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Taking a Look at Marketing Techniques in the Carolinas The Press Release

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

This year we’re taking a detailed look at how the visual art community in the Carolinas is marketing itself. This is based on a piece I first posted at Carolina Arts Unleashed on Jan. 12, 2012. I borrowed a technique from comedian Jeff Foxworthy who tells his audience – “You might be a redneck if….”. I used the phrase, “You might be pretty bad at marketing when…”. You can see this post at this link.

There’s a lot to read and absorb here, but I think there is something here from which anyone can learn and a lot for some folks to learn. We offer it so people can do a better job, which will make our paper better to read and hopefully leads to more visitors and customers for all.

Here’s what Wikipedia had to say about a press release:

“A press release, news release, media release, press statement or video release is a written or recorded communication directed at members of the news media for the purpose of announcing something ostensibly newsworthy. Typically, they are mailed, faxed, or e-mailed to assignment editors at newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television stations, and/or television networks.”

I’ll go along with that with a few exceptions in this case. Don’t send us a fax (we unhooked it) and we’d rather receive info by e-mail than the regular mail. We are not accepting press releases through Facebook.

Without looking further at Wikipedia, I can tell you one thing a press release is not – it’s not a paid ad or paid advertising and the word ad has nothing to do with the words press release.

Also, I’m mostly interested in improving the press releases I receive, so we’re talking about a press release about a visual art exhibit or a visual art related event taking place in the Carolinas (North or South Carolina) for our monthly newspaper Carolina Arts or one of our other blogs, Carolina Arts News or Carolina Clay Resource Directory – each has their own area of focus. But this info should be good for other media outlets, but remember – they’re all different.

Which brings up one of the basic rules about press releases – know who you are sending them to. There is no reason to send a press release to someone who is not going to be interested in using it. A good example is the numerous press releases we get about exhibits taking place in California, New York or South Dakota. Those people could have saved their efforts by just looking at our name or our paper. Have you ever seen any articles in Carolina Arts about exhibits in South Dakota?

We also receive press releases from performing arts groups on a daily basis. They just don’t get it – we’re just visual arts unless the performing arts are involved with the visual arts.

So it’s well worth spending some time figuring out who is going to be receptive to your press release. That may involve reading the publication or calling to see if they would be interested in receiving your news. And, it won’t hurt finding out how and when they would like to receive it. It may only take a few minutes to find out when the deadline is, what format they would like to receive the press release in and where you should send it. You may even find out what they are really interested in – what gets them excited and what they are not interested in receiving.

Some people who think of themselves as “publicity” people like to just collect contacts – e-mail or mailing addresses. They don’t care where they come from or where they are going. They might even brag on the number they have on file, but for all they know 50 percent of them could be worthless and never see the light of day beyond a delete button or the trash can. It’s not a contest to see how many outlets you send your release to – it’s about how many outlets use the info you send.

And no matter what kind of list you have you should try to update it at least once a year. There has been a lot of turnover in the media in the last few years.

If you’re going to lose sleep at night worrying about whether your press release was received by the right person or at all, you can always ask for confirmation. If you sent it in the form of a letter – you can give your phone number or an e-mail address as a way for the receiver to get back in touch with you. If you sent it by e-mail – make sure you have a return e-mail address – one you read on a regular basis. Don’t worry if it’s a long distance call – the media should have that covered in one way or another.

If you don’t hear back about a confirmation request – give them a call to see if they got it after a few days. It doesn’t hurt and you’ll know if they got it or not – and make more personal contacts.

The Format

Speaking for Carolina Arts – don’t send your press release as a PDF or Tiff, which means you are just sending a picture of a press release that has to be further processed in order to use it. Just send it in plain text in the body of an e-mail so it can be easily copied and pasted into the files to be used. Why e-mail instead of a letter? What media outlet wants to spend time scanning or re-typing your letter?

Keep it simple. There is no need to send text in colors, fancy fonts, or in an eye-catching layout – we just want to copy and paste. Do not use all caps to make words or names seem more important. You don’t need to put words or sections in bold.

If you are sending photos do not imbed them in PDFs or in Tiffs of your press release. Send them as attachments and make sure you identify them. I hate nothing more than spending time requesting info about images sent in a return e-mail or phone call.

The W’s

You know about the who, what, where, when and why. At least I hope you do. They’re important in any good press release, but in some that I receive one or two is sometimes left out or overlooked. I’d add two more that are important, but not always possible – well written.

Including all the W’s are important but the why and well written may make the difference between having your press release just included or highlighted.

Your press release is competing with many more press release and space is always limited in some form or another. In our case, during any given month several hundred exhibits are being presented. That also means the public will have hundreds of exhibits to choose from – if they think going to an exhibit is worth their limited time. If you’re presenting your exhibit in a small community far from other urban centers you may have a captive audience, but who doesn’t need more visitors. And, I would think the number of visitors to an exhibit may have some relationship to the number of buyers or donors you will also attract.

To come up with your why, you might ask yourself a series of questions that the public might be asking themselves in deciding if they should go to your exhibit – if they see notice of it in the media.

What’s so special about this exhibit? Is it the annual exhibit by an artist who is a regular member of a gallery? Is it just the latest exhibit of new works by an artist’s owned gallery? Is it an exhibit of an artist who has not exhibited in ten years and shows a major new shift in direction by the artist? Is it an exhibit by a nationally known artist who has never been shown in your city? Or, is it an exhibit by a new group of emerging artists, which sometimes means ground floor prices? These are just a few examples of question people may ask themselves before deciding to go to an exhibit.

Remember, you or your group decided to give an artist or a group of artists an exhibition over many other artists – you must have had a reason. If your reason was that it was just their turn – coming up with the why may be very difficult.  But someone made the decision – they must have had a reason for their selection. Unfortunately, I read a lot of press release which offer no reason for why I should go see this exhibit.

Now just including the who, what, where, when and why, may not be enough to get your press release published or read by the public. Putting all those elements into a well written press release may also give you an advantage to reaching the top of the heap.

My expectations for receiving well written press releases has been lowered over the past 25 years, mostly because many of the folks sending these press releases: were just assigned the task, only send out a few in a year’s time, let the artist write the bulk of it, are unpaid and untrained, think “art speak” is the way to communicate to the public, perform the task at the last minute, don’t use spell-check, don’t let another person edit what they have written, don’t read back over what they have written, or any number of reasons.

We even deal with a few venues that think if they have to explain to you who the artist is, beyond providing their name – they’re not really interested in seeing you in their gallery. They may be some of the lucky few who deal with artists that are that important and have no problem selling the work they put on exhibition. If you’re one of those lucky people you wouldn’t have ever started reading this posting.

My question to those few would be – so, you’re not interested in educating or developing new customers? You’ve got them all in the palm of your hand?

To me, every press release is an opportunity to educate and inform the possible readers about your venue, the artist, the medium they work in, the works being presented in the exhibit, and why the reader should come see your exhibit over all others. Some people take advantage of that opportunity – many don’t.

One of the trends I’ve noticed over the last five to ten years is people using a charity as their why, by announcing that 5%, or 10% of proceeds from sales from an exhibit will go to a local charity. I really don’t care for this technique – mostly because of the lack of follow-up. We never seem to hear after the exhibit is over how much money was raised for the charity. I’m all for making donations to charities, but this seems to be a why open to all kinds of problems. And, now we have some galleries who don’t present exhibits without a charity announced as their partner – whether the charity knows it or not.

The use of the visual arts in raising money for charities is a subject too large to cover in this posting. There are good examples and just as many bad ones.

Let’s go over the other W’s in the who, what, where, when and why.

The who should include: who is sending the press release, who wrote it and can answer any questions about it, who is presenting the exhibit or event (gallery, organization, institution), and who the artist is or who the artists are. Make sure all names used are spelled the same each time they are used. Make sure you have a phone number (including area code), e-mail address, and a website address included.

Even if you have sent me a press release every month for the last 12 years, you shouldn’t make short cuts assuming I will always be here. Dark forces are amassing powers to take over any day – I might not always be here. And, if you’re sending your release out in bulk – other folks who were receiving your pr last month or even last week might not hold that job today. So, my point is don’t take things for granted that the people you are sending info to know certain details.

When it comes to the what – like an exhibit. An exhibit has a beginning and ending date and perhaps a reception date. If you just send a reception date, I don’t feel it’s an exhibit at all – it’s just a party for a few hours. I can’t use that in a monthly paper. If the event is a lecture – I want to know when it begins and when it is expected to end. I’m sure readers want to know how much time they will spent if they decide to attend the lecture. Just saying it starts at 7pm isn’t enough – especially if it will end at 7:30 or go on until 11pm.

It is also important for some folks to know if the artist will be at the reception or not.

The where should include the full address of the venue including any helpful locating factors. If your gallery or art center is across from the post office – that’s an important fact. It should be pointed out if you’re located on a second floor or where you are located if your venue is in a larger building shared by other businesses or offices. Also, for some folks it would be good to know if the venue is handicap accessible. And, don’t forget to say which state you are located – both NC and SC has their share of Beauforts, Greenvilles, Columbias, and Mt. Pleasants. Our readers come from all over the county and around the world. They shouldn’t have to do any detective work to find you.

The when, again, include dates and times your exhibit is open to the public. And, you better include the hours that you are there. It doesn’t take someone more than one time to show up during published hours and find the door locked to decide not to return. If you have an emergency – post it at the door and don’t expect people to forgive multiple emergencies. So, be very careful with the dates and times you provide in a press release. I don’t like people who state that their exhibit will be up until the middle of the next month – is that always the 15th? If I’m coming from the next city over 100 miles away I want to be sure before I leave the house and are you available to take my call to ask 24/7?

The why revisited. Here’s some whys that I don’t think hold water anymore if they ever did.

Artists who say they create because they have to. What artists don’t?

Artists who are recording the world often unseen or unnoticed in our fast paced life. Maybe there’s a reason we don’t notice certain things anymore.

Venues who guarantee you won’t be disappointed if you come see the exhibit. With that kind of challenge made I’m almost always disappointed.

Press releases that include how many pets live with the artist, their species and cute names. Do we really need to know that artists are people too? That they have spouses, children and pets – oh my!

I want to know why I should go see this exhibit. I’m sure readers do too. And, I want all the information I need to do that successfully. Is that too much to ask?

If someone was showing an exhibit of early watercolor landscapes painted by Jasper Johns when he was 19, never seen in public before – would you go? Would you go see it because it was works by Johns? Would you go because you wanted to see what kind of watercolor landscapes he would paint at age 19? Would you go to confirm to yourself that all artist may start out in a place far from where they end up? Or would the phrase – never seen in public before – be the determining factor for you.

One last point about press releases is when to send them. And first on my list is don’t send them to me until you have finished and checked everything in them at least twice and then let someone else read it.

I don’t have a lot of time to waste and I doubt other media outlets do either so I start processing a press release as soon as I get it so it can be ready to be put in the paper when I start to do the layout. Nothing gets my attention more than having to revise a piece I’ve already processed because someone discovered they got a name wrong, a date wrong, a time wrong or just left something out. By the third correction, you’re pr is slipping down the line to last place. And if you need to send a correction, don’t just make the correction and send your press release over again forcing me to re-process the whole thing again instead of making a simple correction.

As far as the Carolina Arts goes I hate to say it is ever too early to send a press release – unless changes and updates will have to be made. Get it to us by deadline, but there is no reason to wait for the exact day of the deadline if you can send it early. Sending it early gets you ahead of all those who take till the last minute to send theirs.

When it comes to the blogs like Carolina Arts News – sending a press release early can be a problem as we’ll only post it once and people tend to forget things that are posted months in advance. The exception to that rule is (Call for Entry) notices. For artists, these kinds of notices can never be too early.

Don’t send your same press release to the same media outlets once a week until the day of your event. We only need it once. If you’re worried about whether we received it, follow-up on it – don’t just keep sending it.

And, when it comes to organizations or groups – make sure only one person is sending press releases. I have received them from several different people – about the same exhibit – but you wouldn’t know it by reading them. This just causes more follow-up and delays in processing.

Over the years I have warned artists who are having exhibits at commercial galleries or non-profit institutions to not take it for granted that press releases about their exhibits will be sent out or received on time – even when people say they will take care of it.

There is nothing I hate more than getting that call after an issue has been published from an artist asking me if I received a press release about their exhibit and why I didn’t publish it. And, I have to explain – we didn’t get it or it would have been there. I warn them to call or e-mail well before our deadline to make sure everything is in place for them to get the publicity they are counting on.

I don’t like taking a press release from an artist directly – I feel the venue has that right and responsibility. There are some who don’t want to be included in our paper for one reason or another. (Another blog too big to get into here.) But, I would think it is your right as an artist to request a venue to send press releases where you would like.

And finally, one solid truth about Carolina Arts. If you’re one of our supporters, which would include advertisers or people who work hard at helping spread the paper around – you do get treated better than others. You may even get a call from us asking – don’t you have an exhibit coming up? We haven’t received a press release yet. I’ve even been known to help those folks out with their press releases to make sure they have all the right info in it. In a few rare cases I have even written press releases for supporters when they were short on time to make sure something got in on time. And, don’t tell anyone this, but there have been times when supporters lost track of time and sent us a press release after the deadline and it may have made it near the top of the list to go in the paper or on a blog.

Why such special treatment? If you haven’t figured it out yet – they make the paper and all we do possible. There is no money to be made by just having people send you press releases and publishing them. We’re not Facebook, WordPress, Twitter or Blogspot – who can sell your efforts to advertisers to make millions – we need direct advertisers to make it all work.

I hope reading this helps some folks. I know it made me feel better just writing it and getting it out there – in cyber space.

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Finally a Trip to See Aggie Zed’s Exhibit at The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in Charleston, SC

Thursday, March 8th, 2012

One of the cruelest things in life is that we don’t get to do everything we want and sometimes even when we do get to do something – it’s too late.

In this instance, I’m lucky I got a chance to see this exhibit at all, but it was too late to do so and encourage others to do so, as the exhibit ends on Saturday, Mar. 10, 2012. Of course we did feature this exhibit on our Jan. 2012 cover of Carolina Arts. I guess that’s something.

But, if you can, I’d advise anyone who likes what they see here in this posting, to try and go to The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston School of the Arts in Charleston, SC, to see Aggie Zed: Keeper’s Keep, featuring new works by Virginia-based artist Aggie Zed. I’m sorry about the short notice, but I think this exhibit may be coming to a facility in North Carolina, but I have no details at this time.

Aggie Zed was born in Charleston and raised on Sullivan’s Island, SC. So, like Jasper Johns who was once from Edisto Beach, SC, we can claim her as one of ours. But, for anyone who has been a regular visitor to Nina Liu & Friends Gallery in Charleston, Zed’s paintings and sculptures are old familiar friends. Some of her human/animal creatures have been featured in one of the gallery’s windows for 20 years or more. Of course not the same figures – they never lasted that long before someone was taking them home and they would be replaced by others – stranger than the last.


Once a Little Church, 2006


Who Will Keep the Keepers Themselves?, 2009

I hate to admit it but I have never been a real fan of Zed’s paintings. That’s just me, but it’s why I’ve concentrated on the sculptures and installations of the sculptural figures I could photograph – some were under Plexiglas. I know there are tons of folks who love her paintings as much as her figures/creatures. Some probably love them even more than the sculptures. People have different likes. I fell for the creatures – the weirder the better. Again, that’s just me.


Elephants Observer, (installation), 2009


Elephants Observer, (detail)


Elephants Observer, (detail)

I haven’t seen anything like Zed’s installations since the Sticks and Stones exhibit offered at the Old Slave Mart building during a Piccolo Spoleto Festival – way back when, put on by LOCUS Contemporary Arts Center. If anyone remembers that exhibit, they’ll know what I’m talking about.


Study for Debris Field, 2011


Brainchild, 2009


Feathers or ‘The Early Clone Gets the Contract’, 2005


Red in Fashion, 2009

There’s no time to go on about Zed’s works at this point, so I’ll let the images do the talking. You can see more images and a video about Zed at this link (http://halsey.cofc.edu/exhibitions/aggie-zed-keepers-keep/).

The exhibit will be on view Friday, Mar, 9 and Saturday, Mar. 10, from 11am-4pm. There’s plenty of parking by the gallery as the College of Charleston is on Spring break.

For further info call 843/953-4422 or visit (www.halsey.cofc.edu).

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The March 2012 Issue of Carolina Arts is Now Ready to Download

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

The March 2012 issue of Carolina Arts is up on our website at (www.carolinaarts.com) – all 72 pages of it. We had over 81,000 downloads of the February 2011 issue – 3,000 less than in January. Which is logical since we had a few less days in February.

We ask that you help us bring the news about the Carolina visual art community to others by spreading the link for the download around to your e-mail lists and posting it on your Facebook page. Once people see all that is going on in the visual art community they will spread it around to their lists and on their Facebook pages.

The link is: (http://www.carolinaarts.com/312/312carolinaarts.pdf).

If you are receiving this because you are on someone’s list, you can send us an e-mail to (info@carolinaarts.com) to be placed on our list, so you will get a notice of every new issue.

So download that PDF and dig in – it’s going to take a while to get through this issue. And, don’t forget to find a way to thank our advertisers – they make the paper possible.

Thanks – Tom and Linda Starland
Carolina Arts
843-825-3408
info@carolinaarts.com

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The February 2012 Issue of Carolina Arts is Now Ready to Download

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

The February 2012 issue of Carolina Arts is up on our website at (www.carolinaarts.com) – all 68 pages of it. We had over 84,000 downloads of the January 2011 issue – a new record.

We ask that you help us bring the news about the Carolina visual art community to others by spreading the link for the download around to your e-mail lists and posting it on your Facebook page. Once people see all that is going on in the visual art community they will spread it around to their lists and on their Facebook pages.

The link is: (http://www.carolinaarts.com/212/212carolinaarts.pdf).

If you are receiving this because you are on someone’s list, you can send us an e-mail to (info@carolinaarts.com) to be placed on our list, so you will get a notice of every new issue.

So download that PDF and dig in – it’s going to take a while to get through this issue. And, don’t forget to find a way to thank our advertisers – they make the paper possible.

Thanks – Tom and Linda Starland
Carolina Arts
843-825-3408
info@carolinaarts.com

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The Wells Gallery in Charleston, SC, Features Exhibit of Works by John Michiels

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

Editor’s Note: Sorry, we have to correct the dates of this show.

The Wells Gallery in Charleston, SC, will present the exhibit, Quiet Space, featuring over 15 photographs by John Michiels, on view from Jan. 3 – 31, 2012. A reception will be held on Jan. 26, from 5:30-7:30pm.

Michiels’ creative spirit was evident from the beginning, but it took years of study, practice and experimentation before he developed his signature style that some have described as southern gothic. He absorbed and applied the principles of photography as espoused by Adams, Weston, Sexton and other photographers he admired, first emulating their techniques, then incorporating what he learned into his own artistic vision. In his smooth and detailed photographs, you will be able to see why Michiels loves to “play” the gray scale. “I chose monochrome photography because it simplifies and emphasizes my subject matter. I love the mood and feeling it conveys.”

Michiels’ photographs began winning awards in high school, encouraging him to pursue photography as the medium for his creative expression. He continues to gain recognition at the annual Piccolo Spoleto Outdoor Art Exhibit in Charleston, receiving 6 ribbons, including two for first place and a best of show/Mayor’s Purchase Award.

After working in a traditional darkroom for 25 years, Michiels gave it up in 2006 for digital printmaking after studying with John Cone and his staff at Cone Editions in Vermont. “Mr. Cone is widely recognized as a pioneer in digital printing. He’s the go-to printer for some of the most highly regarded artists in the world.”

“While at Cone Editions, I had the opportunity to use their printers and John’s Piezography ink-sets. This was the first time I’d seen digital pigment prints of my work and even though they had a different feel, the quality completely rivaled my darkroom prints,” say Michiels. Piezography inks are a monochrome set of pure carbon pigment inks and are unparalleled for tonal-range, sharpness and stability.

“I’m glad I spent so many years making gelatin-silver prints,” adds Michiels. “That irreplaceable knowledge gained in the darkroom, gave me an solid foundation for digital print making. I’m able to hold my carbon pigment prints to the highest standards.”

Michiels works with medium and large format and digital cameras, He personally completes every step of the printmaking process including framing. His photographs are produced, mounted and framed using archival processes and the finest materials. Current prints are offered in editions of 45 or less.

National and international art lovers, business owners and interior designers collect his South Carolina Lowcountry photographs.

For further information call the gallery at 843/853-3233 or visit (www.wellsgallery.com).

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Taking a Look at Marketing Techniques in the Carolinas

Thursday, January 12th, 2012

This year we’re going to take a look at how the visual art community in the Carolinas is marketing itself. We’ll start with this posting which expresses some of the problems I have to deal with on a daily basis in collecting info about the visual art community. After this we’ll go into many of these points in more detail.

I’m going to borrow a technique from comedian Jeff Foxworthy in pointing out some problems about marketing in the visual art community in the Carolinas.

This posting is not meant to embarrass anyone, but to be instructive in a humorous way. Luckily for me and others in the media these examples represent the minority not the majority, but, can often be a daily occurrence. Some of this is directed at organizations and some is for individuals.

So here we go…

You might be pretty bad at marketing when you don’t have a website, blog or Facebook page. An e-mail address that you don’t check very often isn’t going to cut it either. When you send an e-mail out, be available to respond to someone’s question about what you sent. Don’t hit send and then disappear for a week. And, don’t change your e-mail address every other year. You have to have venues where you can communicate with the public and other members of the visual art community.

You might be pretty bad at marketing when your website lists a year’s worth of exhibits for the year 2008 and it’s 2012. If you can’t keep current info on your website why have one? Once someone sees you are that far out of date – they won’t be returning to your site anytime soon. How could they trust any info they find there?

You might be pretty bad at marketing when your website list a year’s worth of exhibits – without any year given and they are from 2010. Without a year’s date no one will really know for sure when these events will take place or if they already have taken place. The year is as important as the day and month when it comes to dates.

You might be pretty bad at marketing when your website only lists the exhibit you are currently showing. If you don’t know what your next exhibit is – just a few weeks away, how can someone plan to come see your exhibits. Some people make it a big deal to tell you about past exhibits – two or three year’s worth, but don’t bother to put anything about future exhibits even the next month’s exhibit. Some people like to make plans ahead of time – not at the last minute.

You might be pretty bad at marketing when your website only lists the reception date and its hours for the exhibit you are currently showing or in the future. This says that if you can’t come to our party – we don’t want you to bother us during the run of the exhibit. Don’t worry, most people will not travel anywhere these days without knowing that what they want to see will be there – open for viewing when they arrive.

You might be pretty bad at marketing if you have to pay someone to make changes or additions to your website. Instead of learning a few key strokes you’d rather pay someone who is laughing at you all the way to the bank. The fancier a website is the more complicated it will be and the more money it will cost you – month after month, year after year. A good website gives information – not a show. If websites are too complicated – use a blog format instead – they’re mostly free and simple to operate. I’m not trying to take money away from website designers, but part of their fee should include showing you how to make updates. And it should be simple.

You might be pretty bad at marketing if you send out a press release just days before an event begins. You’re really bad when you send it out after the event has begun.

You might be pretty bad at marketing when you send your press release in all caps – hoping the person you sent it to will retype it for use. Or you decided to use several different styles of type and every other paragraph is in a different color – just so it would be noticed. Don’t worry – you got their attention. You’ll most likely go in their special file.

You might be pretty bad at marketing when you send your press release as a picture or PDF that can’t be copied easily. Did you just want them to see it or did you want them to be able to re-use it? And no media outlet is going to use that special invitation you created or poster – that would be giving you a free display ad.

You might be pretty bad at marketing when you don’t have any photos of the work you’re about to show when the media request photos. If your artists can’t provide media ready images – you need to find more organized artists to offer exhibit opportunities. And how about sending one with the press release and letting them know they can request more.

You might be pretty bad at marketing when all you can send the media is the dates, title, and a short description of the exhibit. You have no press release to offer, and you wonder why no one comes to see your exhibits. And, don’t send one publication an article written in another publication as a press release. It happens more than you would think.

You might be pretty bad at marketing when your organization changes the person in charge of doing marketing every year. It usually takes six months for someone to catch on to what it takes and how to do it right – meaning they only have six months to do what they learned before they have to learn how to be the organization’s treasurer – for a year. If you get someone who is good at PR – keep them any way you can.

You might be pretty bad at marketing when you are still sending your press releases by snail mail in 2012. And, with non-profit postage the mail person doesn’t even have to deliver them. First class postage is the only way to learn that the people you are sending mail to are still there at that address. Using first class postage is the only way to clean up your mailing list.

You might be pretty bad at marketing when your mailing list has more people on it that have died, moved away, or didn’t even want to get mail from you – than people who would actually come to your exhibits if they only knew about them. Again, use First Class stamps and take people off your list when that mail is returned.

You might be pretty bad at marketing when you say you don’t have time for marketing exhibits you are presenting. There’s no reason to have exhibits if you’re not going to market them – especially with the free opportunities you have available to you, as well as the paid opportunities.

You might be pretty bad at marketing when you don’t understand what marketing is. You’re the person who calls the local newspaper and tells them you want to change your ad – when what they give you is a free exhibit listing. The word “ad” means paid advertising.

You might be pretty bad at marketing when you contact the media and ask them – “if I bother to write a press release will they use it?” I’m sure the media is just hoping you’ll go that extra mile – make the effort – so they’ll have something to do to fill the time they have to spend at work.

You might be pretty bad at marketing when you spell the name of your featured artist three different ways in one press release. For individual artists, make sure you have the correct names of the institutions you say you have had exhibits with when you give the presenter your resume. I often wonder if people are not just making things up when they get those names wrong.

You might be pretty bad at marketing when you send an e-mail to the media and don’t put your name in the e-mail. Identify who you’re with or give a clue to the person you sent it to as to who they would get back with if they had a question. Give your name on all e-mails and for whom you are sending it. It’s also a good idea to make sure you include a telephone number – sometimes people may be working on deadlines and decide to call for clarification of some of your information.

I could go on, if I devoted more time to this or just waited for tomorrow’s mail and e-mail to arrive, but I think you get the point or at least I hope you do. But there is one more:

You might be pretty bad at marketing if you’ve gotten angry reading this instead of learning from it. You might not be the person who should be doing marketing. Remember, the media doesn’t have to include what you’ve sent them – they’re getting press releases from a lot of sources other than you. And they have limited space these days.

So where do you fit in?

Look, I’m not saying we’re perfect at marketing ourselves – we’re not. I’m just trying to help people get better at what they send out as PR.

I myself often send reply e-mails looking for further info that was in the e-mail I received, but just missed it as I scanned through it. We’re getting a lot of them all the time so there is not a lot of time to read through each one as we receive them. I’d spend all day reading e-mails and getting nothing else done. I’ve also helped a few folks correct some big mistakes they have made in their PR. After 25 years I’ve read a lot of press releases – the good the bad and the ugly.

I’m always happy and ready to talk to anyone who wants to know what info we need, how we would like to get it and when we would like to receive it. That time spent will just make my life better down the road. I’m all for making my life better, but these suggestions will make everyone’s life better – the media, the sender, and the reader.

We have a whole section on our website (www.carolinaarts.com) called “How the Paper Works” that explains how to get yourself included in Carolina Arts. We even give an example of how to write a press release.

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Tracking the Numbers for the December 2011 Issue of Carolina Arts

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

This will be my last report on the download numbers each month other than a mention in my commentary in the paper. It’s taken time to keep up with the stats and it’s a bit of a distraction from other things. The last year has been a roller coaster from the 8,929 downloads we got with our first electronic issue in Jan. 2011 to the 83,826 downloads we received from the Dec. 2011 issue – another record month.

We had 569,581 downloads of each monthly issue during the month it was launched. That’s not the total number of downloads during the year as people kept downloading copies of various month’s issues – long after that month had passed. Like in December, 199 people downloaded that Jan. 2011 issue to take a look. That’s one of the great things about being an electronic paper. Old issues are available on our website so that anyone who discovers our paper can look at back issues – in total, the same way everyone saw them when they were first launched. Since 1999 we’ve made the articles form old issues available for viewing, but it wasn’t until Aug. of 2004 that the entire issue could be seen – articles, photos and ads. If you check it out you’ll see our website has a ton of stuff archived there.

Last year we had one outstanding issue that seemed to attract a lot of viewers or at least a few who were willing to promote it month after month. This would be our “cult” issue – March 2011. During the month of March it attracted 45,298 downloads – more than the months of April, July, and September, but each month after March it still kept attracting a lot of downloads for an issue which had been long over. The Mar. 2011 issue received 5,151 downloads in December 2011. The March issue received more downloads than our Jan. 2011 issue did during the months of May, June, Sept., Oct. and Nov. By the Summer, I was suspecting that some one or a group of folks were doing something to boast the March numbers. They were so out of wack with the other numbers for previous issues. Something unusual had to be going on.

For the first time I’m admitting that I started under-reporting the March download numbers to see what would happen, hoping someone would contact us and complain, but they just kept coming. In total the March 2011 issue of Carolina Arts has attracted 129,727 downloads – that’s 84,429 after the month of March. It’s amazing and a mystery as to what’s going on. Whatever is going on, it’s good for everyone who was in that March 2011 issue as they are getting a lot of exposure – over and over again.

Of course nothing is as puzzling as the case of the “other” category in our stats. The good folks at our server tell us that this number could represent more downloads of the paper, but they can’t tell for sure because they are coming to our site from un-trackable sources. I’m like – what? For many months last year we had more “other” counts than downloads of the main issue. It’s very frustrating not knowing what these numbers represent but in the last two months our downloads of the main issues have been out pacing the “other” numbers. It’s very strange. But then, isn’t everything about the Internet strange.

The Numbers

It’s worth repeating that the Dec. 2011 issue of Carolina Arts received 83,826 downloads. Coming in at the number two spot was the “other” with 59,005 and of course in third place was the March 2011 with 5,151 downloads.

In fourth place this month was our Aug. 2011 issue with 1,844 downloads. Then it was Nov. 2011 with 633, July 2011 with 298, Jan. 2011 with 199, June 2011 with 170, and Feb. 2011 with 97 downloads. The April, May, Sept. and Oct. issues were somewhere below the top 200 categories on our stats list – which includes 10,001 categories on our website. The stats only track 10,001 items. We have well over 30,000 items on our website.

The website set another record for visits with 99,268 sessions in Dec., giving us an average of 3,202 visits a day and one of those days our server had to reboot their system and we got no stats for that day. If they hadn’t done that we would have gone over the 100,000 mark.

Way back in college I was studying to be an accountant. My mother was a bookkeeper and she wanted her son to be an accountant – the big bean counter, but by my fourth year I got the idea that I wanted to be a photographer. Those years counting numbers have paid off over the years but I still find number counting to be more boring than interesting. Numbers can tell you things, but at some point I always find something else more interesting. And, there were many times during this last year that I had wished I had never started tracking these numbers. And, a year is enough for me.

When it comes down to the bottom line – we’ve got a lot more viewers of Carolina Arts than we did when we were printing only 10,000 copies of the paper which in its last years was just 24 – 36 pages, covering parts of the Carolinas and back to black and white copy. The paper now is in full color with 50 – 70 pages, covering all areas of the Carolinas we hear from by deadline, and is available at the click of your return key on your computer, tablet or smart phone. What’s not great about that?

If for some reason you haven’t downloaded a copy of our Jan. 2012 issue of Carolina Arts or any of the other issues from 2011, you can do that at (www.carolinaarts.com) or just hit (http://www.carolinaarts.com/112/112carolinaarts.pdf) to download the Jan. 2012 issue.

And, many thanks to those good folks who are sending the link to download Carolina Arts each month out to their e-mail lists after we launch it each month. It’s these people who are helping bring new viewers to our paper. The numbers we are seeing wouldn’t be anywhere close to what they have been without them. It takes a village to deliver a paper and we thank our village members.

Let’s all have a prosperous and happy new year.

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The January 2012 Issue of Carolina Arts is Now Ready to Download

Sunday, January 1st, 2012

The January 2012 issue of Carolina Arts is up on our website at (www.carolinaarts.com) – all 61 pages of it. We had over 82,000 downloads of the December 2011 issue – a new record.

We ask that you help us bring the news about the Carolina visual art community to others by spreading the link for the download around to your e-mail lists and posting it on your Facebook page. Once people see all that is going on in the visual art community they will spread it around to their lists and on their Facebook pages.

The link is: (http://www.carolinaarts.com/112/112carolinaarts.pdf).
If you are receiving this because you are on someone’s list, you can send us an e-mail to (info@carolinaarts.com) to be placed on our list, so you will get a notice of every new issue.
So download that PDF and dig in – it’s going to take a while to get through this issue. And, don’t forget to find a way to thank our advertisers – they make the paper possible.
Thanks – Tom and Linda Starland
Carolina Arts
843-825-3408
info@carolinaarts.com

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Tracking the Numbers for the First Ten Days of the Dec. 2011 Issue of Carolina Arts

Monday, December 12th, 2011

Well, it seems we are still riding the top of a pretty good wave this month. The total downloads of the Dec. 2011 issue of Carolina Arts for the first ten days in December is 78,221 – that’s about 7,000 more than last month at this time. I continue to be amazed.

Although it has been a year since the last time I had to hit the road to deliver papers around the Carolinas, I think I could still do it, but I think I’d be in the hospital or still on the road if I had to deliver 78,000 papers. That’s like delivering seven months worth of papers in ten days compared to the old days. Of course this new paper would also be at least three time bigger. Oh my achin’ back!

I can only assume we will be setting new records this month, although it is possible it could be all down hill from now on as most of the monthly downloads come in those first ten days – with a few exceptions. I would expect that by the Friday before Christmas all activity on our website will come to a standstill. And, between Christmas and the New Year – not much will go on either.

As far as the other numbers go, the (other) is in second place with a total of 20,087 – also a little more than in Nov. at this time. In third place is our August 2011 issue with 1,829 and in fourth is – you got it – our March 2011 issue with 1,781. But when I looked at the numbers for Dec. 11th – they had traded places. That March issue is a wonder.

The standings really drop after that. In fifth place was our July 2011 issue with 211 downloads. Following behind was January 2011 with 143; June 2011 with 98; and February 2011 with 27. All other months were below the 200 item number on our stats counter.

Just remember, family and friends come first during the holidays, and we hope you have good ones, but once the excitement is all over – it’s OK to get back to your internet searches.

And, Santa if you’re reading this – all I want for Christmas is more advertisers, more downloads, more “likes” on Facebook, and more customers for the arts. That’s all I want. But, if you like, you can throw in Peace on Earth, good health and happiness for all, and a Democratic landslide in the next election. And, one final thing, let the Carolina Panthers beat the New Orleans Saints on New Years Day – big time. That’s absolutely all I’m asking for this year. Wait, if you could see it to bring gas prices back down to 99 cents a gallon that would be good too. That’s it. I can wait till next year for you to take care of all my debt if you’re in a hurry to get to someone else.

P.S. Santa, Linda and I are trying to cut back on all the goodies this year so there won’t be any cookies this year and without cookies I’m not sure if the milk will be worth leaving out. Besides last year you forgot to clean up the crumbs and there were ants in the morning. We’re not complaining, it’s just if you leave crumbs out – how can you blame the ants. They’ve got to eat too I guess. And, FYI, you do remember Bonneau Beach has a pooper scooper law in place, that was a heck of a surprise you left on the roof last year. I’m just saying.

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America’s College Museums Handbook and Directory, Second Edition – My 2 Cents Worth

Thursday, December 8th, 2011

The other day I got kind of a wrong number call, or more exact a call thinking that we were someone else – which came from someone who found something on the Carolina Arts website. It happens all the time. Someone does a Google search and finds an article about whom or what they were searching, and they call the number at the bottom of the page – not the number at the end of the article.

On this day it was a woman from Grey House Publishing looking for someone at one of the university or college art galleries in the Carolinas. I can’t remember which one, but it was someone we cover in the paper. Our conversation soon led to the fact that her publishing company had produced the second edition of the America’s College Museums Handbook & Directory. I told her I just included some info about art books in our December 2011 issue of Carolina Arts. Before I know it she’s getting my mailing address to send me a 30 day trial of a book which costs $185. I assured her I did not want to buy the book, but would take a look at it and maybe give my two cents on it in one of my blogs. So, here we are.

Here’s the description of the book found on the website of Grey House Publishing:

America’s College Museums Handbook & Directory, Second Edition

Published August 2011
Grey House Publishing
Dr. Victor J. Danilov
Softcover: 600 pages
ISBN: 1-59237-674-6/978-1-59237-674-2
Price: $185.00

The only resource of its kind, this work presents a comprehensive picture of over 1,700 museums and galleries in American colleges and universities.

This updated second edition includes data on 400 new facilities, more photos, new museum director contact information and four new indices to offer complete coverage of these important cultural facilities. It is an essential in-house reference tool for all campus museums and galleries and will be an important resource for academic and public libraries as well.

Students and their visitors may be surprised at the wealth and variety of culture readily available on their own campuses, and this guide makes the investigatory task easy.

Detailed introductory chapters offer an overview of the field, dealing with such aspects as history, mission, types, governance, staffing, collections, research, funding, exhibits, public programming, attendance, marketing and much more.

The Updated Directory of Organizations, with data on over 400 new facilities with more photos and new contact information for the museums’ directors, present detailed information on museums and collections of art, botanical gardens, costumes, geology, historical houses & sites, marine sciences, medical & health, musical instruments, natural history, photography, planetaria, religion, science & technology, sculptures, zoology and much more.

Four Indices: University & Museum Index, Museum & University Index, Geographic Index and Key Personnel Index

Founding & Opening Date Appendix

Selected Bibliography and Cumulative Index complete the text

Available in print and ebook formats

America’s College Museums provides a comprehensive overview of the funding, development, exhibitions, governance and future trends of college museums, along with highly informative profiles of these important facilities. This new edition will be a welcome source for all academic and public libraries.

————————————

Inside the book I found this info about the author.

Dr. Victor J. Danilov is a leading figure in the museum world. He was the director and/or president of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago for 15 years, and the founder and director of the Museum Management Program at the University of Colorado from 1988 to 2003. He is the author of 27 books, including 17 in the museum field, from museum career and planning guides to overviews of science, historic site, living history, ethnic, hall of fame, sports, corporate, and hands-on museums. He holds degrees from Pennsylvania State University, Northwestern University, and University of Colorado, and has been an officer in national and international museum organizations.

Here’s my 2 cents.

This is a big book, but I’ve got some that are just as big, filled with hundreds and hundreds of pages about some computer software program and I can’t find a few pages that tell me how to make that program do what I want. So, the size of a book doesn’t impress me and those big computer books were a lot cheaper.

My first impression is that this is a book every library in a city of 70,000 or more people should have in their reference department, as well as any library at a college or university that teaches art. I’m not sure why any individual would want this book at that price. That’s what libraries are for – they carry books we don’t need on an everyday basis.

Of course my interest was in what info they provided about art museums and art galleries at our Carolina colleges and universities. That’s my beat.

The info about facilities in the Carolinas filled about 10-12 pages in this book. And, I found the listings to be mostly complete, but also missed the mark in some big ways.

One example was that there were no listings for Charlotte, NC. They included the art gallery at Davidson College in Davidson, but none of the UNC-Charlotte art galleries. Nor do they include the facilities at Queens University and the community colleges in Charlotte. Charlotte is a big city to leave out completely.

It made me wonder if the info was collected by sending out a survey form and some people didn’t fill them out or return them in time?  But since this is the second edition I wonder how they knew who to send it to if you were not in the first edition.

They also didn’t include the Catherine J. Smith Gallery or the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at  Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. It’s hard for me to think they wouldn’t be included in the Art Gallery category. And, neither facility is brand new.

The directory also seemed to have a problem when it came the UNC- and USC- facilities, leaving out art galleries at UNC-Asheville, UNC-Charlotte, UNC-Wilmington, USC-Aiken, USC-Sumter, and UNC-Upstate to name a few.

In South Carolina, they did not include info about the art galleries at Coastal Carolina, Francis Marion University, Furman University, and SC State University.

And like I mentioned in leaving out Charlotte facilities, this directory did not take into account art galleries at community colleges – at least in the Carolinas.

I’ve been in SC a long time now, but I checked out the college and university I attended in Michigan and their facilities were included. The book has a lot of listings so I can only assume they don’t know much about the Carolinas.

Size of the facility did not seem to matter. So they were not leaving out smaller galleries, as they did include the galleries at Coker College in Hartsville, SC, and Davidson University, which are not very big gallery spaces.

The book does have info on 668 college and university art galleries and more about art museums throughout the US, so if I was an artist looking for an academic art space to exhibit my work, this directory could be very helpful. It includes e-mail and phone contacts for these facilities.

As far as those facilities not included in the Carolinas – I have a hard time getting some of these same folks to send me info so I’m not surprised some are left out. And I’ve been doing this in the Carolinas for 15 years.

These days UPS or other freight carriers can take your art anywhere, so there is no reason you couldn’t show your work at the Sheppard Fine Art Gallery at the University of Nevada, Reno in Reno, NV, or the Hammons Gallery at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, AR, as long as you know who to contact first. This book has a lot of that info sorted in several categories and in several different ways.

What should you do? You might want to check and see if your local library already has this book or encourage them to get a copy.

Grey House Publishing is located in Amenia, NY. You can contact them by calling 800/562-2139, e-mail to (books@greyhouse.com) or visit (www.greyhouse.com).

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