Artist Initiative

I learned new social media, website management, Web 2.0, and brand and platform management skills through multiple classes, consultants, and ongoing practice. I gained skills through one-on-one sessions with Springboard for the Arts consultants, an intensive nine-week Social Media House course, working with the representatives who managed my account at the Cyber PR firm, multiple web courses on web design through Lynda.com, working with students as a main class project of a University of Minnesota Marketing class, and most significantly by creating a daily social media and brand management practice using my website, blog, Facebook, and twitter. Over the year I have solidified my brand and learned how to communicate better with my fanbase. I can measure my success by my audience numbers, which have grown significantly, and by the success of the three business skills workshops I taught to rural west-central Minnesotans. 2: Through the grant-supported work I did this year, I have developed a stronger presence as a Minnesotan artist via my website, Facebook page, twitter feed, guest blog posts, and the availability of my music. The artistic work of myself as a Minnesota artist and the ten Minnesota musicians I collaborated with on my recordings and videos were made more accessible to the public. I can evaluate this outcome by near 10,000 interactions new listeners had with me and my music over the course of the last year. (Based on the fact that I did not have exact reader and listener numbers from blog posts and podcasts on which I was featured, I made a low estimate which brought my numbers to below 10,000. It is possible that the number of new listeners was even higher.)