Brainard Carey - Succeed with Social Media Like a Creative Genius: A Guide for Artists, Entrepreneurs, and Kindred Spirits

Copyright 2019 by Brainard Carey

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Cover design by Mary Ann Smith

Illustrations by Brainard Carey

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Carey, Brainard, author.

Title: Succeed with social media like a creative genius: a guide for artists, entrepreneurs, inventors, and kindred spirits / Brainard Carey.

Description: New York, NY: Allworth Press, [2019] | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019006895 (print) | LCCN 2019009786 (ebook) | ISBN 9781621537038 (eBook) | ISBN 9781621536987 (pbk.: alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Internet marketing. | Social media.

Classification: LCC HF5415.1265 (ebook) | LCC HF5415.1265 .C3629 2019 (print) | DDC 659.14/4dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019006895

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-62153-698-7

eBook ISBN: 978-1-62153-703-8

Printed in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to all my students in Praxis Center for Aesthetics who thrill me daily with their success. Thank you.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Ah, social media, we hate you! It is an odd relationship we have with so-called social media. Almost every day we hear of someone saying they are quitting this platform or that one because it is getting in the way of their life. On the one hand, we want our product, our art, perhaps even ourselves, to be known to the world at large, to be viral perhapsand be everywhere at once, resulting in either a wave of profits, or fame, or both.

Industries and individuals everywhere are trying to find the recipe for going viral, or at least getting close to it. Its like the philosophers stone, the legendary alchemical material that can turn cheap metals like aluminum into gold or silver. Its a bit like a money tree, which is a fantasy of course. Though, with social media, we know a viral hit is real, and it can change a persons lifefor real. It is the equivalent of a goose laying a golden egg repeatedly, only you need even less magicjust fingers to type and a phone to make a video, thats all.

In this book I hope to shed light on a real philosophers stone, the golden goose that we know is possible to use; we just a need a few pointers right? Well, here they are, plain and simple and easy to use, I promise.

There are essentially two methods: 1) free advertising by posting everywhere in the right way with the right content and not paying a dime, or 2) a similar process done with paid ads. Both methods will be discussed and outlined in this book.

If you need more information or support when youre done reading, you can go to likeacreativegenius.com.

We want our product, our art, perhaps even ourselves, to be known to the world at large, to be viral perhapsand be everywhere at once, resulting in either a wave of profits, or fame, or both.

Chapter 1

VIRAL GARBAGE AND YOUR MESSAGE

The love-hate relationship with social media comes from the huge glut of what can be perceived as viral garbage. There are things we want to read and see on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn, but there are many things we do not want to see that pollute our stream of information and can alter our mood for the worse. Think of political ads, no matter what party or country they are coming from; they are propaganda designed to sway you with the most vulgar techniques. You have seen inflammatory headlines on which you know you shouldnt click, but you do it anyway because you cant help it. That is called clickbait, of course, and you and I are the fish that click on it. They have titles like Shes a liar, this video is proof! or Its us or him, impeach now! or even nonpolitical ones, like Photos that were taken seconds before tragedy struck or Ten ways to live a longer life. These are all examples of viral garbage and clickbait, and as abhorrent as this may be, you are competing with them in the vast world of images and text.

We have to begin by thinking about viral garbage, because that trash is the context we are in when we send out our message to the world, be it a product, service, or work of art.

YOUR MESSAGE

The first step in a campaign, about which we will get into detail in every chapter of this book, is to decide on your essential message that will be shared in many different ways.

This may seem obvious, but what most creative people think of as their essential message is in fact often too general and not specific and focused. Here are two examples.

CASE 1: INVENTOR

If you are inventing a new case to cover a mobile phone, it would be easy to think your market is all mobile phone users that have a phone that fits your design. That might be true, but in reality, there are many mobile phone users, and many of them have different tastes. While you think your target market is all phone users, there is only a fraction of those within that market that are your actual buyers. Lets say that you have a cover design that is made out of leather, and users can have it personalized with a monogram if they wish. This type of case can now have a more specific audiencethe luxury market for one, because it is more expensive than the average case. Because it can be monogrammed, it is also targeted to a certain class of people, like business executives who might want a monogram. Another unique factor is that the customers who might buy this phone case cannot be vegan, because it is leather. Without going too much further, we already have a focus within a larger market that looks like this: Mobile phone users > Specific model of phone > Luxury market > Business executives > Not vegan. That is now a niche within a niche, one that will be much better in helping you look for customers. So if you are about to launch a Kickstarter project based on that user profile, you now know whom to target in any ads during the campaign, which will save you money and increase sales.

CASE 2: THE ARTIST

If you are an artist trying to sell your art, you might think that the market is very wideit is anyone that can afford your work and likes it. That is a very broad market indeed, which is not an advantage, because you want to focus on the specific group or groups that will be interested particularly in your art. Lets say your art consists of figurative oil paintings on canvas, and it is often political, satirizing current events. The images tend to be of political figures that are painted to look like crosses between cartoons and animals of various kinds. Sometimes words are added to the paintings. The work tends to satirize conservative causes, like immigration laws and tax benefits for the wealthy. Without going further, lets see what the market is that can be dialed into. It could look like this: Liberal or Democratic voters > Involved in an art organization > Reads the New York Times or Washington Post > Lives in a major city. Now two of those categories you might think are cutting off too many people (what they read and where they live), but narrowing in those two categories will allow you to spend less money reaching a targeted market that you can then widen in the future.