Support Local Artists! A How To.

Hello, everyone!

As the new year begins, I've been reflecting a lot on the amount of support and love I have received from family, friends, and clients in the last few years.

Everyone in my life has been so amazing in supporting my photography and pushing me to keep going even when I am feeling lost. 

THANK YOU to everyone who has been there for me!

That being said, I have also met other artists that do not have the support system that I am blessed to have, and so I wanted to give a quick list on ways everyone can support their favorite local artist!

This is the simplest way to help your local artist. Share their posts!

Do you follow them on Facebook? Share their posts whenever you see one pop up. If you don't see one pop up, take the time to check their page and share a post.

Instagram? Click "Share to" and it will allow you to share to wherever you want! (PS you have to click on the three little dots in the top right of the post).

Twitter? Retweet the post!

But what exactly does this do?

While local artists do try their best to get the biggest reach possible, sharing a post increases their reach exponentially.

For example, let's say I post an image to Facebook, and 100 people like my page. Now, do to algorithms, what if only 50 people saw that post? I'm only reaching half of my potential audience. Now, three of my friends share that post, and 50 of their friends saw the post. That's 150 more people!

Seriously, just share the crap out of their posts.

This one takes just slightly more effort on your part than clicking a share button.

Comment!

Even if it's just some emojis, like smiley face + heart, that boosts the probability of the post being seen by more people, which increases the reach of the artist, which in turn increases their change of making a sale or earning a new client!

Of COURSE we love it when we receive comments about how much people like our art (all artists have self-doubt to an extent and any words of encouragement are greatly appreciated), and comments that go into detail about what you like about what you see can encourage others to share the wealth of friendly words, and may even push others to book or purchase!

For some reason, social media just LOVES to bring back old posts, so if you happen to have the time, scroll back through your favorite artist's feed and comment on an older post. This will cause the post to show up in other people's feeds since there was an action taken on the post. Don't ask me why, maybe social media is just nostalgic!

Also, don't forget to just click the like button or "heart" it on Insta while you are working your way to the comment section. Every little bit is appreciated!

Obviously we just talked about commenting on posts, so I mean real words! Verbal language! It's so easy it's funny.

Let's say you have a friend who just bought a house and is looking to decorate. If you know a local artist, you could just mention that you love their work and that your friend should take a look as they might find something they love!

Heck, my mother even just walks up to strangers and refers people, granted, she's a real estate agent and her whole career is about referrals. She received one of my prints as a canvas poster and went to Hobby Lobby to have it framed. the entire time, people were stopping by and commenting on it, and she just kept bragging about how they should go to my website! Remind me, I need to get that woman some of my business cards!

I actually booked my first Colorado gig by budging in on a conversation. I was ringing up a customer at this store I used to work at, and they were talking about how they needed to find a photographer to shoot the boy's senior portraits. I felt super awkward, but I mentioned that I was a photographer and would love to help them out. The lady booked me for his senior portrait, for family portraits, and for real estate photos! That's three sessions that I could have missed out on if I hadn't spoken up.

It's amazing how less awkward it gets the more you do it. Eventually you're just like "Hey, I'm here, what's up!" 

So next time you're standing in line at the grocery store, or wherever, and you overhear another person talking about needing a product that your favorite artist offers, let that person know where to go look! Your local artist will be so thankful!

As artists, we completely understand that not everyone can or will want to support what we create. One, everyone has different tastes, and two, everyone has different budgets, and that's totally okay!

If you can, even the smallest purchase can help your artist. If not, please refer to the other steps! I cannot tell you how many clients I have booked due to referrals and social media exposure, which is utterly amazing and cost my supporters just their time and kind words!