Almost everyone is on Facebook these days, and most likely you already have a personal account. Even if you don’t have a personal Facebook account, you can still create a page for yourself as an artist.
Facebook is a great way to post your latest art work for friends, family, and fans. The great thing about Facebook is that it is the more personal connection, where the quality of your connections will be higher, as opposed to Twitter where the quantity of your connections will be higher, but can lack in quality.
As a note before we get started, on Facebook you can create a PAGE, which is for a business, community, band, artist, organization, etc. You can also create a PROFILE, which is for a person. I have seen people create PROFILES for businesses and artists. While this isn’t a horrible idea, there are many more benefits to a page that you lose by creating a profile instead. I’ll list some out here:
1. With a PROFILE you have to accept every friend request. If you want thousands of people liking your artwork, this could waste a lot of your time. With a PAGE, people just “like” it.
2. With a PROFILE you can only have up to 5000 friends and then Facebook will not let you accept anymore. With a PAGE, you can have unlimited fans.
3. With a PAGE Facebook reports your statistics to you including how many people are looking at your posts, how many people are commenting on or liking posts, etc. With a PROFILE you will not get that information.
That being said, I do have my own personal PROFILE on Facebook, but here is an example of my artist Facebook PAGE www.facebook.com/marcyeibenartist.
Since The Art Collaboration website is designed for the non-technically inclined, here is the step by step process you need to create a Facebook page for your art:
1. This lovely page will take you straight to where you need to go on Facebook to create your own artist page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?campaign_id=372931622610&placement=pghm&extra_1=0.
2. You would then click on the “Artist, Band or Public Figure” option, and from the drop down box click on whichever option you feel most applies to you (I picked “artist” for obvious reasons).
3. Put in the name you want to give your page, such as “Your Name Artist” or maybe something more catchy like “SoCal Mixed Media”. I suggest using your name, because it will be easier for people to find you, unless you’re planning on “branding” your art. It’s up to you.
4. Then you just agree to Facebook’s terms and you’re on your way. If you have a personal Facebook page you would just suggest your artist page to all your friends and family and you can even ask them to suggest it to their friends and pretty soon you can have a good following.
Last word of advice, post often and post LOTS of pictures. People like pictures!