Blog

One of the biggest challenges for artists and crafters is reaching the people who will want to purchase their creations. When it is properly used, social media makes the task of reaching and appealing to your customers simple. Here are four ways that you as an artist or crafter can make the most of your social media efforts.

1) Showcase Your Work

It doesn’t matter what item they are looking to buy, many people will begin their search online and often long before they purchase. This holds true for those who attend art and craft festivals. Posting images and videos of your current and past work will give your customers a good understanding of the unique style you have to offer.

Just like any other portfolio, your social media should be updated regularly and frequently. If you fail to maintain your social media, your customers will notice, stop following you, and you will lose the reputation you’ve worked hard to create.

2)Connect with Your Customers

It might sound obvious, but social media should be a place for you and your customers to connect. This means that as an artist or crafter, you need to not only produce things for your customers to view, but you also need to create calls to action that effectively encourage them to interact with you.

Of course, you can respond to comments, but there are bigger opportunities. You can use your posts to ask customers for requests, run contests, and—most importantly—get customers to visit you at the fairs and festivals you attend. In short, everything you post should be created to develop a relationship with your customers.

3)Build Business Relationships

While getting customers to visit you at a fair or festival and purchase the things you create is the end goal, there are networking opportunities on social media that you should utilize. As you post frequently and gain a loyal following, you’ll find that there will be brands and other creative professionals who will have business opportunities for you.

These opportunities may come in many different forms, and you shouldn’t hesitate to be on the pitching end of an idea either. Somethings you might consider include being a guest on someone else’s channel, hosting a joint giveaway, and inviting guests to your channel.

4)Have a Variety of Content

The type of content you post should always be relevant to your brand, but not all content is going to perform the same. Text by itself won’t usually perform very well, if you have a blog make sure you include pictures with each post and incorporate videos, create lists, or share feature stories into your posting plan.

Similarly, using a creative mix of videos, pictures, memes, and GIFs can help you make the most of your social media efforts. It’s OK to post the same content on multiple social sites, but if you can help it, try to have unique content for each outlet that you use.

We have many pieces of dichroic glass ready to be set in metal or just add a finding - at least 200 pieces.  Make me an offer.  
Send me your email & we will send a picture  - mackie-designs@comcast.net

(sponsored post)

one thing that really gets under my skin is when an "organizer" "promoter" "director" or whatever doesn't have the decency to go around and introduce themselves at a festival. What is that about? Without them I would sit home. Win, lose or draw, I am grateful, wish hag they would let me share that with them.

First time exhibitor at this show. The weather was a big component to this years show. Setup was early Friday, starting at 7 AM, glad I got there early because by 10:34 it started to rain just as I had finished and was ready to leave. It rained throughout the day.

• Friday evening the show was to be open from 5 - 8 PM, at 7:45 the tornado warning siren went off closing the show for the night, which was pretty well finished anyway, too few people, too few sales.
• Saturday the show went from 10 - 5 with low numbers of people and no sales for this artist. It was expected to rain and looked threatening all day but it never did materialize.
• Sunday, 10 - 4 even fewer people at the show, some small sales, off and on rain all day, people stayed and meandered around in between the rain showers. The rain was supposed to be done by 3 so there was some hope that things would be somewhat dry for load out. The rain began again and in earnest at 4. Overall it was a bad sales show with low turnout and low sales.

Amenities were reasonable; coffee, bagels and fruit in the AM, lunch brought to your booth, pizza slice on Friday night and a really nice dinner on Sat at the "Castle" somewhere in Peoria Heights. The Arts Guild was well organized with volunteers and helping artists that needed it but Peoria doesn't seem to have the support for a show of this size. It may need to scale back to 100 artists and reduce the gate fee ($6 this year) to attract more people to the show.

Possible contributing factors to low turnout, Homecoming weekend, kids and parents all over town taking pictures but not coming to the show, Weather..., Apparently in years past one of the major employers in this area has laid off many workers and that may also be a continuing contributing factor.

Would I do this show again, probably not, having read reviews from the recent past it seems nothing has changed, low attendance and low sales. Also, it is too far to drive for too little compensation. Not worth it to me. The only consolation, as I was only 2 hours from Chicagoland I was able to add in a visit to my sister.

(2) 2-D Flip bins for sale. Removable wooden storage & display bins on fordable Pro Panel bases. Wooden bins can be re-pained a different color of stained. Bases are Medium Grey color.

Retail $300 each

For Sale Now: 2@ $300 or $175 each

Pick-up in Atlanta

Palm Beach Fine Craft Show • Feb. 14-16, 2020

Deadline to Apply: Oct 15, 2019 - Juried Art Show PALM BEACH FINE CRAFT SHOW • FEBRUARY 14-16, 2020 Now Accepting Applications • Deadline to Apply: Oct 15, 2019 The prestigious Palm Beach Fine Craft Show makes its triumphant return to the Palm Beach County Convention Center February 14-16, 2020 under the ownership of the Palm Beach Show Group. This elegant showcase features over 100 of top contemporary domestic and international craft artists, offering their latest celebrated works in a comfortable, indoor setting. DATES OF SHOW: February 14-16, 2020 LOCATION: Palm Beach County Convention Center 2nd Floor Show Room  650 Okeechobee Boulevard West Palm Beach, FL 33401 APPLICATION DEADLINES AND FEES: Electronic applications: OCT 15, 2019 The non-refundable fee for applying is $35. NOTICE: The application fee is due at the time you fill out the online application and accept the terms and conditions. www.PalmBeachFineCraft.com • 561.822.5440 • info@palmbeachshow.com Copyright © 2019 Palm Beach Show Group, All rights reserved.

This past weekend (9/21 & 22) was spent at the Monte Sano Art show. It takes place in a beautiful state park in Huntsville, AL - home of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Redstone Arsenal. 

The show is 2 days Saturday and Sunday) 9-5 and 9-4 with set up on Friday 1-6. It's a very easy set up allowing you to drive right up to your booth and park behind it while setting up and the same on break down. The booth spaces can be quite a challenge as it is in the state park but a few good shims and well placed 2x4 squares help out. Most of the 100+ booths are in the shade. Some deep shade as was mine. The weather up on top of the "mountain" runs about 5-8 degrees cooler than in the valley of Huntsville. We had cool morning temps with a nice breeze most of the day.

Saturday typically starts off with a bang but generally dies down around noonish as the football games begin. This is a part of the south steeped in football- Auburn, Tennessee, Alabama, Clemson, Mississippi State, etc. The crowds picked up a little in the afternoon but weren't anything to write home about. I did pretty well for Saturday but I wasn't leaping for joy. In fact, come Sunday morning, I was a bit blue as Sunday's have never been my strong day. Well... I was proven wrong. The day started slow (you know this IS the Bible belt) but after church the crowds came in. For me it was a different crowd than I had seen on Saturday. It seemed to be a bit more professional crowd.The majority of my sales were in the $34-$100 range.

The show is run by Huntsville Arts. They provide water and snacks in the park lodge during the show and a wonderful dinner and drinks on Saturday night. This year we brought our travel trailer and stayed 3 minutes away in the park campground. Great decision!! In past years we have stayed in a very nice Hampton Inn about 15 minutes away for $89 per night. There are wonderful artists and a variety of fine art at the show.

Want to know more?

Click here to download the pdf that includes images of the Artists work.

Hi all, just wanted to introduce ourselves: I am Julia Szabo with FestivalClick.  We offer a fresh solution for applying to Art Festivals and managing those applications. We care about the Art Festival community and really want to make everyone successful. We have a small development team and I am one of the co-founders.

In addition to being an Artist (a Crafter really), I volunteer and attend many Art Festivals here in N. California. ArtFairInsiders has been a great resource while developing our software (I pretty much read most your posts and comments).

Please check out our website www.festivalclick.com and register.  We welcome your feedback and promise that we will always listen and get back to you. My e-mail is julia@festivalclick.com. Hope to meet you online or in person.

Most of us know that artist fees do not entirely support the costs of putting together an art festival, and the bigger the event the more $$ an event needs. Show organizers search for sponsors to help carry the expense and, not surprisingly, there are business firms that are paid to find sponsors for events, Sponsorship Brokers. The good ones have extensive connections, strong skills, and a good work ethic.

But there is a rise in unscrupulous brokers who brokers make big promises, but they don’t secure any sponsorship. They don’t even try. Their business is to make money from the retainers.

They target small players, offer a guarantee, retainer upfront, ridiculous claims, etc. Then disappear.

Learn more at PowerSponsorship.com: How to Spot a Sponsorship Broker Scam (and One Broker You Need to Avoid)...