guiding principles for using these tools for business.

Brand & Message Essentials for Creatives on Social Media

More Related Content

What's hot

Similar to Brand & Message Essentials for Creatives on Social Media

More from Fellow.app

Recently uploaded

Brand & Message Essentials for Creatives on Social Media

Editor's Notes