Oops! From RIPizzo on Flickr

With all the mainstream media’s attention on social media, there are a lot of eager people jumping into the game without knowing what they are doing.  While that is one way to learn, and don’t get me wrong, I am a huge advocate of learning through experimentation, it is also useful to learn from other people’s mistakes.  Here are some common mistakes that I see every day:

1. Assuming Content Will Build an Audience

Building an audience has three basic steps: (1) The initial hook, (2) Drawing in with engaging content, and (3) Bringing them back with the promise of more.

This takes lots of time and lots of work.  No one just publishes a book and instantly becomes famous (except maybe JK Rowling), and content on the web is not different.  People aren’t going to look at your work just because online content is easier to access.

True, good content is by far the most important thing to have when trying to build an audience, but it by no means will build you an audience.

Just three days after filling the house at Boston’s Symphony Hall, where averaged priced seats run at $100 a pop, world renowned violinist Joshua Bell performed 6 classical pieces for 43 minutes at the L’Enfant Plaza metro stop in Washington, DC as part of an experiment organized by The Washington Post.  Out of the 1,097 people that walked by, only one person stopped to listen to his music.

What does this tell you?  You won’t find success with talent alone.

2. Sacrificing Usability for Design

Artists generally want a unique looking web presence.  We don’t like templates, we don’t like anything mainstream and we don’t like being forced to look like something.  That is why I love artists, because we reject the status quo and innovate instead.  But what we have to be careful of is pushing the envelope too far.  If you are going to go with something unconventional, make sure you still have the 6 Elements of a Killer Website.

3. Not Using Analytics

What do you want out of being in social media?  Blog subscribers?  Traffic?  More sales?  Don’t just blindly trust that your practices are actually helping you reach your goals.  Whatever you decide your metrics to be, make sure you are tracking them.  Google Analytics is a great tool for tracking progress (and it has easy integration with WordPress).

4. Inconsistent Branding on Multiple Platforms

Artists want to be as prolific as possible, which means being present on all the various social media platforms.  These various profiles should not be managed as separate entities, but rather as a comprehensive representation of you as an artist.  While different platforms have different purposes, a viewer should have a similar experience and be able to access similar content on all of your social media profiles.

Designing a website for an artist is difficult. Artists are creative, playful, unique, quirky, strange, and often mildly insane. And they want their websites to be creative, playful, unique, quirky, strange, and often mildly insane.

Which is great!

However, before you go and create your cultural production of an allegorically strata-transcending disembodied experience (that’s how us artists say “website”), take a step back and make sure you have the 6 key elements of a well-designed website.

FrankChimero.com

1. Straight-forward, consistent navigation that tells exactly what the site offers

Frank Chimero is a graphic designer and illustrator. The navigation of his website is clean and simple. A website is not a labyrinth to be discovered. The main navigation should be consistent on every page so that the viewer never gets lost. The goal is for the viewer not to have to press the back button.

JaneArt.com

2. A homepage that says who you are and what you do

The homepage should say right off the bat something about you and your work. On Jane’s homepage, there are examples of her work, a blurb that describes her passion for painting, and a title image that has her full name followed by “paintings”. These are subtle things, but I know immediately that Jane is a painter and I can see what kind of paintings she does.

NatashaWescoat.com

3. A space that promotes participation

Give your viewers a chance to participate in the site. On Natasha’s website, her fans can watch her working in the studio via webcam, and she often takes recommendations from them about what they want to see. When people are involved in a process, they begin to develop a more personal relationship with the artist. If you don’t want them involved in your art, incorporate a blog and give them a space to get involved in that.

4. Clean and functional layout that highlights your art/work

ChristyHydeck.com

First and foremost, your website is about your work. Viewing art online can be just as visually appealing as viewing it in a gallery. Instead of throwing all your content into a Flickr account and calling it a day, take some time to layout how you want your art to be viewed. Christy Hydeck’s online photo galleries are easy to navigate and beautifully designed.

Pamdora.com

5. Reason for viewer to return to the site

If a viewer knows that you add content to your site on a regular basis, they are more likely to return to the site. Pam Rubert over at Pamdora adds new posts every other week, giving her fans a reason to come back and keep up-to-date on what she is doing.

AmandaPalmer.net

6. Easy ways for your audience to connect/contact you

Give your viewers an easy direct line of contact to you. Amanda Palmer uses social media to connect with her viewers. She connects through Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Youtube, and Flickr. If your fans have to make an effort to contact you, more often than not, they won’t.