In case you’ve been living in a cave, Facebook has officially exploded onto the internet scene and is now THE social networking site for, well, anyone with a pulse. I’ve been on Facebook for a while now, using it both personally and professionally. While I enjoy catching up with friends and keeping tabs on a few other artists, I’m still trying to figure out if Facebook has any real value in terms of networking-slash-growing my business.
For instance, on Facebook I’m “friends” with dozens of artists (which is obviously good for light networking). Lately I’ve noticed some of them are creating Groups or Fan pages to promote their work. Can anyone explain to me how this works and what the benefit is? If it’s just to gather a bigger list of “friends” to prove how popular you are, I’m not really interested. I got over most of that in high school. But if creating a Group or Fan Page has some real benefit in terms of getting my name out there, reaching clients, and growing my business, then I am *definitely* interested. For those of you who have Groups or Fan Pages, what do people get out of joining your Group? How often do you have to update the Group page? How do you get potential clients to follow you on Facebook?
Let me ask it another way: Have any of you blog readers actually found freelance work or grown your client base through using Facebook? If so, please leave a comment and tell us all about it. I’d love to know how Facebook has helped you as an artist.