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“On the business side, blogs are designed to help promote creative wares or services, and if done well, they can be an invaluable business tool.  Those who blog for business live creatively; their businesses, their personal lives, and friendships are all approached through their creative spirit and it shows in their blogs.  Whether they promote products and services through their sidebar links or talk about business in every post, their blogs are beautiful and inspiring.”

-Tara Frey, Blogging for Bliss

I just finished reading Blogging for Bliss: Crafting Your Own Online Journal:  A Guide for Crafters, Artists and Creatives by Tara Frey, and highly recommend it.  Frey covers everything from what to write about, how to choose a blogging platforms, how to customize your blog’s look, ways to increase traffic, and the basics of blogvertising.

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As of this writing, the Anaheim Ballet Company’s YouTube Channel has 25,571 subscribers, and 885,139 channel views. It’s most popular video, Ballet: Dancers, has been viewed 5,493,785 times.

While online videos are an obvious medium to showcase a dancer, or dance company, other social networking tools can also be effective for marketing and community building. Below are a handful of blog posts with suggestions for how dancers can use social media, along with a few dance-specific social networks.

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Foursquare is a location based social networking program you can use on your iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Palm Pre, or computer. People who use the program “check in” at locations such as restaurants, bars, stores, and tourist attractions. When they check in, they have the option of sharing their location with their friends on foursquare, Facebook, and Twitter.

If they want, they can also leave a “tip” about the place they are visiting. For example, if you look at the the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s page on foursquare, you’ll see that (as of this writing) 1,215 people have “checked in” (773 of them are unique visitors).

Some of the “tips” people have left about the SFMOMA include:

“Great selection of books and jewelry. Great place to buy gifts. You don’t need to purchase a museum ticket to go to the store.”

“Check out the Richard Avedon exhibit (until 11-29-09). He rocks the camera lens!”

“Head straight for the rooftop garden, stopping for some Blue Bottle coffee on the 5th floor. Admittance to the MOMA is free on the first Tuesday of every month.”

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Based on some web searching, and suggestions from my Facebook and Twitter pals, I’ve begun a list of organizations and groups supporting Haitian artists and artisans. I hope you’ll help me add to the list by adding more names and websites in the comments. Thanks!

Organizations Supporting Haitian Artist and Artisans

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In preparation for an upcoming social media training, I asked the participants what social media tools they would most like to learn more about. I was surprised by how many of them said that they would like to better understand RSS feeds, so I thought I’d share a little overview with you, in case you’d like to learn about them too.

RSS is often described as standing for “really simple syndication.” The Wikipedia definition is a pretty good one. RSS is a, “family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format.”

Now, you might be wondering, why should I care about RSS feeds?

Four reasons:

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Many of the artists and craftspeople who sell their work on Etsy have designated percentages of their sales to be donated to nonprofits working in Haiti.

Two Etsy shops, Craft Hope, and Hearts for Haiti, are collecting donated items from other Etsy sellers. The profits from both stores will be donated to Doctors Without Borders. Collectively, the shops have raised over $30,000.

If you would like to donate work to Craft Hope, according to the Craft Hope blog post, State of Hope, they have stopped taking donations for two weeks so that they can, “get a more formal system in place for accepting donations.”  If you would like to donate pieces to Hearts for Haiti, see the shop’s policies for donation guidelines.

What are other examples of how artists and craftspeople are raising money for relief organizations working in Haiti?

Related blog posts:
DIYers Get Crafty to Aid Haiti on Planet Green
Etsy Hosts Hearts for Haiti Shop on Cara’s Scrap ‘N Stamp Art
For Haiti on Happy Shack

I’ve been compiling a list of places where you can order gifts that specifically support women artisans. I’m hoping that you’ll help me expand the list by suggesting more organizations and companies in the comments.

Here is what I have so far:

1. The Andean Collection (Andean Collection blog)
2. EOS
3. Global Daughter (Global Daughter blog)
4. Global Girlfriend
5. Global Sistergoods (Global Sistergoods blog)
6. Nest (Bangles & Clay blog)

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In 2006, filmmaker Faythe Levine traveled 19,000+ miles visiting over 15 cities, and interviewing more than 50 indie artists, crafters, and designers. The result is a fun, fabulous documentary that recently came out on DVD, Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design.

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While on vacation last week, I read a book I wanted to share with you, Craft Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby Into a Business by Meg Mateo Ilasco. It’s fabulous!

Meg covers everything you need to know to get your craft business off the ground: financing, legal structure, trademarks, business licenses, packaging, pricing, production, marketing, publicity, trade shows, sales, order fulfillment, and more in a fun, accessible way.

Plus, she profiles inspiring entrepreneurs and enterprises like Denyse Schmidt, KleinReid, Sunshine Scarves, Wool & Hoop, and Jill Bliss throughout the book.

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With more than 300 million active Facebook users, and more than 10 million users becoming fans of Pages each day, it’s difficult to think of a good reason for not creating a Facebook Page for your cultural enterprise, but where to start?

Let’s check out some bloggers’ tips for creating effective Facebook Pages:

In her post, 10 Tips for an Effective Nonprofit or Do-Good Facebook Fan Page on BlogHer, Beth Kanter recommends thinking about your Facebook Page Name, and custom URL before  setting your Page up, because you can’t change it. For example, Numi Tea’s Page name is “Numi Tea,” and its URL is http://www.facebook.com/numitea.  She also recommends using badges and Fan Box Widgets to promote your Page on your website, or blog.

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