Social Media & Politics

This week's blog will be taking a break from artists using social media and instead we will be focusing on...politics! This week we have been learning about the influence of social media on today's politics, or more specifically, the presidential election. Ever since the 2008 presidential election, social media has become a large tool in political campaigns. Barack Obama focused his campaign on social media interaction and outreach, and was able to successfully gain a wide following on his social networking accounts, which I believe helped share his values and goals to harder to reach audiences.

Fast forward to today, where every single presidential candidate is immensely involved in using social media in their political campaigns. Today's generation are avid users and consumers of social networking websites, and in order to gain supporters, these candidates are using grassroots campaigning methods through social media by posting videos, writing statuses, posting pictures, creating hashtags (#feelthebern) and more. By using Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even Snapchat, these candidates are allowing their supporters to become more involved in their campaign by reaching out on a more intimate level with their followers. For example, the candidates will hold Q & A sessions on Twitter, or even reply directly to supporters on Facebook or Instagram.

I have personally felt as though I have become dramatically more involved in this presidential election through the use of social media. I have followed presidential candidates that I am a supporter of, I share videos and news articles related to the election, I will share my own personal political views on my social media accounts, and I encourage others to become involved in politics online. By having the presidential candidates using social media constantly during their campaigns, I feel more motivated to also use these social networking websites to share my political concerns and opinions in order to feel as though I am an active participant in this presidential election.

I believe that with continued social media use in political campaigns, candidates will have a more effective outreach to the younger generation of voters, and there will be an increase in voting and political debate through sharing ideas and opinions through these social networking websites.

That's enough talk about politics for now, I look forward to returning my focus on artists in next weeks blog post! See you then!

Artistic Activism

Before social media and the rise of technology used to communicate, activism was demonstrated through protests, rallies, parades, tabling, volunteering, lobbying, and other physical events that took place in order to create a change in society. Today all of these events still occur but social media activism is now used to help contribute to these changes.  An activist is someone who vigorously campaigns in order to create a political or social change. Social media activism is a sort of new age form of activism where people can campaign through social networking websites like Twitter and Facebook in order to spread the word about causes they are concerned about in hopes of creating political or social change.

There have been many examples of activism that have taken place and created change due to use of social media, including the #Kony2012 campaign, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the Egyptian revolution. Social media played a giant role in these movements by allowing thousands to efficiently organize events, spread the word about their cause, and gain support from those across the world.

But how can art relate to social media activism? Some of you may remember the tsunami in Japan that happened in 2011, killing more than 18,000 people. On twitter, the hashtag #prayforjapan began to circulate and became a key source for those across the world to donate money and provide resources to those suffering in Japan. Many artists wrote songs and other forms of art for this disaster, and donated the money that was earned from their artwork to relief groups to help those that were affected by the tsunami.

I personally believe that becoming a social media activist and creating artwork for certain events would be a great way to not only support the movements that you believe in, but you can also share your artwork and donate the money that you earn to the organizations that are involved in helping these campaigns. By creating artwork that will help benefit the movements that you believe in and by campaigning for these political or social changes on your social media, you will help make a difference in the world while also creating a positive image for yourself. Social media activism will not only help you gain recognition as an artist, but you will have also made a positive impact on the world, and there's no greater feeling than that.

Crowdsourcing

Whether you already have a job that fulfills your desires as an artist, you work in a boring office in a tiny cubicle that you have no interest in, or you're even unemployed at the moment, crowdsourcing is a great way to share your art and earn money at the same time. 

The term crowdsourcing was coined by Jeff Howe, who defines it as, "the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call". In simpler terms, artists such as yourselves can submit your works of art on multiple crowdsourcing websites and be payed in small amounts of money if a company decides to use your artwork for their business. This can include creative ideas, photos, designs, logos, typography, and much more. 

While crowdsourcing only pays you in small amounts of money and there is a large community of artists on these websites that you are competing against, if a company decides to use your artwork you can include that information on your resume/portfolio as well as post on your various social media websites which will improve your presence online and professionally as an artist. 

Here are some crowdsourcing websites that I highly recommend for artists:

1. 99designs.com
2. crowdspring.com
3. shutterstock.com
4. istockphoto.com
5. cloudfactory.com

Social Media Tools: Hootsuite

For artists, promoting themselves on the internet by using social media is crucial to their business. Whether you want to merely sell your works of art online by using Etsy, Soundcloud, Amazon, etc. or you want to create a small business with others, Hootsuite is an incredible tool to use to manage your social media networks.

As I have previously mentioned, having accounts separate from your personal accounts for your artwork on social media such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. is a great way to begin promoting your work. In order to promote yourself in a professional and effective manner, Hootsuite will be a key tool in order to achieve your business goals.

Hootsuite allows you to connect up to three social media accounts for free with a basic analytical report that will tell you what posts and content are receiving the most attention and a message scheduling system that will allow you to create posts for your social media and schedule when to post these items on your accounts. If you want to manage up to 50 different social media accounts though, I would recommend the Hootsuite Pro which includes a monthly fee of $9.99. However with the Pro, you can look at an enhanced analytics report to see how your social media efforts are affecting your business goals, you can engage directly with followers, and you can schedule bulk posts for your accounts as well.

I have yet to try Hootsuite myself but this seems like a great social media tool to use to further promote and enhance your brand online. Not only can you further connect with your followers and create professional posts across your various social networks, you can analyze data in order to gain insight for future improvements in the content that you post. The only downside from this tool is the monthly fee of $9.99 but I would highly recommend signing up for the 30 day trial and see if this tool works for you!

I also found another great tool called Adobe Post that I will begin using when I create a professional account for my artwork in the future. This tool allows you to quickly create beautiful graphics in minutes which can be used for your posts on social media such as Instagram or Facebook. You can turn a simple photo to promote your business into a stunning professional graphic that will enhance the image and aesthetic of your brand.

Feel free to try these two social media tools, I am personally so excited to start using Adobe Post and Hootsuite!