Artist Initiative
ACHF Arts Access
I will learn new social media, Web site management, and Web 2.0 skills that I can use to develop and sustain my brand and platform and grow my audience. I will provide three business-skills learning opportunities to under-served Minnesota artists around the rural west-central Minnesota region. 2: 10,000 people will stream or download song recordings from my new album, Concrete, featuring the artistry of ten Minnesota musicians. 10,000 people will become part of my social media community, thereby learning of my new Minnesota-based work on an ongoing basis.
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.)