Community building
From CreativeBusiness
If anyone want to add sub-headers, or more material to the page, please do!
Contents |
Background
It has always been the case that the commercial success of a creative endeavour is related, at least in part, to the number of people exposed to the creative work. In the old days, this was called creating a fan base and it was achieved by broadcast means. Music was played on the radio, film was played on TV or at the cinema, and books were reviewed in magazines and newspapers. The promotion of creative works depended on cabal of gatekeepers - journalists, DJs, distributors etc. - who acted as arbiters of taste, deciding which creative works deserved attention and recommendation, and which did not.
The problem with this model is that there are limits to the number of column inches, airtime minutes, and broadcast slots available. This restricts the number of creators who can reach a mass audience via traditional means. If you are not one of the chosen few, your work will never reach its intended audience.
The Internet
The Internet has changed all this. The ability to reach large numbers of people is no longer confined to traditional media outlets, and the paradigm is no longer restricted to broadcast only. The Internet allows any creator of any artistic work to reach a worldwide audience and, better yet, to form a relationship with that audience.
Regardless of your field, success as a numbers game. It is imperative that you reach as many potential fans as you can, but traditional online direct marketing efforts are both difficult for the independent artist or small creative businessman to effect, as well as being counterproductive. Whilst e-mail allows you to very easily contact many people at once, it is difficult to compile a list of the right people - people who are interested in your work and who want to hear from you. And it could be damaging to your reputation to engage in anything which could be mistaken for spamming.
Blogging
Rather than use old school broadcast tactics, creators in the digital era can use a number of social tools to help build a community of people who either are, or might become, fans. The simplest tool is the blog - an easily updated website that requires little or no technical knowledge to run. Using a blog to talk about your creative endeavours allows people an insight into your art, your personality, and your life.
A blog's comment facility also allows you to have conversations with your fans. This creates stronger relationships between you and the people in your audience, something that is very important, particularly when you are just starting out. When you are at the beginning of your career your primary support, both in terms of sales and other non-financial support, will come from a small and committed core of fans. The more closer the relationship you can build with your fans, the more loyalty those fans feel towards you, and the more supportive they will be, and that close relationship can be nurtured through conversation.
The main requirement is for keeping a good blog is time and a willingness to have a chat with your fans, but the rewards are much greater: you will end up with a vibrant community of people who will talk about you to their friends. This word-of-mouth recommendation is a great way for you to gain new fans. Indeed, this conversation is what really binds the community together gives them a sense of purpose and identity. This is not something that can be forced or faked, but must be nurtured over time.
Community Building
As your creative business grows, so your community grows, with new people discovering your work and attending your events, such as gigs, readings, gallery showings, etc.. This become self reinforcing, especially when you make your creative output freely available online. People discover you online, become a part of the online community, attend events, feel more involved in the community, and get more involved online.
Equally, people who discover you at an event can go online to find out more, and end up engaging with the community there, which makes them then more likely to attend another event. Thus the online community supports and extends the offline community, which does the same for the online community in a virtuous circle.
Whilst it is clearly possible for creative people to be successful without an online presence, or with only a token website, in this increasingly networked world people's expectations are changing, and they are beginning to see social media as essential. Failing to embrace it can put you at a serious and unnecessary disadvantage.
Resources
Blogging
How To Write A Successful Weblog
10 Tips On Writing The Living Web
