Some thoughts on digital marketing and networking:

I was recently interviewed by a fine tumblr friend for a presentation they were doing on networking, and since I get questions about this sort of thing fairly regularly, I thought I might share my response!

The prompts were as follows:

So, to begin with could I get how old you are and if you have schooling, how long have you been in school, and how long have you been getting money from your art? In the post you did on tumblr you mentioned how you’ve basically been networking since you were 14, but when would you say you really buckled down and started doing it intentionally rather than just socially? What do you think is your most important tool with networking, and do you have any suggestions about social interaction dos and don’ts with potential clients? What would you think is something not worth bothering when it comes to networking, and on the other side what shouldn’t you forget? How much of your income would you say is from your work with art?

I am 27 years old and received my Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art and East Asian Studies. I went to school for five years for my double major, including one full academic year abroad in Japan. My studio major is a traditional one, which offered nothing in the way of illustration, but gave me rock-solid fundamentals to build on.

Previous to pursuing my freelance business full-time two years ago, I’d been doing commissions on the side for about a decade. My first commissions came from family connections when I was about 16 years old, but the longer I spent cultivating my internet presence, the more business I got from my own marketing efforts. It’s difficult for me to say when it transformed from incidental to mindful networking, but I think my major turning point was in 2009 when one of the art directors from Fantasy Flight Games found one of my portfolios and offered me contract work. I knew that if I wanted to keep getting published and get in with my dream clients, I’d need to be more proactive. I was still working a full-time job at the time (in-house product and packaging design), but after another year of concentrated effort and psyching myself up, I took the leap and started supporting myself exclusively with my illustration. Art has been my sole source of income for a little over two years now.

As for which is currently the most important or effective tool, I’d have to say an art blog. With the recent surge in blogging as a widespread social networking service, rather than simply a journaling outlet, and the flexibility with which they can be set up, an art blog can now easily double as an online portfolio. It’s still important to have your own site, I think; something that is more tightly controlled and selective in its offerings that showcases the best of the best of your work. But when you’re just starting out, and all you can afford is what you can get for free, a customizable blog is basically priceless. Since it makes everything you post incredibly easy to share, and comes with the added social element that allows you to interact on a personal level, it gives you maximum PR for minimum effort.

But make sure you pick one or two outlets that you really enjoy (or can at least reasonably tolerate) updating regularly. If you pick a blogging or gallery platform that you don’t like or can’t get into just because other people talk it up, or because it’s the latest trend, you won’t be doing yourself any favors. Feel at home using Facebook? Set up an artist page! Hate Facebook? Give tumblr a try! Or blogger! Or deviantArt! You could probably even get away with using Pinterest if you really wanted. These are all easy to set up, post to, navigate, and share from. The more comfortable you are with the tech you’re using, the more often you’re likely to use it. The more often you use it, the more likely you are to gain more followers, and more followers means more potential business.

Talking about blogs segues nicely into the dos and don’ts of networking, because one of the biggest mistakes I see people make with regards to these incredibly valuable networking tools is failing to separate the personal from the professional. If you really like reblogging stupid YouTubes, engaging in social justice arguments, or discussing salacious fanfictions, make a sideblog for that, and try to keep it as private as you can. The only things you should be putting on your art blog are 1) your art, 2) discussion relating directly to your art or career, and 3) relevant articles or tutorials relating to your field. Even then, items 2 and 3 should be comparatively sparse to item 1.

On a related note, keep your correspondence professional as well. It seems like a small and relatively unimportant thing in today’s casual, e-mail centric age, but making sure your spelling and grammar are correct, avoiding slang and profanities, and generally being on your best, most adult behavior (even when the person you are corresponding with doesn’t appear to be concerned with formality) always reflects well on you as a businessperson. In this field, I honestly wouldn’t get hung up on the stuffy formulas recommended by career centers for cover letters and the like. Those are boring and almost never worth reading. Just be your most polite and professional self.

Another major don’t is to shit-talk anyone in your industry. Not even on your personal accounts. Just don’t do it. The world of art and freelance is a surprisingly small one, and even if you have a major beef with another artist, and they fully deserve your criticism, it still makes you look bad to drag their name through the mud in a public setting. Calling out art thievery or copyright infringement is a slightly different matter, but still one that calls for very careful consideration. Plus, networking with your peers is just as important, if not moreso, than trying to schmooze the higher ups. The acquaintance you make today might be the art director who recommends your portfolio tomorrow.

And thirdly, never talk down your own work. There’s a big difference between modest humility and damaging self-deprecation. If you preface the public sharing of your work with, “This isn’t very good, but…” or any variation thereof, why are you bothering to share it? And furthermore, why should anyone bother to look at it? This is especially important when you are interacting directly with a potential client or employer. Every professional in this industry knows that art is a constant learning process, and that your work always has the potential to evolve and improve, but you’re not there to convince them of how humble you are, or how good your work will be. You’re there to convince them to hire you now, so be confident in your work.

There are many other common tips I could go into. Do show only your very best work when presenting your portfolio to a prospective employer, even if it means you don’t have much to show. Don’t include things just for the sake of having an example of this or that if A) it’s not your best work and B) you don’t have multiple examples of that kind of piece. Do dress somewhat conservatively when meeting clients for the first time, but don’t be afraid to let a little personal style show through. Do follow up, but don’t hound people daily for a response. However, I feel like these are the kinds of things that other artists talk about all the time, while spending comparatively less time talking about digital resources, which are cheap, readily available, and far reaching.