1. Social Media for Artists
David Z. Morris
@davidzmorris
Davidzmorris.com
Mindslikeknives.blogspot.com
@davidzmorris

2. What’s Social Media?
 User-Generated Content (UGC)
◦ Youtube, Instagram, Blogs
 Commenting, sharing
 A Personalized Media Stream
 A Networking Tool (Twitter, Tumblr)
 Research Data
 Lead Generation
 A Conversation; A Connection.
@davidzmorris

3. An Artist Has a Story
 Who am I? What do I know? What
have I done? What do I stand for?
 Present a clear personality. A
heightened version/variation of
yourself. (This is what art is anyway).
 Start with a two-sentence bio.
 Your audience is making your identity
a part of theirs.
@davidzmorris

4. Stories Can Be Messy
(but not too messy)
Me: A former academic, writing about
Japan, Communication Technology,
post-academic careers, and conspiracy
theory. I also write fiction about an
alternate-universe Civil War. With
MAGIC!
Becomes: A post-academic editor and
freelance writer with interests in
academia, Japan, and media
@davidzmorris

5. Platforms
 Twitter: Professional, Writers, News, Politics
(Avg. Age: 40).
 Tumblr: Visual Arts
 Youtube: 2nd biggest “social media” site; Music,
events; Easily embedded
 Facebook: Event promotion, Lean Startup,
moving to HEAVY monetization (Pay to Play).
Does many things, none of them well.
 Blogging: Writers (obvs), Information Intensive,
Topic Specific (vegetarian recipes, How-To)
 Soundcloud: Music; primarily for OTHER
musicians.
 Instagram: “Lifestyle”; microvideo; ?????
@davidzmorris

6. Practicalities
 Start with one thing and grow out.
◦ Don’t start an account you don’t intend to
use. Kill neglected accounts.
 Tweetdeck (for Chrome) or Hootsuite
◦ SCHEDULING
 Ifttt.com
 Check for Hashtags (Twitter, Instagram)
◦ Hashtags.org
 2-3 Tweets a day (fast decay/scroll)
 ~1 FB update
 Instagram: <1/day (slow decay/scroll)
@davidzmorris

7. What should I post?
Most importantly – YOUR OWN
CONTENT.
 Live Tweet/Instagram Relevant Events!
◦ Media events or in-person
 Twitter links to blog posts
 Links to new art
 How-to Videos
 Go behind the scenes
 Personal photos/thoughts that convey
your story
@davidzmorris

8. But sometimes . . .
 Reblog/Retweet/Link to relevant
material. Add comments/thoughts.
@davidzmorris

9. Strategies for getting attention
(other than posting good content)
 Follow people (follow anyone you
interact with).
 Reblog/RT
 “Like” stuff (Instagram)
 Follow and direct message anyone
you have worked on a project with.
 Have a conversation!
@davidzmorris