Tag Archives: social Media

BLOGTOBERFEST – A MONTH OF BLOGGING!

I just signed up for the 4th annual blogging festival called Blogtoberfest, hosted by Kat at  I Saw You Dancing.  A month of blogging every day –  you may wonder – what are you thinking?  Well, I was thinking.  I have been reading and reading blogs, partially because of an online class I’m taking with Kelly Rae Roberts called Flying Lessons.  In a short two weeks, I have seen women really blossom!  After seeing a commitment on a blog by Australian Janine Whitling, I decided I can do it!

At first, I thought – ” no – you can’t post every day”.  I realized I don’t have to write a dissertation every day.  I want to use this to record my month of paying attention to what is around me.  I plan on keeping a notebook with me at all times to record things I see, hear and read.  If nothing else – I can always just post a favorite quote.

To get ready for this, I spent this rainy day in Georgia cleaning up.  I even laid out the clothes I will wear to work tomorrow – something I rarely do!  So, this month is going to be getting new habits, like pre-planning, paying attention, and being good to ME!  I plan on exercising regularly, taking my lunch to work, taking care of those things so I can open my mind and heart up to anything that comes.

Come on this journey with me.  I will start with my “October To-Do” list – which includes art projects and personal plans i.e. budgeting, getting a new car, getting beyond my antique flip phone!  I will write about books I’ve read, starting with The Creative Habit, Learn It and Use It For Life  by Twyla Tharp.

I’m not going to beat myself up if I miss a day, but I’m going to make an honest effort!  I need to get those pesky ideas out of my head  – begin acting on those ideas that pop in and out!  I know there are a few that are going to STICK!

If nothing else – I’ll post pictures of Ziggy and his escapades, like trying to read my books!  more on that later.

 

IS SOCIAL MEDIA REALLY IMPORTANT TO ARTISTS?

Helen De Ramus on Social Media

I was honored to have been asked to sit on a panel for the Women’s Caucus for Art of Georgia .   This was organized by Corlia Kock, and consisted of artists Marilynn Brandenburger, Anita Stewart and Helen De Ramus.  

Because of my background as a media buyer, I have been researching this for awhile, and I no longer consider social media a phenomen, but it is here to stay!  I decided to use this approach for my portion of the afternoon.  The following are some statistics I found after researching for a couple of weeks.  Because the research is varied and is changes from day to day, I would approach these numbers as estimates.  (To prove a point, when I began this, Coca-cola was the most popular brand on Facebook with 31 million fans, it is now over 49 million!)

FACEBOOK – this is the most visited website on the planet, it hit ONE TRILLION views on 6/30/2011.  More people are on Facebook than there are cars on the road.

  • The average posts has a lifeline of three hours
  • Most people spend 20 minutes or less at a time on Facebook
  • 50% check in daily
  • There are 2.7 billion “likes” each day (and I found some statistics that had this over 3 billion!)
  • 20 million apps are installed a day
  • 23% check in at least 5x a day
  • average user had 130 friends, and likes 80 pagesthere are 30 billion pieces of content shared every month

TWITTER

  • There are 190 Million tweets each day
  • 11 new accounts are created every second, over 1 million a day
  • 59% of users have been on less than a year
  • 76% of users post, in 2010 it was only 47%
  • Average user has 115 followers

 

Marilynn Brandenburger giving her presentation

 

I gave statistics about Pinterest and You Tube also.   But, some other statistics I found interesting were the fastest growing segment is 45-54 year old, and 33% of all Americans over the age of 55 are on social media.

Also, 57% of people that talk to people online would rather talk to them online than in person!

What does this mean to artists?  I believe it is something to learn and take seriously.  I believe the recent Olympics are a testament to this, as the word “Olympic” was tweeted 4 million times in the first week of the Olympics, and NBCOlympics.com had 1.1 billion page visits the first 10 days!!!!

The internet is full of articles regarding the power of “like” (read one I wrote in 2011 here), the power of sharing – there is alot out there about this!

I will follow up this blog with another blog about the power of like, and the importance of your “about” page!