And it's what an artist must do to succeed. Put out little tendrils of hope - blog, enter a competition, update your website, give a workshop, join a great art group, give lessons, design a new business card, try a new technique, send out a press release, write an article, and: keep a running list of all these "ingredients." [...]

You might be thinking... crazy is a strong word. However, when I spend too much time online, I get stupid - I can't remember diddly; I've been forgetful and have missed deadlines. (I never used to miss deadlines)! My brain can only take in so much stimuli before it starts shutting down. I get zoned in on my computer or Ipad screen and my life and responsibilities begin to slide by, while I live in a dream world by viewing what everyone else is doing. In the end, I've got to stop looking at what y'all are doing all day so I can return to my life. [...]

The question you need to answer is this: are you having fun playing with the 20% on Facebook, while ignoring the much larger network of people you can reach via the "dark social network?" [...]

We're busy. We all are. We receive far too much informational stimulus in the form of e-mails, text messages, online links, memos, and physical junk mail. Most of us who have gone through the conventional educational establishment have learned to skim read, and those of us who haven't lived under a rock since birth have additionally picked up on the concept of multi-tasking, to the point that our default mode of thinking is: Successful, dynamic people read and process phenomenal amounts of information quickly, at the same time that they are literally running on the treadmill and listening to the Newsie Chat Show. [...]

We at FineArtViews realize that a lot of our readers use Twitter as part of their art marketing efforts. Thus, we have composed a list of FineArtViews regulars that you may want to follow on Twitter. [...]

Now I'm not telling anyone to stop using or to never use "social media" (FB, Twitter, et al). If you want to or have had success with it, that's fine. I'm just getting tired of those who try to demean blogging as useless or passé. [...]

Social media mirrors your own social circle. Most of the time your friends are not going to criticize you in a public form. The real negativity arises from the different tribes of artists and when they interact on a public forum. [...]

Samuel Adoquei said, "The best artists are givers." That is what I see at events - knowledge and talent being poured out by artists so that others could learn from their successes and mistakes. Hopefully as we are inspired by others (and not hampered by FOMO), we will take what we can use for our own personal journeys and simply leave the rest. We've got painting to do! [...]

The interaction between Mattera and the artist raises several questions about how artists utilize social networking for the purpose of art marketing -- and how those efforts are interpreted by online 'friends'. [...]

So what does removing the mask mean? This means communicating to strangers like they are our friends. Don't be afraid to give your personal opinions or tell stories about your personal life. Post pictures of yourself working on your art. And most of all, it means talking to anybody who takes the time to engage in conversation. This means comments on Facebook, personal emails, and reviews of your work. It does not need to be a long response, but just a sign that you are listening. [...]

The challenges proposed by art critic Jerry Saltz, challenges that he fails to stand by when people DO accept them, are starting to chip away at his credibility. [...]

If you don't make it easy to buy your art then you will miss a lot of sales opportunities. [...]

So if you are one of those crazy seven or eight, sitting in front of the machine, designing that newsletter, when everyone else is out on holiday, look at your calendar. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Schedule that article/newsletter to go when there's actually someone there to receive it. [...]

Too Much Screen Time ? this is the inability to walk by the computer screen (or ignore the phone, for those of you who don't live in obscure, rural areas where we're lucky to have electrical poles, much less phone towers) without briefly checking your Facebook or your e-mail or gliding through the Internet on a search for musk ox yarn. [...]

In a "perfect" online marketing world, I wouldn't have to throw myself or my work at a seemingly endless list of other sites...or even one other site, for that matter. But many artists are doing that in the name of "exposure," to get their work "seen." In a truly perfect online marketing world, collectors would come to my site and find my work on their own without any prompting from me. But without using any of the above listed options, what chance do I have of drawing that audience? Can I really do it all here on my site alone? [...]

But the options are out there, just waiting to be part of our marketing plan, if only we can figure out a way to learn how to use them because it can't be that difficult, can it, when other people, who are about of our level of intelligence, are using this stuff, and using it well? [...]

The Occupy Wall Street movement has lit a fire of protest throughout the United States and abroad. It appears that the mainstream art world is not protected from the flames. In the last month groups such as Occupy Art World, Occupy Museums, and Occupy Chelsea have emerged -- all railing against the influence the 1% has had on the direction of art in the United States. [...]

please remember, if the world loses a single work of art you could have produced because you got sucked into playing Farmville, well, that would be, quite frankly, tragic. [...]

please don't characterize this post as me telling you not to use Facebook. [2] If it adds value to your life, use it. In your marketing, just don't forget all the people who don't. They aren't second class buyers and might just be first class ones. [...]

If you're an artist please try this - turn off that cell phone, or better yet, leave it at home (especially if it's one of those particularly dangerous "smart" phones), grab that sketchbook and a pencil, and drive to the park. An artist with only a sketchbook and a pencil can't really do anything else but start sketching with it [...]

"What is a Twitter art project?". Point blank -- it is an art project that relies on Twitter in some manner. The typical Twitter art project involves some form of 'audience' participation. It may involve asking people to Tweet an answer to some debatably clever question or merely focus on annoying 'followers' with a flood of juvenile 140 character contained prose. Twitter art projects have also been known to focus on physical spaces and aspects of time 'as it happens' -- a meshing between the 'real' and digital world. In other words, a Twitter art project can be just about anything. [...]

Forming an alliance based on mutual exposure with like-minded artists can benefit you greatly for selling fine art online. [...]

We share links. We share stories. We share blog posts. We share photographs. We share ideas. We share tweets. We share thoughts with each other. We want to share images of artworks with each other (at least when the artist doesn't use those annoying right-click disablers to attempt to stop us from promoting their artwork for them) And, sometimes, we even string shared series of these thoughts, stories, links and ideas together into what we call conversations. [...]

I admit that I haven't done Twitter for very long and I am certainly no expert on the subject. I have, however observed a few things that I would like to address. There has been quite a bit written lately about content (how to effectively tweet - post sweet not bitter tweets), so I will focus on the quantity issue. [...]

After having written last week's post on how to use Twitter as a business tool, a number of artists responded to me directly or via the comments section, saying that they were either confused about how to use this utility, or else that they felt it was another way to waste time. Because the last post generated confusion and, in some cases, strong responses, I feel that this subject warrants a second post. [...]

Essentially, Twitter is the place where information spreads like wildfire. Whenever I finish a new painting or blog post, I can get that information out to hundreds of artists almost instantly. If they like what they read or see, they can send it out to their followers. In a matter of a few hours, my tweet can reach the eyes of thousands. [...]

The Top Ten Reasons Why I Might Want to Tweet Instead of Make Art By Lisa Call Lisa Blog: Contemporary Textile Art.   Editors Note:  We invited Lisa to share her views after a discussion ensued that was prompted initially by Clint's article, A Spectacular Way to Avoid Doing What Really Matters, which was critical of Twitter's marketing value.  This article offers an alternative view of Twitter by a real artist who utilizes it every day.  We have not edited the following article in any way.  Enjoy . . .   Why Tweet My top 10 List of [...]

The Twitterites are wearing me down . . . I've said all along that I'm open minded about Twitter (my somewhat provocative blog post title notwithstanding), plus I've got some time to kill, so I'm going to revisit my old Twitter account and commit to experiment with it and see if I can be convinced that there is marketing value for artists. While I've never disputed the value of Twitter for certain activities, I've never been able to see how it would be a high-value activity for an artist marketing art.  At this point in time, I feel that email, [...]

Twitter's Famous "Fail Whale"

I had intended to let the Twitter "issue" rest for now.  I've taken a bit of criticism for my position that Twitter is, for the most part, a waste of time for artists. (In fact, in the interest of fairness, I've invited artist Lisa Call to write an article for the FineArtViews newsletter explaining how Twitter can be used successfully by an artist - hopefully that will be ready for publication in a week or so). However, today I read a blog post by Kris Jordan who was reporting on the content of a speech given by Jason Fried, [...]

Wouldn't it be wonderful if I was so interested in your artwork that I called your studio every 30 minutes just to ask, "What are you doing now?" How refreshing that would be!  I would know when you were working . . . and when you weren't.  When things were going well....and when they were going badly.  When you started a new painting....and when you finished each one.  When you were drinking your coffee.  When you were depressed.  When you were happy.  I would love to know when you were stuck in your studio waiting for the plumber.....boy that would [...]