Welcome and welcome back to my website!
In this new article we talk about the use and communication potential of social networks. The focus is, as always, on the world of art and artists.
Social Networks, how important are they?
The use of Social Networks in your digitalization is a fundamental piece of a larger project, made up like a puzzle of many pieces, each essential to compose the picture represented by the Business Plan.
It is therefore urgent to make a premise and open a broader discussion.
The artist's activity, unfortunately, is often idealized in a bohemian style and not conceived as a real profession, especially with regard to many of the pieces of the famous puzzle such as contracts, contributions, fair remuneration, stability, reimbursements, social security, but also planning of the training and professional path, presentation and promotion of oneself, relationship with one's audience, awareness of the world in which one finds oneself and keeping up with it.
The artist is a businessman and businesswoman, an entrepreneur in himself, his art represents his entrepreneurial project and as such must be structured and planned, it requires investments and consequently also a return on investment.
When building your business plan it is necessary to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses, opportunities, threats, the surrounding environment, the market, competitors, external conditions of variability (for example, the pandemic) , costs and revenues of the activity.
Business Plan
The Business Plan will therefore start from the SWOT Analysis1 , will consider the planning of the training of artistic and professional skills and their improvement, will include the construction of the network of contacts useful for growth, the creation of promotional material, the evaluation of the tools useful for profession (sometimes very expensive) and their maintenance, will include the strategic planning of certain collaborations, publications, exhibitions, the possibility of hiring an agent, will include training and experiential trips useful for the profession, an insurance and retirement plan, the costs of administrative commercial management and the part dedicated to digital presence and promotion.
Certainly when planning a business plan it is necessary to also include the digital aspect for which all the tools useful for digital presence will have to be taken into consideration and the quantitative and qualitative KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) must be defined, in where quality undoubtedly represents the most relevant performance indicator in the long term.
If you would like more information on the Business +Digital Plan, let me know!
Digital plan tools
Showcase website
E-commerce
Social networks
Social Selling and Lead generation
Streaming platforms (Spotify, AppleMusic, ...)
Blogs and Vlogs (WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, ...)
Online newspapers (national and local)
Advertising campaigns (Google Adv, Social Adv, ...)
Backlinks from sectoral Web sites
Messaging (WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat, ...)
Newsletter
Livestreaming platforms (Twitch, Livestream, ...)
Television stations and Web TV (national and local)
Marketplace platforms (OpenSea, Bubble Music, ...)
So let's go back to talking about Social Networks.
They represent one of the various tools we have available to achieve our personal business goals.
There are several of them and they can help us in various aspects:
Connect with new audiences
Increase awareness
Strengthen the authority of our professionalism (Brand Authority)
Close relationships with your fans and keep them updated in a simple and immediate way
Communicate and engage our audience more
Showing the many facets of our art and our person
Share value
To form
Inform
Sell
Currently the most popular social networks are Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, X, Threads, YouTube and BeReal.
The ideal is to have a showcase website (portfolio container) connected to the various social networks that you have decided to use.
Why connect them?
The site is the container of what is most important regarding your profession (diary, photographic material, videos, curriculum vitae, contacts, news) and is your property, you can update and modify it as you wish.
Social media are the sounding board of the Website, they do not belong to you and if you lose your profile you lose all the content and contacts associated with it.
There are many social networks (no, not millions of millions), managing them all can be challenging given that they require consistency and excellent quality, therefore it is worth stopping for a moment to reflect on which ones you are actually capable of managing or which ones to entrust to a professional Social Media Manager.
Social networks are fun and captivating tools, but be careful, using them is not a game and the impact of the contents shared with the public should not be underestimated, which can have both positive and negative implications even on yourself.
This is why it is essential to evaluate how to use social media and which aspects of your professional and private life to share.
The evaluation is extremely personal and starting from the identification of oneself and one's identity can be the way to make the most prudent and right choices (Brand identity).
So here are some guidelines:
If you are a company (Event organizer, Foundation, Museum, Agency, Festival...)
Use Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn with Company pages connected to the key profiles of your business such as Manager, artistic director, agent, partner etc...
Accurately define the identity of your business, the different Tones of voice for the various channels, colors and graphics. Nothing should be random and not the result of a choice.
Structure an editorial plan of valuable content and storytelling with a well-defined strategy on the objectives to be achieved: Do I want to get more views to increase awareness? Do I want to involve my audience more and make them become stakeholders in my business? Would I like my audience to become loyal or take actions and convert into customers?
No, you can't do all this with a single piece of content. You must ask yourself questions, define medium and long-term objectives and take specific actions for each objective with the creation of differentiated content.
Some examples:
Attract customers with educational and informative content.
Get more views with engaging and trending content.
Strengthen the relationship with your audience with content relating to contests, discussions and collaborations.
Convert customers with content linked directly to calls to action and dedicated promos.
Plan, act and realize the goal.
If you are a professional
Use all the social networks you choose with a personal profile.
Carefully define your identity and self-awareness regarding your style, your peculiarities, your unique qualities, choose the Tone of voice that suits you and reflects you.
Decide what you want to say about yourself and your business. Ask yourself questions: What do I want to tell? What value can my content bring to those who use it? What does my audience expect from me? What aspects of my business are unique and interesting? What am I willing to tell about my private sphere?
Use moments in your routine to produce and rework quality and interesting content to share on the go.
Everything you are comfortable telling about yourself is fine, even if it is also consistent with your personal and professional goals, otherwise it risks becoming an element of distraction and confusion for the public. The ideal is therefore a good balance between professional and private life. Your audience is interested in knowing what you do in your free time, what you are passionate about, where you spend your holidays, what books you read because it gives a more complete idea of who you are and makes your whole person more attractive and interesting.
So choose what you want to tell about yourself and don't be afraid of judgements!
In the next article we will continue to delve deeper into the topic of the use and communicative potential of social networks and other fundamental tools for DT.
How far along are you in your digitization?
Thank you for reading this far, leave a heart if you liked the article and write to me here, by email or on social media Instagram\Facebook\TikTok\LinkedIn if you have questions on the topic of digital transformation that you would like to explore further.
1 The SWOT analysis (also known as the SWOT matrix) is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the strengths (Strengths), weaknesses (Weaknesses), opportunities (Opportunities) and threats (Threats) of a project or in a business or in any other situation in which an organization or individual must make a decision to achieve an objective. The analysis can concern the internal environment (analyzing strengths and weaknesses) or external environment of an organization (analyzing threats and opportunities).