Why Artists Should Strike a Balance between Creation & Connection

There’s more to art than just honing your craft. It’s also about getting your work into the hands of as many people as possible that could benefit from it. The bigger your platform, the more potential impact you can have on the world.

I think there a lot of artists out there (myself included) who are relying too much on the “spray and pray” approach. In other words, they’re focusing too much on putting out their work in the hopes that it will gain traction and take off. That may very well happen if you’re that good, but a more practical approach would be to devote more time to connecting with and growing your audience.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself that spending more time building your fan base means less time creating. While that could be true, to me it means the same amount of time creating but less time doing something else. If being a successful artist is that important to you, you should be able to find the time for both creation and connection. You can start by cutting out time you spend watching TV or surfing the internet. Boom. Done.

Some of the benefits of connecting with and growing your audience include the following:

1. MORE FEEDBACK.

While you can certainly judge the performance of your content based on social engagement, when is the last time you asked for general fan feedback? Have you ever done a survey? Or reached out to individual members of your tribe and asked them about their needs and how they think you can make your content better?

Getting authentic input from your audience will not only help you better serve them but will also make them more invested in your future work. You can even give them public credit if they inspire you with an idea. That will go a long way.

If you’re not getting feedback from the people who’ve shown interest in your work, are you really improving?

2. DEEPER RELATIONSHIPS.

Your current fans are the foundation upon which your creative career will be built. Their word of mouth goes a long way for you among the people in their networks.

Do you think it’s a good idea to get to know these people inside and out? I do.

Have I been doing a good job of it? Nope.

Will I start doing a better job of it? Yup.

What are you waiting for?

While online 1-to-1 conversation is a great way to kick this off, why stop there? Set up a Skype call. Or even better, meet them in person if they live near you.

Get to know them. Provide value. And don’t be shy about asking if they’re willing to share your work with a few people they think would benefit from it.

When you have too many fans to count one day, you’ll look back fondly on these early days of relationship building.

3. NEW RELATIONSHIPS

In addition to cultivating your current audience, you should also be focusing on growing it.

You better believe that there are more people out there who are interested in content similar to what you’re working on. They just don’t know about you yet. That’s why you need to hustle and network as much as you can. The more you can grow your audience, the more potential you have in converting those people into sales.

Now that you’re bought into the benefits of connecting with and growing your audience, here are some free actionable ideas to help you get started:

• Join or start a local meetup group around the type of art you produce.
• Join or start a Facebook group around the type of art you produce.
• Connect with people who comment on the same influencer content you consume. Just take a look at the social media profiles of your favorite influencers.
• Organize a giveaway, whether for current fans or to attract new ones.
• Use Twitter search to start conversations around keywords relevant to your art.
• Create something of value for someone else’s audience in exchange for exposure.

Any other ideas?

It’s time to go out there and show your current and future fans you care. Invest in them, and they will invest in you.