Leveraging Your Community

0 CommentsFriday • September 28, 2012 • by Imei

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Leveraging Your Community: How Being Who You Are Helps Everyone
by B. Imei Hsu, Artist

The summer has rolled into Fall, and I realized I haven’t posted anything new for the Hips For Hire community since July. Bad me. I haven’t forgotten you, my fellow artists! I love you and appreciate how each of you has committed to being an artist, living life artistically and beautifully, and learning to grow yourself  personally and professionally. I’ve been busy doing something I think every artist should spend a few minutes of each day doing while s/he is prospecting opportunities: leverage your community, and don’t just work on self-promotion. While that might seem like a conflict of interest, let me explain to you how leveraging your community helps everyone around you.

Beyond Self-Promotion

We’re all quite accustomed to it now. Adding a “friend” to your Facebook network as a fellow performance artist or visual artist often means taking the risk of being inundated by event invitations and advertisements about performances they wish you to attend. Aside from that, NOTHING. They don’t stop by and say they appreciate you, they think you and the stuff you produce is cool, and they tag you to photos of their album art or flyer to keep you “in the loop.” Some group organizers do not leave an easy way to unsubscribe from their events after they have added you. Requests to have yourself removed from the event lists are ignored.

As artists, it’s always going to be important to send invitations to our events. We perform! We’d rather perform to a full room than an empty room. Many of us are dependent or semi-dependent on the money we make from gigs to make a living. The event invitation by email and Social Media platforms will remain a necessary part of the process until we create a different kind of technology that transmits our ideas and activities more efficiently. What I am advocating is for artists to move beyond self-promotion, and actually take a little time each day to build community with their fans and fellow artists.

“I Don’t Have Time For That”

Over the past year,  numerous people have asked me how to use Social Media to promote their businesses. I’ve given tons of my time – often not for pay – to help others, or I’ve bartered for an exchange of services, because it’s often a lot of work to explain to newcomers to the business side of using SoMe how to use the tools and how to build community. One thing I’ve noted is that when we get down to brass tacks – “How exactly did you get that many followers?”  or “Why is that everyone knows you are super nice and helpful?”- the response from some people is this, “I don’t have time for that”.

Specifically:

1. I don’t have time to check a Twitter feed two times a day and correspond with people about food and fashion.

2. I don’t want to spend time talking to people on Facebook, unless they are specifically asking about my gig.

3. I don’t have time post pictures of cute kitties and videos of a man dressed up as an elderly gentleman and farting.

What I’m trying to teach people is that you can still build a community and a following by doing what you love and loving what you do. You just don’t have to make yourself or your art the center of every conversation. It just so happens that I love pictures of cute kitties (mine included!) and I snort in my hand when I share a video of a man dressed up as an elderly gentleman who farts on unsuspecting people. You might love something else, such as:

- handicrafts made from fur your cat naturally shed (DIY, interests and  hobbies, silly fun to brighten someone’s day)

- a sale on Middle Eastern instruments you believe few people know about, yet it doesn’t benefit you directly (resource, expertise)

- a video on a presentation style you really liked (promotion, resource, expertise, discussion)

- a discussion forum on a topic of interest, such as racism in America, WordPress users, photography for the amateur, costuming (community, learning, resource)

I placed a couple of categories behind each phrase to give you an idea of how I think about status updates, Tweets, pictures and videos I share on seven main platforms (Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Posterous, Youtube, Google+). When you move beyond self-promotion, you’ll find people opening up to you, talking about what you share, and interacting with others. Voila! You’re building community and a diverse fan base not only for yourself but for the many things of interest to you and others.

Why does this make business sense? I think it makes sense because your fans and followers are not just there to appreciate you. They have diversified and varied interests, and they want to connect with a person who has a whole “life”. I cannot tell you how many times virtual friends have told me how real and authentic I am IRL (in real life) after finally meeting me. They feel that they know a good part of me from their interactions with me three and four levels deep into a Twitter thread.  You can share resources with others that are both directly and indirectly related to the business you support. A great example is Seattle Wine Gal Barb Evans. Her Facebook page not only has articles about wine that she has written, but ones shared from other wine lovers and writers, magazines, and industry peeps. She also talks about her pets, her travels, and funny incidentals, cultivating a fun community where people feel free to jump in. By bring her unique humor and know-how to her community, it’s no wonder it has grown to over 15K.

My answer to your protest, “But I don’t have time to build community!” may also mean that you don’t have time to do anything but chase gigs and play to sometimes empty rooms. What, really? You don’t have time to thank the people who attended? You don’t have time to notice that they gave up time, dragged their a$$ across town to see your show, arranged babysitting at a high premium, and on top of it, bought your album? You don’t have time to say thank you to those who shared your post on Facebook about your event to all their friends? Hmm. If this is true — that you don’t have time, you don’t leverage your community for the benefit of others.

People can sniff out those of you who have learned to self-promote without giving back to the community. Yet if you have learned it, you can replace what you learned with a new behavior: share something of your humanity with us. Say thanks. Show up, even virtually, for more than a “here’s our next gig”.  Yes, we do want your entertainment: you’re good! You’re skilled! You’ve practiced and put in your time! But we also want a real, warm, live HUMAN BEING. We want to know what it’s like to be YOU, such as when you find out you have a gig in two hours, and you’re on the wrong side of town wondering if your car is gonna make it. Hang onto your butts, guys: we’re in for a fun ride! If we weren’t interested in the story behind your art, robot bands and bot dancers on video would be all the rage [don't give 'em any ideas; this has already been done in Japan].

By sharing more of yourself, you leverage your experience to your entire community, including other artists. You encourage them by leading by example, replete with foibles and lots of humor. I appreciate the musicians in a closed group called Seattle Musicians on Facebook group, who often post letters and conversations for the benefit of others beyond invitations to gigs. They are there to educate, inspire, and cheer others on. I’m more inclined to check out their gigs than those who spray everyone with a bunch of event ads. Most of them look out for each other. A few of them are ad sprayers. Little do they know that a good amount of us have seen their ads so many times, we don’t even look at them anymore. That is how it works. If you offer nothing of yourself except your art, people are less interested.

 

Birds Of A Feather, Flock Together

I recently read that people who spend a lot of time together in one location may not only be similar by culture but by genetics beyond blood relatives. There is something about forming a community of like-minded and supportive people. During the beginning phase of my book-writing project, “Designing Your Practice”, I spent time paying attention to who in my community is writing for a living, and I’ve slowly reached out by reading their work, following them on Social Media, and showing appreciation for them. I’m not surprised that so far, each has responded and reached out to me. With each person, I’ve had no qualms about sharing what I know (as long as it’s truly mine to share!), connecting them with other people in my network, and generally promoting their work. When an opportunity is offered to me that I cannot take, I kindly share it with my community. I’m not surprised down the road my name  comes up when someone else needs not only a service that I do (bellydance, write, promote events, counsel and coach, etc), but wants to work with a nice person (that’s me ,in spades!).

When you leverage prospects for others, you are improving the overall health of your own flock. Your flock, in turn, will help you. All the while, it simply feels right leverage opportunity for growth and progress for others who want this for themselves. A great example of a person who understands the concept of leveraging for himself and others is my book publishing coach, Patrick Snow. You can look at his affiliate and business opportunities on his website on the left side panel links.

In a way, I’ve just described what mentors do: help others, with little thought about getting paid to help. When you’ve practiced a skill set long enough and successfully enough to become an expert, you can (and probably should!) begin charging others as a coach in the area of expertise. My mentoring skills will always be available for free; my coaching and counseling skills are not, except in pro bono situations.

When you leverage your community, you’ll notice that others dig what you’re doing, and guess what? They start doing the same for you. And then there’s more congratulating, and more cheering, and everyone wins, and it’s just a whole mess of fun.

Just a couple of days ago, I started asking people on my Twitter feed about which restaurant in Seattle has the best Mac and Cheese in town. Fashionista Eddie Kim (@Superbetch on Twitter) responded to my request for participation, Denise Sakaki started adding names, and people started responding. Whatever does this have to do with my art? Well, the people who want to know the answer — restaurants and bloggers and foodies — have become some of my favorite friends, fans, followers, and community participants. They care about their businesses, and so do I. The better they do, the better we all do. Throwing a blogger-based event such as The Big Cheese Seattle can draw attention to these restaurants, draw attention to the bloggers who represent a variety of businesses and services, and provide a fun event for audience members. We make new friends, expand our networks, and connect people with the goods, services, communities, and interests that keep their lives going.

At the end of the event, everyone gets cheese! And, I just happen to really like good Mac n’ Cheese. It’s just not hard to get involved with things you love. While it’s not set in stone yet, we’ll see where this goes. At the very least, I’ve gained new friends, new places to hang out, and they know a little more about what I do.

Got it? Now, go out there and make cool things! [and leverage your community for the good of us all].

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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