Art Business News: Summer 2015 Issue by Redwood Media Group

Check Out Highlights from Artexpo NY p. 30

Announcing ABN’s

TOP 40 ARTISTS TO WATCH

THINGS TO KNOW

Before Signing a Studio Lease

Art’s Role in the

TECH REVOLUTION: Artist-in-Residence Programs at Silicon Valley Companies

DECOR

Business Tips and Tricks from Pease Pedestals

Use Daily-Deal Sites to Attract New Customers Framing Industry Innovations

CONTENTS 40

FEATURES

WHERE HIGH ART MEETS HIGH-TECH

Artist-in-residence programs at tech companies spark innovation

BY MELISSA HART

ARTEXPO RECAP Highlights from this year’s Artexpo New York

40 48

BY LINDA MARIANO

A profile of a unique pediatrician turned impressionist painter

CONTRIBUTORS

INSIDE THE FRAME

15 MINUTES

News and notes from the art world Art teacher Melanie Blood talks about inspiring young people BY MEREDITH QUINN

20 CANVASSING THE LAW Things to know when signing your art studio lease

T OP 40 ARTISTS TO WATCH

ABN honors our favorite artists of the moment

PERSPECTIVES BY ERIC SMITH

VALERIE COLLYMORE

BY JACK HAMANN

COLUMNS & DEPTS.

BY AL A N E . K AT Z

P OWER OF THE PIN

ADVERTISER INDEX

BY L A N C E E VA N S

PARTING SHOT

Using Pinterest to drive sales

Check out the DECOR section on p. 55. On the Cover: “Brimming,” Patricia Coulter. This page: “Sea 2,” Inam 4

PERSPECTIVES SUMMER’S INSPIRATION

hh, summer! As the mid-year months beckon, life has a certain ease to it, an air of lazy enjoyment that—no matter how busy our days are with work, graduations, or maybe even a move—compels us to make time for poolside barbecues, trips to the beach, and family vacations. Summer also means a multitude of industry events, although that wasn’t always the case. Not too long ago, the art and framing business was a seasonal industry, with trade shows only cropping up in the spring and fall. Not anymore! Industry happenings take place year-round, as technology pushes the industry forward at hyper-speed and there is a prevalent desire to keep up with the proverbial Joneses. So what’s an art-and-framing retailer to do? Stay on your toes. Break out of your day-to-day routine and get out and about. Take a day or two away from your gallery or frame shop to attend an industry event you’ve never attended before, or take a class on something you’ve always been interested in learning. The only way to expand your horizons (not to mention the reach of your business) is to remain open to inspiration. Get out of your comfort zone and you’ll be surprised at the short-term and longterm rewards. Continuing to learn new skills, meet new people, and see art and design with a fresh set of eyes can only be beneficial. Not only will it help keep you abreast of industry trends, but it could also put you in a position to become a trendsetter yourself. Speaking of trendsetters, make sure to check out our Top 40 Artists to Watch list on page 40. This issue also explores some fantastic artist-in-residence programs at tech companies (see page 24), and offers tips on how to negotiate an art studio lease (see page 20). In your travels this summer, be sure to check out ArtHamptons in Bridgehampton, New York, July 2-5, and ART Santa Fe, July 9-12. The biggest event on our calendar is DECOR Expo Atlanta in September, featuring free classes and seminars for all attendees. Our other upcoming shows are ART SAN DIEGO in November, SPECTRUM Miami in December, and our newest addition to the lineup, ART COACHELLA, in March 2016. Then we’ll be right back to Artexpo New York come next April. It’s a busy year to come, and one that we couldn’t be more excited about. Enjoy the summer sunshine,

ERIC SMITH

Summer 2015 Phone: 800-768-6020 Email: letters@artbusinessnews.com Web: artbusinessnews.com CEO/Publisher Eric Smith Editor-in-Chief Megan Kaplon Managing Editor Linda Mariano Copy Editors Nina Benjamin, Fran Granville Contributors Lance Evans, Jack Hamann, Melissa Hart, Alan E. Katz, Meredith Quinn Editorial inquiries: letters@artbusinessnews.com Art Director Mike O’Leary Graphic Designer Lizz Anderson Advertising Rick Barnett Managing Director, Exhibitions & Media Sales Email: rick.barnett@redwoodmg.com Phone: 831-747-0112 Ashley Tedesco Director of Media Marketing Sales, Email: ashley.tedesco@redwoodmg.com Phone: 831-970-5611 Rosana Rader Director of Sales & Exhibitions Email: rosana.rader@redwoodmg.com Phone: 831-840-4444 Operations and Finance Finance Director Geoff Fox Email: geoff.fox@redwoodmg.com Sales Administration Laura Finamore Email: lfinamore@madavor.com Subscriptions Subscriptions to Art Business News are available to U.S. subscribers for $20 for one year (4 issues). Call 855-881-5861 or visit us online at artbusinessnews.com. Art Business News is published four times per year by Madavor Media. The name “Art Business News” is a registered trademark of Redwood Media Group. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form whatsoever without express written consent of publisher. SUMMER 2015

15 MINUTES BY MEREDITH QUINN

EDUCATOR & CREATOR HIGH SCHOOL ART TEACHER MELANIE BLOOD INSPIRES STUDENTS, WHO IN TURN INSPIRE HER OWN WORK

rt is often one of the first programs on the chopping block for many public school districts. But four-year high school art teacher Melanie Blood reveals that the skills students acquire while talking about their own art and critiquing the work of their peers are among the most helpful and fundamental elements students learn in any classroom. While a student at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt), Blood found her niche in ceramics and mixed media, incorporating materials that others may view as less than beautiful, such as assorted fibers, pieces of cast-off wood, and broken fences. Though she loved showcasing her work, Blood felt unfulfilled and, on a whim, applied to Tufts University, which offers an intensive social justice and art education graduate program in partnership with the School of The Museum of Fine Arts. After the program opened her eyes to different cultures that she had no exposure to at her all-white high school in a small town, Blood decided

to pay it forward and devote her career to art education while continuing her own artistic endeavors. As an art educator at Brockton High School, 30 minutes south of Boston, Blood has found that, as much as her students look up to her for inspiration and mentorship, their stories and spirit inspire her art as well. Blood recently talked to Art Business News about the role of art in childhood development, the balance she strikes between personal and professional creativity, and how learning art can turn out to be just as practical as learning math. ART BUSINESS NEWS: Tell me a little about your personal art and inspiration. MELANIE BLOOD: I started out in college doing primarily ceramics, and, as it developed, I started messing around with firing other materials in a kiln and seeing what would happen. Once I left school, I didn’t have access to kilns, so now I’m doing more unfired clay and working with materials that you wouldn’t necessarily put together.

ABN: Why did you decide to pursue teaching? MB: In high school, I was going through tough times, and I had an art teacher who inspired me and worked with me nonstop. I wanted to be that person for someone else. In college, opportunities came up to [exhibit my art] here and there, and I loved it, and I loved making work, but I felt like something was missing. I felt like it was almost selfish. I don’t mean that artists are selfish. I mean that, for me, it wasn’t fulfilling enough to just put my work out there. I wanted to be able to inspire kids to do the same thing. When I started learning about education—who it targets and who is being repressed and not considered when talking about curriculum, I knew I wanted to teach in a city. I wanted the

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Photos courtesy Melanie Blood

challenge of working with kids that don’t have everything super easy and that need someone to motivate them. ABN: What’s the best thing about being an art teacher? MB: Knowing that you’re making a huge difference in kids’ lives. It’s not always easy, but then you realize: Even if it’s one kid who wants to come to school just to do art, that’s the most rewarding thing. ABN: Do your students inspire your art? MB: Yeah, for sure. I feel like I’m a guidance counselor, a teacher, a parent, a friend. I have a lot of different roles, because the kids don’t have a lot of resources. Some of them have strong family bonds, and some are going

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Clockwise from left: One of Melanie Blood’s sculptures; A piece of art created in Blood’s class; A student works with clay; Blood and her students in the classroom.

through the worst things you could possibly think of. You build relationships and work with them one-on-one, and you realize [these things are] coming out in their art. Those relationships I build with them, the struggles that I face in talking to them, the challenges of trying to be that mentor and trying to help them put that into their art is what my work is about now. It has shifted from being about family connections to connections between me and my students and connections that I see between them and in their community. You can have very, very strong kids, but you don’t really understand what’s going on in their lives and see that they’re really these fragile kids that have to maintain this structure but

are also on the verge of falling apart. It’s interesting [to see] how resilient they are in trying to overcome different boundaries and hardships. So my work has become strong, geometric shapes but also things that are very fragile, showing that dichotomy of strength and weakness and allowing the viewer to make that decision and that connection. My last piece was in the MassArt show, and, on the way home, it completely fell apart. That’s part of the process. It just exists for a little while. Now I have these fragments. How can I put them back together to make the next piece? That’s where I want to go with my work—taking fragments and creating something beautiful with them. I’ve

Melanie Blood’s students stand next to their “Once Upon a Time” sculpture.

ABN: What do you say to those people who think that art is not essential in school? MB: In this day and age, when people are being taught in a way that teaches to take a test, you [only] need to be able to regurgitate information, whereas in art and in music and especially in visual arts, you’re being critical of other students’ work. You’re talking about your work. You need to defend why you’re making things. My kids ask, “Why are we in ceramics? Why does this even matter?” I tell them, “What do we do every day? We look at things; we solve problems. How is this any different from math?” I give my kids prompts [and ask], “How are you going to tackle it?” Don’t you have to think about it in a critical and creative way? That’s what I have my kids do. They explain why they are making this [piece], why it is important, what inspired it. They have to look at other kids’ art and say what they think. Art helps kids think. Kids who don’t connect to math and science have art, and that’s what keeps them going. Maybe that inspires them to do better in other classes or come to school in general. ABN: Can art change a child’s life? MB: We have a lot of kids that would be lost if they didn’t have art in their lives. Kids that are struggling with family issues, are gay or transgender, or are dealing with culture shock are able to express that in their art. It’s so important because, in math or science, you don’t have that outlet. There’s a lot of violence in the city, and if they have something they connect to—whether it’s sports or drama or art—then it actually is saving their lives. Sometimes I feel like they would stay in my room until 7 at night if they could.

Photo courtesy Melanie Blood

[also] saved some fragments of some kids’ work, and I’ll try to use some of those within my work.

“What do we do every day? We look at things; we solve problems. How is this any different from math?” ABN: Tell me more about your students’ involvement in the Attleboro Arts Museum’s High Art show. MB: Last year was the first year that we did it, [and] the theme was tape art. The kids had trouble coming up with something in common, and [then] they started talking about the Brockton Fair, which is something important in their city that they all remember. So they did this interactive installation— tickets flowing, popcorn, an elephant trunk, balloons hanging from the ceiling—all out of colored duct tape. They wanted people to have this feeling of childhood. We went into it thinking we’d just do it for fun, but we ended up placing third. This year’s theme was text as imagery. We were talking about all of these big topics, but they said, "We don't want to do something that's so serious. We're a community and we get along." They started talking about fairy tales,

and how the imagery tells a story on its own. They [created] a dragon crawling up a mountain and made a book out of wood and other papers. They wanted people to look at it and make up their own stories. ABN: Is being an art teacher what you thought it would be? MB: I can’t think of a better job than being in a school, inspiring kids, making work that is so meaningful to them and powerful in so many ways. I remember being in high school, going through tough times and wanting to do nothing but art all day long. A lot of these kids have so much on their plates, and that’s what they want to do. They want to come in, and they want to make art. We have kids who don’t necessarily do well in other classes and have told me, “If it weren’t for your class, I wouldn’t come to school.” So, I’m doing the right thing. ABN

SUMMER 2015

THE HOMELAND OF HER YOUTH VALERIE COLLYMORE FINDS ARTISTIC INSPIRATION FROM HER UNIQUE CHILDHOOD IN FRANCE

B Y JAC K H A M A N N

t the age of 9, Valerie Harmon was the only African-American—and, in fact, the only American—at her first day of school at Lycée de Jeunes Filles in Nice, France. She didn’t know a soul, and she didn’t speak French. Her teacher, Mme. Hémard, began the semester’s first lesson speaking only in French. Scanning the room, she noticed Valerie, her head bowed as she furtively paged through a small French-English dictionary beneath her desk. Valerie should have been terrified, but she wasn’t.

“All of a sudden, this hand dived down and pulled up my hand,” she recalls. “At first, she had a severe look. She had no idea [that I couldn’t] understand a word she’d been saying, and she kept speaking French.” Any other 9-year-old might have melted—but not young Valerie. “I remember thinking, ‘This is hysterical. It isn’t something frightening. It’s a challenge.’ That’s just how I’m wired.” Now 59 and living in Bellevue, Washington, Valerie (now Valerie Collymore) remains differently wired from others. An accomplished full-time artist, she is a former pediatrician, a former

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“Chapel in the morning sun, Bevons in Haute Provence, near Sisteron,” Valerie Collymore

athlete, the mother of two highachieving young women, and the daughter of a unique bon vivant. This story begins with that one-of-a-kind mother. In 1965, Sylvia Harmon was a 39-year-old widowed nurse and the mother of 9-year-old Valerie and 12-year-old David. Good jobs and white families were fleeing her Camden, New Jersey, neighborhood. Vacations often meant visiting restaurants and motels that refused service because of the color of her family’s skin. She wrote increasingly radical

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Above: Valerie Collymore as a child with her best friend Jane Lepage (leaning forward) and Jane’s younger siblings. Right: A recent photo of Collymore.

“Fishing Bateau,” Valerie Collymore

poetry about racial politics and was arrested after refusing to leave a segregated hat shop. “She was horrified by what was happening in America,” says Collymore. After a series of sleepless, chain-smoking nights, Harmon shocked friends and siblings by announcing plans for a European Grand Tour with her kids. Despite pleas from her six brothers, Harmon and her children set sail for Amsterdam. For several months, they camped in a Volkswagen van while seeing the sights of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. Arriving in Nice, Harmon fell in love with the French Riviera and decided to stay. Weeks later, Valerie found herself in Hémard’s classroom. Once Hémard realized that her new student couldn’t speak French, she took a liking to her, as did most of the girls in the class. They helped her learn the language, and she soon found success in a range of subjects. “I think it was a world-class education at that time, including art.” Collymore says. “I still have a folder from elementary school. They were doing a lot of color theory and values, and we were, like, 10 and 11. I was the kid that was always drawing.” As her peers back in America came of age in the tumultuous ’60s, Collymore experienced an idyllic childhood in an alternate

universe. “We had lots of freedom,” she says. “My best friend Jane and I regularly explored neighboring villages. I was immersed in this amazing culture with so much art. I walked past the Matisse Museum every day on the way to school. I studied concert piano across the street from the Chagall Museum.” Every school holiday, Harmon packed the kids into the car and drove to Rome, Athens, Paris, and beyond. “In her mind, that was the best education,” says Collymore. The American military had a big presence in Europe, including a popular USO in Villefranche-sur-Mer, a picturesque port adjacent to Nice. While visiting there, Harmon met a general’s wife who was interested in plein air painting, and Harmon volunteered to drive her to scenic locations. Appreciating Harmon’s eye and education, the general’s wife insisted that they learn to paint together. Combining talent with passion, Harmon became an insatiable student, taking classes whenever she could. She learned acrylics, oils, aquatints, and metallic prints, and she ultimately excelled in watercolors. Her landscapes were eventually exhibited in Monte Carlo and elsewhere. “As she became an artist, my mother started seeing color,” says Collymore. On long drives through the French countryside, Harmon would sing songs designed to draw her daughter’s attention to the subtle hues that she noticed. Lavender clouds. Turquoise ponds. “The French Riviera has brilliant light—colors like nowhere else in the world—and intensity of color that’s just unparalleled,” Collymore says. When she entered high school, Collymore displayed a talent of her own: athleticism. Her track-team sprint times were so fast that she was offered a chance to compete for the French National Team, on the condition that she become a naturalized French citizen. But her mother had other ideas. All along, she was determined that both her children would return to America and enroll in top colleges. Despite Valerie’s athletic

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talents and affinity for art, Harmon wanted her daughter to study for a degree in pre-med. As the widow of a veteran, Harmon paid most of her bills with Social Security and Veterans Affairs (then Veterans Administration) benefits. Her late husband had started a college fund for his children, money that Harmon had instead spent exposing her children to art and history during those trips throughout Europe. But her time around military brass and other well-connected American expatriates paid off. Many had attended prestigious colleges and were willing to open doors to contacts at their alma maters, especially those looking for talented applicants who would also help those schools become more diverse. Collymore was accepted at Radcliffe College, but her mother insisted on Brown University, which offered an experimental seven-year medical program. Providence, Rhode Island, however, proved too provincial for Collymore. She says that Brown’s white professors had low, racially skewed expectations of her and that fellow black students ostracized her for her unusual upbringing. “I didn’t even know who Stevie Wonder was,” she admits. Fed up, she transferred to Columbia, where she flourished in the bright lights of New York. While in med school, she met—and eventually married—fellow student Victor Collymore. After graduation, the two young doctors moved west, eventually landing in the Seattle area, where they raised two daughters. Both girls excelled in school, became collegiate volleyball All-Americans, and spent time competing on the U.S. National Volleyball Team. Each gravitated to her own corner of the art world—Jane to music and Jill to filmmaking. For 30 years, Collymore put aside her own art. By 2008, both daughters had graduated from college. Now an empty-nester and no longer practicing medicine, Collymore reluctantly accepted a good friend’s invitation to a Seattle Women’s University Club art class. “I thought, ‘Valerie, you’re a grown-up. A couple of classes aren’t going to kill you.’” But sitting in front of a blank canvas was intimidating— troubling, even. At the first class, she couldn’t even pick up a brush. “Something was confusing. There was some unresolved emotion around painting.” A second class produced more anxiety. At a third session, however, her inhibition melted. “When the brush touched the canvas, something hap-

pened, which scared me. I thought, ‘I’m a physician, not an artist; this is ridiculous.’” For the next year and a half, she felt haunted “by a huge magnetic attraction that this was something I was supposed to do.” She continued taking classes. Paintings poured out. Patrons and admirers purchased several of them. She sought out—and studied under—master artists. By 2010, she decided she was ready to call herself a fulltime artist. Collymore is an impressionist; her medium is oil. Although her works include still lifes, her focus is landscapes. Most of her paintings are of the French countryside, particularly the Riviera and Provence. “The places I paint today … were places I walked,” she says. “These were places [where] I was a happy child. These are places we went to with my mom. These are all places that are very meaningful.” Every year, she spends as much time as she can afford—usually a couple of weeks—in France. On some trips, she visits sites where Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Renoir painted. She heads out alone in the early morning, experiencing and absorbing color and light. Because she can’t yet spend enough time to paint an entire exhibition while visiting, she takes thousands of photographs. “They are a reference, but photos lie,” she admits. “They never capture exactly what is there. So I really soak it up. I do a lot of looking, sitting in the fields, experiencing. I want to be able to remember what it felt like—what the colors looked like.” There is never enough time. Collymore’s childhood friend Jane still lives there, and each visit includes a whirlwind of meals, memories, and long walks with old friends, including a former classmate or two from Hémard’s schoolroom. A favorite novelist, Marcel Pagnol, penned a line that she holds dear: “France is the homeland of my youth.” And art now offers the most meaningful way to embrace those happy memories. Collymore’s unique mother, who had exposed her children to the world of art at an early age, repatriated from France to remain close to her children. At Collymore’s urging, Harmon remarried at 79. Six months later, she died of heart failure—peacefully, just as she would have wanted, says Collymore. ABN

“The French Riviera has brilliant

light—colors like nowhere else in the world—and intensity of color that’s just unparalleled.”

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For more samples of Collymore’s work and a schedule of her exhibitions, please visit valeriecollymore.com.

MARKET YOUR GALLERY ON

HOW VISUAL SOCIAL MEDIA CAN INCREASE SALES AND PROMOTE YOUR BRAND B Y L A N C E E V A N S

o matter how old-school your marketing style, you must be aware of how social media has become the preeminent way to reach many consumer markets. Facebook is the granddaddy of social media, but there are many other significant players in the field, including Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Pinterest uses the analogy of an oldfashioned bulletin board, on which users “pin” items of interest to various boards. You can also think of it as the modern day equivalent of creating collages from torn-out magazine pages. This system has found great success not only with consumers, but also with marketing and public relations professionals. DISTINCTIONS IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD Simple ideas make a social media site successful, but the social media market is anything but straightforward. The things that differentiate one social site from another are often the same elements that attract—or repel—one market segment to or from a platform. Social media can be a fickle sport. For example, the attraction of Facebook for many consumer markets has simply been its ubiquity. Knowing that “everyone” is on it makes it an appealing one-stop shop for many users who

are looking for easy solutions. As Facebook has become ubiquitous, however, many of its users have jumped ship to other sites, especially younger users who didn’t want to be on the same platform as their parents. Every social media site has its own raison d’être—a twist or gimmick that sets it apart from other sites. Twitter’s twist is that it enables users to communicate in short bursts. Instagram, on the other hand, finds success by enabling users to communicate via imagery. Many a network’s claim to fame has been simply that they were the newest— or, momentarily, the trendiest—one on the block. Most of those networks have come and gone. Only a handful have had the staying power to join the small list of social media icons we recognize on websites. Pinterest has had that staying power, thanks to the way in which it allows users to employ its tools. ON PINTEREST The average Pinterest user’s intent is to find elements that they then incorporate, or “curate,” into their own boards. In the same way they use a search engine, users can search Pinterest for specific subjects and content. They can then create visually appealing boards by pinning and grouping the content they discover in ways that make the most sense for their needs.

For example, users can create and name many boards and then organize pinned elements onto them. Each pin is a link to the original website on which the image appeared, and, as such, the pins are more than just photos; they often include bits of information as well. Users can assemble items of personal interest, recipes, and how-tos onto reference boards. Because of such flexibility, Pinterest’s platform has experienced significant growth since its creation in 2010. In a recent news item, one of Pinterest’s cofounders told Business Insider that the company’s most recent round of fundraising brought the company up to $1.3 billion of investment. This amount might seem like a lot, but the company is valued at $11 billion—not bad for a 5-yearold start-up (though with a piggy bank that size, Pinterest is as much a start-up as a Weinstein film is independent). On the street, all of those billions translate into a website whose user base and viewership has had an off-thecharts growth rate. It reached 10 million unique visitors a month more quickly than any other website to date. Demographically, the site is more popular with women. According to data from 2012, 83 percent of its user base is female—except in England, where 56 percent of Pinterest users are male. Pinterest’s age distribution closely matches

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Pinterest users place a great emphasis on home decoration, do-it-yourself projects, and home improvement. People interested in these topics are often also interested in art.

that of Internet users on the whole. Thus, it reaches a broad range of users. From the vantage point of artists and dealers, this demographic could represent a huge opportunity because these Pinterest users place a great emphasis on home decoration, do-it-yourself projects, and home improvement. People interested in these topics are often also interested in art. Pinterest is a thriving platform on which to focus many types of artmarketing efforts. This fact is important for both the marketer and the platform. Pinterest has put great effort into helping business users get on board. SETTING UP YOUR FIRST PINTEREST ACCOUNT 1. Choose to log in through Facebook or to create a unique Pinterest account. Logging in through Facebook is an increasingly popular option, and there may be some good reasons for choosing this option, but I prefer to control my accounts individually and create a unique account for each social media platform. 2. Decide whether to create a personal account or a business one. As always, there are pluses for both options. Pinterest states: “If you’re using Pinterest as part of how you make a living, whether by driving traffic to a blog that makes

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you some money or to build your personal brand to find customers for your products or services, you should sign up for a business account.” As an artist or an art dealer, you want to show the world your personal talents or those of the people you represent. In that case, a business account is best. Because the casual user won’t see significant differences between a personal account and a business one, choosing a business account won’t forgo the homespun image that a personal account sometimes projects to the world. Note that if you already have a personal Pinterest account that you have been using for business, you can now convert it into a business listing if you want. 3. Select five interests. Gallery owners, artists, and agents can start by simply typing the word “art” into the search box at top. A nice selection of art-related topics from which to choose will pop up. 4. Choose whether to add a Pinterest browser button. This browser extension allows you to easily pin items to your boards. 5. Once you’ve completed Step 3, the system chugs away to install the plugin and create your Pinterest page, drawing from the elements of each of the chosen topics. The accompanying graphic

shows the default screen for the fictitious Acme Art Gallery account. 6. Verify your business website. DOING BUSINESS Obviously, doing business on a social media site entails more work than being a regular consumer on it. Although a business account on Pinterest won’t look obviously different from the consumer’s point of view, it does give the user access to many things designed just for businesses. One of the most useful applications of a business account is the access to Pinterest’s analytics. The analytics display your average daily impressions, daily viewership, monthly viewership, and monthly engaged followers. They also allow you to figure out what people love most from your Pinterest profile and your website, which pins drive traffic back to your site, who your Pinterest audience is—including gender, location, and interests—and how adding the Pin It button to your website leads to referral traffic from Pinterest. Another benefit of a business account is the ability to use Rich Pins. Rich Pins are a step above Standard Pins. They enable you to automatically add extra details, including pricing information and a direct link to your website. Rich Pins should thus become more useful to users and result in more traffic to your site.

Rich Pins include selections for movies, recipes, articles, products, and places. If you sell products, note that Product Pins include real-time pricing information, and anyone who has pinned them will get a notification of a decrease in price. This feature can easily apply to art items. Sellers of art should also consider taking advantage of Article and Place Pins. You can use these to create valueadded information that draws in potential customers. Article Pins can be stories from your blog and items about your artists; Place Pins can be items about regional artists you may represent. Be creative and find ways to make the best use of these tools. You aren’t required to create Rich Pins on a business account, but if you have an online store, it’s definitely worth the extra effort. However, setting up Rich Pins involves steps that may require the help of your web developer. If you don’t create Rich Pins, you can still include a product’s price in a Standard Pin’s description. Another creative way to use a Pinterest account is by hosting a contest. Contests are fun and are a great way to attract a bigger audience and drive engagement in your Pinterest account. Your contest can require entrants to pin an image from your website, follow your account, pin a photo of them with one of your products, or create a specifically themed board. Contests are also a great way to collect email addresses.

OPTIMIZE YOUR ACCOUNT PROFILE Carefully choose your profile image to help people recognize your business. If you have a logo, use it. However, make sure your logo is square, because that’s how your profile will display. If your logo is not square, ask your designer to make a square version of it. On the other hand, if you “are” your brand—for example, as an artist—then use a nice photo of yourself on your Pinterest profile. If you’re active on other social networks, use the same profile picture across your platforms so that your followers on one network will instantly recognize you on others. Name your account appropriately. Use your company name if that’s what you typically promote. If the name of your product is more popular than your company name, however, use the product name. Choose a username that makes sense. Your username becomes part of the custom URL of your Pinterest profile (i.e., pinterest.com/username), so make it the same as your business name. In the About You section, write a conversational description of who you are, naturally weaving in your target keywords. Also provide and verify the URL of your website. This step is necessary if you want your hyperlinked URL to show up on your profile—and you do. Pinterest provides step-by-step instructions for accomplishing this task.

Now start pinning! You can easily pin items while surfing the web. Just install the Pin It button to your browser, and you can pin images from anywhere on the web to one of your boards without leaving the webpage. Businesses should seriously consider installing the Pin It widget and one or more of Pinterest’s other buttons—including Follow, Profile, and Board—to their websites to allow visitors to easily share content from the site. You can find the Pin It button and other buttons and widgets on the Button and Widget Builder page. To find this page, visit the Goodies page in the About section of Pinterest’s website. SOCIAL MEDIA: IT’S A PROCESS Like all other marketing efforts, social media is a process that will not change your business overnight. It takes a commitment from businesses to become parts of the fabric of the social media network into which they put themselves. If you apply these steps with real commitment and over a period of time, the returns can be tremendous. Keep in mind one thing: consistency. Don’t set your goals or commitments too high. Decide how many hours a month you might want to commit to the effort and stick with it. Consistently putting in five hours a month will yield better long-term results than dedicating 20 hours a month a few times a year. ABN

SUMMER 2015