Business – Barbara Harms Fiber Art & More

The Internet, Social Media, Small Business and & Selling Art, what do these things have in common?

I’m going to re-ask my title question, “The Internet, Social Media, Small business & Selling Art, what do these things have in common?”. Well, many would answer “absolutely nuttin “. [Notice my clever reference to that 70’s song by War. If you remember that song , this may be a good post for you.] How does that relate to the subject at hand?

The answer in a word is age. Yes kids, with age, we often get a little out of touch with the latest and newest, all these new fangled things like computers. What’s Facebook , Twitter or YOU TUBE? What use are they to you, as a small business owner?

Lets say, for example, that you are an artist attempting to sell your work online. [that means selling on the internet , can you say internet?] Do you just post your art somewhere and wait for the sales to roll in? I.m sorry, it isn’t going to happen. So how do we occomplish our goal? We need a working knowledge of to get out there, where our work will be seen. This is where social networking can help us.

We need to get up to speed and fast. We need to learn these skills to further our businessess. Yet, many of us spend more time creating than marketing, but a balance of the two is needed.

For those of us selling primarily online, it makes even more sense. We need answers to questions like “How do I direct traffic to may website?” “How can I raise my ranking with search engines?” “How can I become more recognized and my work well known?”.

We are told how important it is to twitter, post on FB, have a blog, and jump into the world of social media if we have a small business. Yet we may feel we’re in over our heads, [now where’s our 6 year old grandchildren, when we need them, I ask?]

Does it really matter all that much? Making art just isn’t enough these days. The whole world is open to us. You could be selling work to someone in the UK or Australia. The exposure is staggering, anyone from anywhere may become familiar with you, may appreciate what you create. How amazing is that?

There are wonderful websites which draw people, like Etsy.com., who have raised interest and appreciation for handmade one of a kind items.

These sorts of sites have increased contact between the artists and buyers. This is a big plus for both. How great is that?

The time we invest learning these new skills is time well spent. Yes, it takes time to learn and incorporate new methods, make a blog and write posts.

But you can do this and so can I! There is so much beneficial, useful information out there online that we can help us to educate ourselves

So get busy, learn all you can. Read, read and read, with a little effort, you’ll get it.

I can think of so many well known quilters, fiber and quilt artists, who have worked hard for many years honing their craft. Names like Diane Gaudyski, Sharon Schamber, Ann Fahl and others, who got “it” and ran with it. Aren’t we all glad they did? We can go to their web sites & blogs to learn from the masters.

We can all learn a thing or two from these talented ladies, they adapted to make use of new developments that became available to futher their work.

You can DO IT !l