Much of social media and brand development has a strategy behind it. This means that posts are purposeful, photos are staged and there’s a point or message behind it. This blog post is all about how to curate your digital brand and create your own strategy.
Think about what message you want to show, what words do you want your audience to think about when they think of you. This process can take some time to discover what you really want to say or what kind of artist you want to look like. Don’t rush this step and don’t put everything out there. You have no idea who will come across you, your social media, or your website so keep it professional.
Beginning to think about these questions and make these types of decisions about your digital footprint, is how you begin developing and curating your brand. Here are some ways to begin curating:
Document Your Process: Take lots of photos of everything. Take time to get multiple angles, overviews, and close-ups of what you are taking pictures of. You will notice that some photos will be blurry or crooked. You will see your creative mess in the background. You will get crazy sunspots and photos with just bad compositions. Having lots of photos will also be good to have on hand for days that you don’t have content to share. This way, you will have a small library to pull from.
Whatever you are taking a photo of, tightly up that space. Remove what isn’t necessary, tuck cords from your tools, turn bottles of paint, sweep if your floor is messy. Set up your area that you want to document like a photo shoot. Pull in materials or items that you want in the shot if it makes it appear better. Remember to curate once you have an arsenal of imagery, not everything is going to be posted or share-worthy.
Be Patient: It can be exciting to want to post a great shot you took because you are excited to share. However, sit on photos for a few days to think about them. Nothing is more annoying than seeing someone post 6 photos of something in a row that they are excited about on Instagram and then not see any additional content for a few weeks. Think about posts like dating. You don’t want to let everything out on the first date, build some interest and excitement around your work.
Scheduling: Consistency in posts can be key to developing your brand and building followers. You also need to be patient while you develop this brand, consistency, and pace are key. Use a schedule or calendar to strategize when you post. Look up when local events, holidays, and art happenings are occurring and post relatable material around those.
Cleaning Up Your Image: If you partied a lot in college, or maybe have some not-so-pleasant posts on your accounts, it’s time to clean them up. Now, you can actually go through and delete this, but it will take some time and dedication. Usually, people aren’t going to go that far back to dig into you but it’s not worth giving them the option to either.
There is a variety of website services that can give you a snapshot of your already existing social footprint and can warn you of potential damaging posts. Now if you want them to remove anything, that’s when their fees begin to kick in. Once you decide how to proceed with your damaging posts, it’s important to work forward with a clear strategy.
If you are ever in doubt about a post or photo, take it down sooner than later. Posts that are sale-based or are marketing a specific event can also be deleted once the event or sale is done. Nothing looks good when you have old opportunities online for people to view.