The Birdbath: Digital Tips & Trends, Fall 2023
Greetings from The Birdbath!
This newsletter from Bower Blue takes a look at digital tips & trends impacting the visual arts & design communities.
Ah, fall… back to school, back to business, everything back to normal after a long, relaxing summer… everything humming along smoothly…
Wait. It’s November already? Was summer that period of time when everything was on fire, or did we miss it entirely? Ok, well we didn’t get much of a break, wrapping up projects over the summer, and prepping client strategy and content for the fall, so let’s dive in to what we’re talking about these days. Usually, it starts with the question, “Then what…?”
Hey, we really appreciate you reading this far — let us know what’s on your mind.
#1. DIGITAL MARKETING
‘Then what?’ We get that question a lot from new and potential clients: ‘We want to create better digital content, videos, short form, improved social media’ — all the things Bower helps you to strategize and create. But then what? What do we do with that content after we create it? Sure, it can go out to our audiences on the web, social media, and email, but what about paid promotions. How do I build a new, bigger audience? That’s where digital marketing comes in. There isn’t really the time or the space here to do a deep dive on digital marketing, but we would like to explain how we work.
Digital marketing is such a huge, complex arena, it can really be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. For starters, the elephant in the room: cost. A lot of clients come to us and ask us, What should our budget be? The short version of the answer is, you can spend $5 on promoting a post on Instagram, or $50 on programmatic advertising through Google, and you will see results. It may not be much, but that is where you can start. The longer version of the answer starts with, What are your goals? We have supported and managed campaigns ranging from a few hundred dollars to over $100,000, working with our team of trusted professionals to ensure your campaign is well designed, smooth running, and successful.
It’s been our experience that most of our clients are familiar with display advertising (purchasing banners on websites, for instance), and it’s pretty easy to get started on a rudimentary boosted-posts campaign on Instagram (see below for more), so we’re going to leave you with this nice explainer on programmatic advertising from Outbrain, to bring you up to speed. Interested to learn more about how we work? Drop us a line and we’d be happy to talk, send you references, or whatever you may need!
#2. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Working primarily in the art world, everyone remains pretty well obsessed with Instagram. So one of the most common inquiries we get is about paid marketing on Instagram. As you might imagine, there are a LOT of options, from the very simple that we can show you how to do yourself (see above re boosted posts), to enormously complicated and sophisticated campaigns that we collaborate with specialists to manage. Want to learn more? Hootsuite’s summary is a good place to start. We’d be happy to talk about your goals and answer questions.
#3. REMEMBER FOURSQUARE?
Apparently, it’s still a thing. And enough of a good idea for Instagram to want to copy (what else is new?). Check out the insight from Social Media Today, which points out that a “nearby” feature is also a key element of the Chinese version of TikTok. Instagram Tests New ‘Nearby’ Feed for Stories. This is a powerful tool for promotions and is sure to be rolled out as a feature where businesses can pay to be promoted within a user’s experience.
CLIENT UPDATES!
This past summer we had the pleasure of working with artist Awol Erizku to create a unique video for his exhibition, Delirium of Agony, at Sean Kelly in September. It was an exciting experience to collaborate closely with the artist to create a truly unique artistic vision for the exhibition video. Additionally, this video is a prime example of a creative way to create narrative for content when the two subjects are on opposite sides of the country. In this case, we recorded a phone conversation between Erizku and curator Isolde Brielmaier which became the narrative construct for the video. Check it out below.
Bower Blue produces digital strategy and content for galleries, museums, cultural nonprofits, and design studios. (Take a look at some of our clients.)
Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for updates, and see more of our productions and other work on Vimeo. And of course we’re always up for saying “Hello.”
