We strive to build a following around our work as bloggers because blogging is a form of communication … the larger our following, the more people our message reaches.

The more people your message reaches, the more likely you are to sell your creative work, and thus, make a living doing what you love.

As an artist interested in making a living from your work, building a following is one of the most pivotal things you can do. But we’re not here for tips on how to build a following, we’re here to look at the number one reason why you’re not building a following effectively.

You Care About Your Following, Not Your Followers

Though we all strive to increase our number of followers, it’s crucial not to focus on the task of building a following as a numbers game — it’s much more complex than that. The total reach of your message isn’t determined by the number of your followers — your reach is determined by how many people actually care about your message.

So while one person may build a following of 1,000 people in a week, merely by following everyone possible and depending on the courtesy follow-back, you’ll probably find more success by taking the time to pay attention to the people you want to follow you — even if you gain 10 followers in one week, you have 10 people that want to hear what you have to say, which outweighs the 1,000 people that couldn’t care less.

It’s not about your following, it’s about your followers.

Here are a few things you can do to improve your approach toward building your following:

Stop Focusing On The Number

Refrain from paying attention to the number of followers you’ve gained — it might make you feel good, sure, but what feels even better is connecting with people within your following.

If you want to make real friends, you need to pay attention to them. Get to know them. Ask them how their day was. Try to connect with those nearby in person if possible.

Your following is not a number, it’s a group of people interested in you. The least you could do is return the interest — not by following them back out of courtesy (though you’re probably going to become interested in a lot of people if you take the time to learn about them), but rather by talking to them individually.

If you’re having trouble focusing on anything other than the number — and let’s face it, it’s pretty common, — consider thinking of it this way: If you have one follower, you’ve succeeded in building a following. It doesn’t matter whether or not they ever buy your creative work or not, they’re interested in you and what you have to say or offer.

Interact With Your Followers

As your following grows, you’ll find it more difficult to thank people individual as you might on Facebook and Twitter, so instead consider reaching out and asking questions.

The goal is to get people to interact with you, so you can engage them with further conversation and get to know them.

Remember, it’s not about you or your following, it’s about them and how you fit into their story. Every single person following you is following you for a reason, so your job is to position yourself within their personal story and help them achieve their goals, whatever those may be.

What it comes down to is simple: You’re making friends.

What’s Keeping You From Building A Following?

We all face the same challenges, but a lot of times those challenges are slightly different depending on what we hope to achieve, the type of creative work we do, and our approach — I’d love to hear more about what’s keeping you from building a following effectively if this is the case, because the more we can learn from each other the more effective we can become in reaching our goals.

Post a comment below with your own experience or ideas regarding building a following.

cc image credit: ⌡K

The social web is one of the most important tools available to the artist. It’s where you can reach out to people with your work, establish yourself as a professional artist, connect with brands and other artists, and ultimately sell your work.

That said, the true power of the social web is completely beyond your control, as it rests with your audience … more specifically, what your audience does in response to you. This might include anything from subscribing to your newsletter, liking your page on Facebook, or re-tweeting your latest.

Wait, Wait, Wait!

Before we go any further in that direction, let’s take a step back and think about the prelude to any sort of social activity from your audience — your discoverability.

Before you worry about how to increase the social chatter about your work or whether or not people will find it easy, fun, and cool to share your work with their friends, you first need to think about whether you’re actually discoverable or not … in other words, can people discover you independently?

Answer the Golden Question: What Do You Do?

Establishing what you do is very important when it comes to discoverability. If you can’t even reveal what you do clearly and concisely, you won’t be able to create a connection and understanding with the person trying to learn more about you and your work.

When you meet someone for the first time, it’s almost certain that the person you’re meeting will ask the golden question, “so, what do you do?” — it’s at this very moment you have the opportunity to establish yourself not as who you want to be, but as who you are becoming (assuming you’re actually hustling).

Think about it: the person you’re meeting isn’t really interested in your day job … it’s not about what you’re doing for money or what you spend the majority of your work week doing — it’s usually a question asked with the intention of getting to know who you are, because whether or not we like to admit it, what you do is who you are. If you work at the grocery store 40+ hours a week and write music when ever you can get to it after work, people are going to define you as someone the works at the grocery store. However, if you work your full time job and write music on your lunch, after work, and during the weekend, people are likely to define you as some sort of song writer or musician.

This should be taken without the spoon of sugar for those out there that aren’t pursuing their life’s work, yet talk about getting to it someday.

Do it.

This applies just the same online. When people visit your about page on your website or your social profile on Facebook, they’re looking for information regarding what you do. Now is your chance to establish yourself as a musician — leave out the day job, it’s not what people want to do. It’s boring. Reveal your work as soon as possible to those trying to discover more about your work. Create a gallery of your visual work online, provide streaming or downloadable files of your music, or pages and pages of your poetry.

Be sure what you do is clear to your discoverer … otherwise, they’re not going to be able to define you, you’re going to miss out on the most powerful aspect of the social web.

Establish A Clear Profile of Who You Are

In order to be discoverable, you need to have all the elements in place, including a clear profile of who you are as a professional artist. This means creating a solid about page for your website, a bio section for your blog, and polished blurbs for your various social profiles. This provides your audience, or discoverer, the information they need in order to discover you … who you are.

Avoid the temptation to copy and paste the same bio to your various social profiles, as this will only harm your chance of discoverability in the long run (this stuff counts as duplicate content, and duplicate content will likely result in a penalty from the search engines … or at least a lower ranking in your search engine position.

The idea here is to create your character — as if you’re in the story of a book.

Create a super-clear idea of who you are as a person … as a professional. Not only does this help position you as a pro in your niche, but it also helps create your profile, which is what helps people remember who you are. Sure, we all know the work of Salvador Dali due to it’s originality, but most of us will likely visualize him before his art because of the character he established.

What’s Your Unique Perspective?

Selling an abstract painting is a very difficult feat to achieve, but aside from the obvious price differences (depending of course) it isn’t unlike selling a bottle of wine.

Every bottle of wine offers something unique, because like art, wine is an old world craft that has had it’s share of innovation yet relies mostly on technique and perspective. The way wine makers sell their wine, aside from the ratings, is the label — each bottle offers a unique perspective that aims to connect with the potential customer. Similarly, paintings require that unique perspective because most buyers are interested in the idea, lifestyle, and motivation behind the creation of the painting.

Creating your own unique perspective as an artist will help you stand apart from the others in your niche, as well as help people connect with you. Think about how you feel about life, what drives you to create art, and what you hope to achieve with each creation. Remember, the goal is just as much to help the customer connect with your work as it is to define your true perspective.

For a lot of artists, this will come out through your expression and creation, however, it’s still a good idea to define it in words so you can explain it to those interested in learning what you have to say about your own work.

Create A Solid Foundation

The idea here is to create a solid foundation all about what you do, who you are, and what you have to offer people interested in discovering what you’re all about.

These three aspects to your professional profile will ultimately help you increase your discoverability, which in turn will lead to a larger social following and even ales.

cc image credit: Reemul

Lead people to a place they want to go.

People love to follow leaders.

No matter how independent you are, there’s a good chance you follow a few people you view as leaders.

In order to build a following, you need to be a leader as well.

Where will you lead people?

New media leaders in the business niche might lead people toward the idea that you need to embrace the latest web technology in order for your business to succeed, while others lead people toward the idea that the latest web technology doesn’t matter if you practice what’s worked throughout history.

As an artist, you need to lead people somewhere they want to go. This might mean leading people toward a particular idea, such as freedom. If you’re not sure yet, consider thinking about what you stand for. It’s a large subject to tackle, but you have to if you hope to lead others. Determine what you’re passionate about.

So, where are you leading people with your art?

photo credit: DavidSpinks

If you don't talk to strangers, how will you make new friends?

Professionals from just about every field understand the importance of networking and friendship.

Do you?

Networking is the act of making new friends.

As an artist, your friends (especially if fellow artists) will support your creative work, encourage you to continue doing what you do, and even inspire you.

Having support is important to artists. The more friends you make, the more support you’ll have.

Just remember: friendship is a two way street, so you’ll have to provide support as well if you hope to create a solid friendship.

This type of support is what can help you build a following. Your friends will share your work with their friends and followers, which can help build interest around your work. It’s important not to abuse this power (it’s a sure way to lose a friend and respect), but it’s also important to understand that it works.

Get out there and start talking to strangers. Make new friends. Share your work. Collaborate.

Power of networking aside, there’s nothing quite like a genuine friendship.

photo credit: Thirteen Of Clubs

Stephen King is one of the most prolific writer's ... ever.

We love prolific people.

They’re the proof that you can reach your dreams with a little a lot of hard work. They burn twice as bright as most people.

They inspire us to work harder.

Most artists struggle being more prolific with their work for a variety of reasons, which is something we’ll be focusing on a lot at CreativeBlogger, but before you set out to improve this aspect of your creative work, you need to know why.

Why Artists Need to Be Prolific

As impressive as the one-hit wonder can be, we’re much more attracted to the prolific artists and their ability to create and create and create.

Think of it this way: the one-hit wonder will gain limited recognition while the prolific artist will start building a reputation.

How Can I Be A Prolific Artist?

Becoming a more prolific artist comes down to your own style and medium. But overall, it just means start working harder and creating a lot more work.

Whether you’re a painter, a writer, a musician … it’s all the same.

Create and create and create.

photo credit: Arjen Toet

If you don't share your work, it's impossible to build interest.

Though it seems obvious, a lot of creative people – maybe even the majority – don’t make it this far.

Writers spend years creating stories they never share with readers. Singers refuse to sing in front of listeners. Photographers hide their images from viewers.

It’s sad.

Just as serious writers overcome the worst cases of writer’s block, you need to overcome your reluctance to share your work and realize that only by sharing what you create will you be able to build interest around your work. Build enough interest and you might be able to sustain as an artist … full time.

As in … you could eventually quit your day job.

Help the other artists reading this by sharing how you’re sharing your creative work online.

photo credit: KayOne73