Creative Commentary: Finding Your Niche - 6/16/16

It's Thursday!

Today we're going to talk about finding your niche as a creative. It took me six years to find mine, and while there is no timeline for this, it's important for your business' survival and ultimately your sanity and happiness. It takes time, but there are ways to do some soul-searching and get you on your way.

There are five questions that you can ask yourself to help you figure out your destination as an "Artrepreneur:"

What are your creative talents?
Of course you know what you're good at. Think a little further, though. Let's say you are a painter, and that's your thing. You could also think about what kind of subject you are best at, whether it be people or animals. Can you draw? Can you sing? Can you write? Make a big list for yourself of everything you have some talent in. Identify all the skills that go hand-in-hand, make a mind map. This is to help you know what you're working with. For example, I am skilled in drawing and painting, and these talents can be utilized through graphic design as well as independently.

Of your talents, which are you best at and enjoy doing the most?
Naturally, being good at a lot of things is great and that means you're a well-rounded, modern renaissance man. However, you are human and you cannot do everything. Besides, you will quickly realize that some of your talents will "sell" better than others, and you want to be known for something that your audience will recognize you for (we will get to that more later).
For myself, I tried adding so many artistic branches to my business that I didn't have the time to focus on the ones I could really polish and sell. One of these branches was sculpture; it took away from my truly marketable skills: photography and design. Therefore, I identify sculpture as a hobby and photography and design as a profession.
I started my photography business doing weddings. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot, and one of the things I learned was that they weren't for me. I shifted my focus to boudoir and now that I have a full-time graphic design job, I am able to specialize in something that only supplements my income. I enjoy shooting boudoir, and by working with a subject I enjoy, It doesn't really feel like work at all.

Of these talents and skills, what do people need?
It's hard to make a living as a creative, but there are ways to market your skills. For example, are you a photographer? What do people need photographs of? What could you sell an everyday person? In this example, you could look at doing senior photos, wedding photography, take pictures of families. Perhaps you are a singer, well you could sing for a wedding band or sing jingles for startup companies. It's true, sometimes the marketable subject matter will not be your favorite, but you have to start somewhere. As you advance in your career, you can build a reputation and do more of what you love because you will have gained experience and built a business already.

Of the above needs, what will people pay big money for?
Back to the example of being a photographer: When I started, I knew people were always getting married and will spend thousands of dollars on this special moment in their life. Even though I don't shoot them anymore, if my situation changed I know I could start taking on weddings again because that industry is infinite and booming. No matter what your creative medium, it is great to identify what will put bread on your table.

How can you use your creativity to make yourself stand out from your competition?
When I started my own business, I entered an oversaturated photography market. Anyone could "set up shop" on Facebook, advertise on Craigslist, and take business away from seasoned professionals because the price was right. At the end of the day, you get what you pay for, and I had to find a way to create a demand for my images. 
When it came to marketing my boudoir photography, I wanted to stay away from the Beverly Hills Penthouse appeal and make it lighthearted and fun. Sure, if a client wants to do something a bit more glamorous, that's great...but I decided to create an experience and a business that helps women laugh, smile, and feel good about themselves. I knew I could bring that to the table on top of quality images so I'm running with that.

Finally, you also need to understand there is a lot of trial and error with finding your niche. You may think you're best at one thing, but after doing it realize you dislike it. Perhaps there is a niche out there that you've never considered and have yet to discover. My advice? Try it all, learn from it, find your path. I still laugh at 18-year-old me signing up to do Musical Theatre in college. I loved it, but it wasn't a good career for me. I had never taken a photography class until I decided to try it, and ended up majoring in it. Give yourself time, explore your options, and keep asking yourself the above questions. This is just the beginning to your success. Who knows? Perhaps I have something yet to discover.

xx emily

Creative Commentary: Utilizing Social Media for your Creative Career - 6/9/16

Hello Creatives!

With the boom of social media making such an impact in our everyday culture and society, one can imagine how it could be a potentially useful tool for anyone with a creative career. In fact, I recently began working for an agency that does just that by marketing and managing businesses through social spaces.

Before this new beginning in my professional career, I looked to social media as a vehicle for marketing and engaging an audience with my own brand. I had to learn rules and strategies across multiple platforms and apps to work to my advantage to get me business and brand recognition. With this industry constantly growing and changing, I'm still learning and will continue to do so.

 Social Media strategies are different for everyone. For instance, a writer may not have as much of an advantage using Instagram for their business as a visual artist would. For musicians there is Sound Cloud, for videographers Vine might be preferable. It really depends on what kind of business you are, or if you are independent, and what your structure is.

I manage two brands with my boyfriend, Tobias. One of them is my own brand: Emily Bartos and the other is a collaboration between he and I called The Singular Fortean Society. While both are creative businesses/communities--they are very different and therefore have to be managed in social spaces very differently. I also try to have these partnered brands overlap wherever necessary to form a connection (especially because they are owned by the same people). I am going to attempt to describe how I manage these brands on social media in this post on the four apps we use the most as well as some quick go-to strategies for marketing on these platforms.

 

The Social Media Calendar

Developing a social media calendar is something I started doing recently within the last two months and it has been going very well so far. It helps to keep things organized and know what content you are going to put out there. For instance, I blog for Emily Bartos 5 days a week Monday-Friday and keep the weekends for free time. I try to schedule things for every social media platform that we use so we aren't coming up with things on-the-fly in a time crunch and I hate the feeling like I have to be tied to my phone and posting things constantly. The blog breakdown is as follows:

1. Mondays: #MonsterMonday - I produce a digital illustration of a monster to be shared and blogged about with Singular Fortean and Emily Bartos. Singular Fortean also has a "Monster of the Month" so I stick to that theme. On Singular Fortean, we focus on information about the monster whereas on my creative blog I talk about the artistic side of it.
2. Tuesdays: #BoudoirBlog - Since I specialize in Boudoir Photography, I reserve this day for posts about boudoir photography whether it be featured sessions, client resources, event information, question and answer, philosophy, and more. Since I only photograph Boudoir on a very part-time basis, this keeps related content out there that builds momentum and engagement for my services.
3. Wednesdays: #AskEmilytheArtist - Unfortunately, this has been the least successful campaign on my blog. I started it for a few reasons: to engage and communicate with an audience, to use my brand as a vessel for focusing on the art community in our society, to utilize Twitter and SnapChat more (Facebook and Instagram get the most engagement and followers), and to also because I genuinely want to talk to my followers. As a person and business owner, I am very open and happy to talk about anything. I've discovered that getting your audience to interact is very difficult, and honestly, I've been asking close friends to ask these questions to get this campaign started. We'll see where it goes, but I haven't given up on this yet.
4. Thursdays: Creative Commentary - This is what this post is. It's all about being a creative in terms of lifestyle, career, freelancer, and so on.
5. Fridays : Freestyle - I blog about whatever I want. I usually pre-write all my blogs before the week begins so they're ready to go and I can just post them as they are scheduled. Because this day is reserved for whatever content I want, I'll often have an idea and then write about it randomly. This includes shoot features, personal posts, projects I've been working on, etc. There are usually a few drafts of these ready to go.

 

Instagram

Now, as a visual artist, Instagram is my favorite. I'm addicted, I think it's the best, but that may not be the fact for you. The Singular Fortean Society is both visual and heavy in text, so that brand does not get much of an audience from Instagram like my personal brand does. In addition, the Singular Fortean brand is in a VERY specific niche. I'm working on a schedule with common daily hashtags with both brands to gain followers, an audience, and brand awareness. According to the metrics, both brands do not gain much direct website traffic through instagram, but in terms of engaging an audience--it works very well. I may get a direct message on this app, but then I can usually get them to my website from there. Aside from getting people to our website, Instagram is great for getting people familarized and connected to our brands. I post on @emily_bartos several times a day, but with @singularfortean, my goal is one post a day Monday-Friday, as well as Sunday. Here's the current schedule I use for posting on instagram as @singularfortean:

1. Monday: #MonsterMonday - This brand overlaps with the @emily_bartos brand. I make a monster and this is posted on both accounts.
2. Tuesday - I try to share imagery of the paranormal in popular culture and society. For instance, we found a brand of barley wine called Bigfoot, so I shared a picture of that.
3. Wednesday: #ForteanPhotography - Toby lets me write on the blog! I examine photographs of the paranormal and use my expertise in photography to determine if they are a hoax, explainable, or unexplainable. 
4. Thursday: #TBT - I share all the famous old images of paranormal cases such as the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot footage, the Surgeon's Photo of the Loch Ness Monster, etc.
5. Friday: #FridayFreestyle: I make sure to at least come up with some silly "Hello weekend" or "TGIF" graphic wishing our followers a great weekend.
6. Saturday - I take these days off from posting unless we are doing an investigation and I share photos as we go about those adventures.
7. Sunday: #Sunday Funday - We find a cartoon having to do with the paranormal, and try to keep it themed with the Monster of the Month if we can! It's a nice, easy lighthearted blog entry and post that keeps things fun and then we go enjoy the rest of your weekend.

With Instagram and twitter, it is usually in your best interest to learn trending topics as per day of the week. This blog post had some great examples, and you can learn them and study them and figure out how they best apply to your brand. As you post a hashtag to the caption on instagram, the app will autofill options for that hashtag and it even shows how many posts are tagged with it. If the tag you use is flexible, it might be best to select the option that gives you the most traffic.

Twitter

Aside from Facebook, Twitter is probably the most flexible platform. Any brand can work with it. You can type whatever you want with 140 characters (you do get less if you attach a photo, though). Twitter is very news-heavy and very fast-paced. It's a great way to share little bits of information, but if you want to use it to your advantage it is best to keep up on it. How do we use it?

• Sharing links: If a new blog post or event is up, we link the post and send it out to our followers. It's a quick and easy way to reach out to people and make your content accessible. I try to link our websites as much as possible as our goal is to get as many people there as possible.
• Retweeting: There is an option that lets you share and post another user's tweet to your own feed. It's very similar to sharing on Facebook as the post is not original to you. I often retweet any art-related posts I feel fit with my brand and my voice, especially if I feel my followers may find the content interesting. Toby runs the @singularfortean Twitter, and he always retweets the latest in paranormal news. Also, in following related accounts, he has a constant feed of news that he can research and write about.
• @Reply: An @Reply is when you tag a user in a post. An example of this might be @ylimesotrab: Please check out @singularfortean at www.singularfortean.com or vice versa. This tweet would tag @singularfortean for reasons of communication, credit, and connecting others. These also work with direct public communication. For instance, I could tweet: @singularfortean How are you today? and he could reply: I'm great, @ylimesotrab! How are you? Dumb examples, but you get the picture.
• Connect to other apps: I linked my Twitter account to my Instagram account so I can kill two birds with one stone and have the content posted to both. You can usually do this on any app, and the interfaces make it easy to post everywhere from one app.

Like blogging, I found the best way to not feel like I am constantly tweeting is to pre-write and schedule tweets. Actually, this is how the account managers handle their clients' accounts at the agency I work at. As an example, Toby has knowledge of several greats in the Fortean field and will share their quotes when he can't think of anything to tweet. I personally will tweet addressing my audience asking them to interact with me and checking in with how they are doing. If you want to open the doors to communication, Twitter is one of the best ways.

SnapChat

Of all my apps, this is the one that I have deleted and redownloaded out of annoyance the most. I initially dismissed this app as something for people to send "dumb selfies" on. Recently, I've discovered it is a really fun tool for both of our brands! We use it for Singular Fortean to share live photos and video as we investigate. It's a really cool way for followers to watch and come with us when they watch our SnapChat story. With my personal brand, I show things like unboxing orders, turning the camera on myself to talk about what's going on with projects and events, and behind the scenes of photoshoots and my creative work. 

Facebook

This is easily the most complex and most useful form of social media. It is also more prominent than any other app out there, but that goes without saying. I will give a brief overview of how to use it, but there may have to be a part 2 to this blog to talk about paid reaches and Facebook's ever-changing content share algorithm. How can you use Facebook for your business? I cannot even begin to count the ways:

• Pages: You can make your own page for your business. It lets you share content, advertise, communicate with an audience, market yourself....it's easily how I've gotten most of my business referrals. If you are a creative looking to promote yourself, having a Facebook page is almost a must.
• Groups: Facebook lets you create forum communities! I recently made one for prospective boudoir clients to communicate with each other, ask questions, share resources, etc. You can find various communities based on interests and careers as well. These present great networking opportunities.
• Marketplace: You can sell stuff on Facebook! It'll connect you with friends of friends and make it easy for people to find what you're selling.
• Events: Facebook has its own amazing events calendar that you can create events for and invite people to them. It sends out reminders closer to the day so people can remember that it is happening.

 

Quick Hacks 

Dead air on a social media feed is not good for your business. This world is buzzing and in order to keep your audience engaged, you have to post regularly. The average lifespan of a facebook post is 3 hours. It's possible to have a block on what material to share with your followers.

One thing I do is search my own news feed for relevant content to share on my page. I see a post with a unicorn, I like it and it fits with my brand. I post it to my page to keep up with the momentum of the activity on social. People respond well to user generated content (UGC) because they can relate to it and find it more approachable to interact with.

I also try to think of imagery that would make good clickbait. If I post photos on a blog from a hike with the dog, I will certainly have the link image be of the dog because he is adorable and people are more likely to click on a cute puppy than trees or whatever else. Since I also share sneak peeks of client images, I pay attention to the analytics to figure out which ones people "liked" the most and then use those photos on ads and blogs.

Social media is crazy and out there making an insane impact...we can use this to our advantage! I could write a whole series on social media in this blog (and I probably will) and there are things about it that I haven't even discovered yet. It's a whole (social) world out there, and as it changes and grows with other things on this planet I am going to do whatever it takes to study the technology to keep my brand current and accessible. You should, too!

Thanks for bearing with me through this beastly blog post,

xx emily

Don't forget to follow us!

Emily Bartos

• Facebook: /emilybartosart
• Twitter: @ylime_sotrab
• SnapChat: @ylimesotrab
• Instagram: @emily_bartos

The Singular Fortean Society:

• Facebook: /singularfortean
• Twitter: @singularfortean
• SnapChat: @singularfortean
• Instagram: @singularfortean

#AskEmilytheArtist, Questions from 6/1/16 - 6/8/16

Happy Wednesday!

We have only one question today, but I'm glad these posts are keeping up! I like connecting and interacting with followers--you all inspire me so I'm glad this is still a thing. I hope I don't say this too much, but please don't be shy and feel free to ask me anything you want at anytime, really. The hashtag (#AskEmilytheArtist) guarantees that your question is answered on the blog, though!

@ylime_sotrab When did you first realize you were an artist? #AskEmilytheArtist

— Jena Richter (@JenaRichter) June 2, 2016

Q: When did you first realize you were an artist?

A: It's hard to trace one eureka moment where I thought to myself: YES! I AM AN ARTIST! I have been creating since I figured out how to hold a crayon as a toddler. Relatives always joked about the "Emily Disease" where my hands and forearms (and occasionally face) would be covered in Crayola Magic Marker. My favorite mediums growing up were definitely crayons, markers, model magic, and Sculpey which I rediscovered this past fall with Emily's Monster Shop. I think it was inevitable that I would end up as a creative. I wanted to be so many things: a paleontologist, orca whale trainer, astronaut, and who knows what else. My first college major was actually musical theatre. I spent one year as a theatre major and realized I needed to be doing art. I went from Art Education, but graduated with a Photography degree. I ended up as a graphic designer, and I think somehow I always knew that I would. It always made sense for me.

Until next week,

xx emily

Creative Commentary: Limits & Boundaries - 6/2/16

Hello Fellow Creative Souls,

This post is the first of a series called Creative Commentary. What I am trying to accomplish with these posts are discussions of being living a creative lifestyle and being a professional maker. This includes my topics of running your own business or taking on freelance or contract work, working full time as a creative professional, creating your own projects, staying motivated, and that everyday challenge of the work and life balance.

One of the things that I have struggled the most with as a creative freelancer is setting boundaries between myself and my work. When I first got started with my photography business after undergrad, I was also working a food service job as a manager full-time where I had odd, irregular hours. With this variable schedule, I worked my freelance work around the demands of my full-time position. I'd stay up late, wake up early, be off random weekdays but have to work weekends (which is a pain when most of your clients work the standard set hours of 9-5, Monday through Friday). My main source for clientele was Facebook, so I spent most of my time maintaining my social media presence. I was writing emails, blogging, and posting on my business page at weird hours, often far after midnight. This created a lot of problems.

The main problem I had even though I didn't have a set schedule I couldn't help, was that I didn't give myself any business hour restrictions with my clients. I'd come home from a closing shift and have emails from brides that I missed while I was at work and I'd answer them later that night, and they'd learn to expect that. What I should have done is waited until the next morning, as I feel it is completely reasonable to allow 24 hours between contacts. Sure, email your clients back as soon as you can and as often as you can, but it is okay to allow yourself to "clock out" for the day and just have time to yourself. Creating that separation is much better for your mental sanity, and it will help others respect your very valuable time. My goal right now is to have a social media and email correspondence cutoff of 9pm. Frankly, I'm working on an 8pm cutoff time.

Another restriction I've REALLY had to work on and didn't nip in the bud until recently is defining which forms of communication are for professional contact. So many forms of social media are right at our finger tips these days, and that practically puts no degree of separation between the creatives and the clients. Facebook messages are wonderfully convenient, but I've definitely been trying to go to bed for the night and have an anxious bride who is up late planning (ladies, I get it, if I have stuff I'm worried about on my mind....my anxiety is through the roof and I cannot sleep) message me asking me questions. I was always happy to answer, but embarrassingly enough I've fallen asleep or lost sleep through late-night conversations or their expecting an instant reply. I'm still guilty of corresponding through Facebook chat here and there, but I make every effort to move that correspondence to email as soon as I can. The upside to this is that email is a much more professional platform, and keeping record of business inquiries and correspondences can help keep track of information between you and your client better (and for legal reasons this is better too). I understand being laid-back and fun with your clients, but there are ways to balance that and still be professional.

Since I've started marketing myself as an independent artist rather than a boutique lifestyle and wedding photography business, I've brought a lot more of my personality to the branding. I feel more like myself and honest with my work. But can you be TOO personal in your business? OF COURSE! I use the dog as clickbait all the time (besides, he's adorable) You can have funny tweets and fun pictures from your life on your Instagram feed that your clients can relate to and get to know you better through. It's hard to think of one example of where you could cross the line, but when you have the question in your mind: Is it weird to post that? You probably shouldn't. Sharing aspects of your personal life is fine, and anyone has the right to share as much as they want, but keep in mind the consequences that could occur by putting something online for all to see. It's fine to post a photo of that gorgeously handcrafted, photogenic drink out on the patio for happy hour. A few drinks in, though, and you may want to think twice before going on Facebook. ;-)

Naturally, everyone's business is different and your rules will vary from mine. It's important to set rules and boundaries for yourself and your clients. This way, you can balance your work with "you time" as well as gain respect from your clients. In turn, you are giving them respect for respecting their time as you'd like them to respect theirs.

By conducting yourself like an adult and a professional online as much as possible, you will gain respect from your followers and friends and family. You will be taken more seriously as a creative and that will help the functionality, growth, and profit of your business.

Take this for what you will, we all have things to work on.

Cheers,
xx emily

#AskEmilytheArtist, Questions from 5/25/16 - 6/1/16

Happy Hump Day!

As long as I get one question a week, I'm going to keep blogging #AskEmilytheArtist! These questions have been super fun to answer and write about so far, and it's always fun to see what you all come up with! This past week, I had my first SnapChat question!

Q: What is your favorite thing about being a maker?

A: There are SO MANY things I like about being a maker. I would have to say that what encapsulates the overall picture of my creative career and creative lifestyle is the fact that in being a maker, I have an imagination that keeps things interesting and allows me to create more possibilities. I never have to do the same thing all the time as new ideas and inspirations come and go. The world seems bigger, more beautiful, more interesting, and magical when you can think of things that are there past what you see in your field of vision. This was a great question, Lauren! Thank you for asking that!


See YOU and your questions NEXT WEEK!

xx emily

#AskEmilytheArtist: Questions from May 11th, 2016 - 5/18/16

Good Morning & Happy Wednesday!

Last week I started #AskEmilytheArtist where you ask me questions with this hashtag on Twitter & SnapChat (ylimesotrab). You can ask me questions anytime, of course, but to make Wednesdays fun I started this idea in order to talk more about art in social media, and to interact more with followers or people who just have questions about anything creative or art-related.

@ylime_sotrab What inspires you? #askemilytheartist

— Jena Richter (@JenaRichter) May 11, 2016

Thanks @JenaRichter for your question! This is a hard one to answer because so many things do, and I could go on and on for a while. I could do many series of blog posts about this, and just point at my 67 Pinterest boards. Some are easy: I love weird things that may/may not exist in this world, hence my interest in monsters; nature and the outdoors; the idea of traveling the world; everything from the golden Hollywood area: old Hollywood films, vintage stylings, pinups; the arts in all forms--particularly illustration, design, and photography; the challenge of finding the beauty in the banal everyday; and of course bright colors and most things fantastical (unicorns)!
I would have to say though, my biggest inspiration is found through empowering people, particularly women with boudoir. As a woman, I've had my own issues with self-confidence, self-love, and self-worth. These are still things I struggle with, and I'm just going to say it so I don't get misunderstood--men and women are equal, and both can have these issues, and if I can have a role in helping both genders, I'm all for it. Naturally, I am more in-tune with my own gender identity and I find my interests and style to generally work better for women. After all, I'm attempting to incorporate unicorns in all my branding. I know I have a talent and means to make people look and feel beautiful, and getting to know my clients and how amazing they are....they're the ones that truly inspire me. I can find the beauty inside and out, and help them remember or realize it and get a boost of self-confidence. I remember how it felt to find my own, and the idea of doing this for others makes me want to stop at nothing to create things that work with this idea.

.@ylime_sotrab If you could collaborate with any artist living or dead (or even undead, I guess) who would it be and why? #AskEmilyTheArtist

— bashattack (@bashattack) May 11, 2016

This is such a fun question, @bashattack! This is tricky too, because I love so many artists...but I would have to say, Vincent Van Gogh. He worked so hard his entire life and made so many amazing paintings with a style that was his own, and to this day, there is no one else with the originality he used with his brushstrokes. You can't touch it. Of course, the Dr. Who episode Vincent and the Doctor is my favorite, and had a chance to show what a magical human being he was and how much sadness and emotion there was. I love how he painted everyday scenes but made them twisted, colorful, and anything but ordinary. I try and do that with my work. To collaborate with this master would be a dream come true!

Being that today is Wednesday, and the day is young, I am taking questions again today! Please ask me questions on Twitter and SnapChat (links and usernames above) with the hashtag:

#AskEmilyTheArtist

Questions can be about anything having to do with art, creative things, photography, design, drawing, working as a freelance artist...the possibilities are near-endless! I want to connect with all of you and create an art community where we can bring it to a greater population--through my brand, yours if you have one, and ourselves as individuals! Examples of questions include:

• Where are the best places to shop for art supplies online?
• What type of camera and equipment do you use?
• What is your process in developing a brand?
• Where do you shoot boudoir photography if you don't have a studio?
• Where are awesome places to see art in my town?

 The possibilities of questions are endless, and I invite you to ask me! I will write about all the questions that I receive on a Wednesday the following week. We just got started, and I want to make this fun for everyone!

I hope you all have a great day! Work hard, treat others well, and take time for yourself and find some inspiration in your day! <3

xx emily