You’ve got the product and now you want others to know what you have to offer. Here a few tips to help you get recognized by your peers.
1. Don’t depend too much on your friends. There’s only so much that your friends can do. They go to your concerts, buy your artwork and even place a banner on their web page. After awhile, it seems that your friends are doing all the work.
2. Go anywhere besides your friends. Start creating new relationships in and outside the industry. The whole point of this is to let others know you and your craft exists.
3. Know your target audience. Don’t tell me that vampire books are for vampire lovers and comics are for comic fans. That is not considered a target audience. Give me a specific age group and gender. Think about it. Come to a conclusion. Take action.
4. Leave your comfort zone. If you constantly go to the same places all the time, you will constantly get the same responses all the time (although this may not be a bad thing if you are very popular at these spots). Go to areas that you know has a good following of your target audience.
5. Move to unexplored territory. If you keep going to the niche where others perform the same craft as you, you aren’t standing out. Go somewhere that attracts attention to you because you are the only one offering it. Makes sense?
6. Attend social events. Sometimes this isn’t always about you. Show that you appreciate people’s support by attending one of their events even if it’s just to say hi. Besides, you may actually enjoy yourself.
Great advice.
Bobby
Good tips here and in Understanding 3 Things… A sound communication plan.
Most people seem to write a blog only to get things off their chest, without much thought of getting through to others. I’m going to consciously focus more on the reaching others bit now!
My blogs:
http://terataii.blogspot.com
http://pamposhdhar.blogspot.com
http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/injuryboard.com_minnesota/
thanks for the list.
Great advice. I like the comment to think about the readers . . . it really is as much about our readers as it is about us. Thanks!
I second every single one of your points!!! True to the core!
-Juan
I think your suggestion re relying on friends is particularly important. Friends already do alot, so discussing your “craft” as much as you’d like with them, is a sure way of losing friends. Apart from this, most friends will generally like what you do, so feedback is rarely honest, and if it is, we are not usually grateful for it. Thanks for the advice.
Nikki,
You are right. This is another way we can lose friends because we might annoy them with something that they are not interested in.
Great tips, there is not much water in the well of friends and family, I don’t depend on them at all.
Plus you certainly want to keep your friends.
I like the idea of moving to unexplored territory, it can work as long as you have something of value to add when wandering around other niche’s.