Promote Your Heart Out (Importance of Marketing)

May the 1st be with you, dear readers.

And also with you timotheories. Go forceful and multiply.

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Thank you my friends! It’s that time of day, day of the week, and day of the month when I share with you this month’s plan, and of course, give you some theories to whittle away at. Are you ready to see the schedule?

Of course you are!

It might seem like this is turning into old hat – I give you the schedule, and because you know how each day’s theme plays out, you should expect to get your share of film, music, visual art and theories about the arts. Maybe some wisdom too, if you’re up for it.

But hold up a second, because you know what? Well, actually I don’t need to go into hypotheticals.

You already know that I am doing much more then simply giving you content each week. timotheories is also about sharing with you the important components to be successful as a creative type in today’s mix of social intelligence, online media, and globalization. You know in your heart, because you can’t have heart without art, that consistency of character is integral to a successful blog/portfolio/gallery/channel. And as it relates to the bigger picture, that who you are defines what you do.

When we look at this concept through the lenses to business, an incredibly important facet of artistry, we call this character a brand.

So if you’ve been playing real close attention these past few months of 2016 you’ll know that I haven’t been releasing “monthly schedule” posts on Sundays nor on the first of the month. Sundays are the day I share theory with you, when I release interviews, Cross Talk episodes, and also important updates to the timotheories brand.

Today isn’t going to be about the schedule. No, today is about marketing.

Because marketing is how you develop your brand. If brand houses the vehicle, than marketing is the set of vehicles that you CAN use to get from A to B. You might not need every vehicle, but they all can help.

Which is why I want to share with you some basics of marketing and how to ensure that you develop your professional relationships and connect your art to the people who should be seeing it. Which will help with your brand. And interestingly enough, I’m going to be taking this ride right along with you.

You see dear readers, I haven’t fully realized my brand yet either, but I know how to get there, because I’ve got a map. Courtesy of articles like this one.

The truth about marketing your particular brand is that you spend a large part on prep. You have to know your audience which means exposing yourself to the experts and learning from them as best you can. And fortunately enough, there are countless gurus out there that can provide you with information about syndication, professionalism, image, and your plan. And maybe other pieces.

  1. Starting with your business plan (summary of your business, your strengths, your weaknesses, goals, competition, and what makes your business unique) and memorizing it is probably the most important.
  2. Following it up with a regular schedule of promotion or syndication (sharing on social media, participating in events and communities, and collaborating with other experts.
  3. Setting up your image online and in person so you look and sound the same everywhere. That means logos, mailing lists, introductory videos and landing pages. You name it, it needs to match your image.
  4. Professionalism is similar to image, but what it really means the is that the authentic voice everywhere is consistent with who you are and puts your best business foot forward.
  5. … well let’s not get ahead of ourselves

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I’m sure you have questions about this process, but one thing is for sure, the future is not set, and I’ll be there with you as we fight the good fight. I know you have good art to share, and I want to help you share it. Marketing is key, so promote your heart out.

And those are all of the theories I’ve got today friends. I’ll see you tomorrow with something melodic. But you already knew that.

Tim!

How To Care More, Not Less (How To Douglas mailing list)

I’m a pretty big fan of supporting local events and groups, as I hope you would know by now. But did you know that are key individuals in our communities who actually spend their hard earned “free” time, sharing the catalogue of current local events for us Edmontonians on a regular basis and a lot of us who claim to crave this information don’t even know this content exists?!?!

It’s a shame really.

What do you mean by that Tim, you ask? Well, I will gladly elaborate for you dear readers.

What I mean is that there are legitimate resources in Edmonton that will hook YOU up, with the content YOU want, in order to see the arts YOU care about.

To illustrate this exact point I am going to share with you a very specific resource I learned about over this past summer and have been using to great effect since then.

Word of mouth is an amazing thing.

And I’m going to stop you before you point out a fallacy here. Yes, technically this could qualify as a Wisdom Wednesday post, but I think you will agree with me by the end the story that it makes more way more sense as a Timely Thursday post,. I mention this because you will now know about events happening in the city of Edmonton, this weekend, before we’re done. Anyway, I learned about this resource through a friend of mine who is relatively hooked up in the arts scene himself, but admits, as I do (I probably sound like a broken record at this point, especially to close friends) that it can be incredibly difficult to figure out what to do with your evenings and weekends, in Edmonton, because of the way our organizers organize events.

Without further ado, I present to you How To Douglas.

How To Douglas is a weekly arts events newsletter put together by a gentleman by the name of Douglas Dollars (Stewart).

Before I outline in detail how this wildly useful weekly information station works, I’m going to theorize a bit on the origin of the chosen name How To Douglas, because in doing research for this post I stumbled upon some pretty funny content and I would love to interview Douglas himself to find out if I’m correctly seeing the connection.

Did you know that the Dougie is a style of hip hop dancing that was invented by a rapper of the name Lil’ Wil with the video of his 2007 hit “My Dougie”? Lil’ Wil took his now popular dance name from another rapper by the name of Doug E. Fresh, who had a signature move he used in the 1980s.

Look at the chorus from My Dougie below for more implications.

My Dougie-My Dougie-My Dougie-My Dougie
My Dougie-My Dougie-My Dougie
She Say She Like My Dougie, I’m Fresh
My Dougie, I’m Fresh-My Dougie, I’m Fresh
Yep Flyer Then A Mothafucker

I see what you did there, Douglas. You took something a signifier of cool to represent your newsletter which is about being involved in cool things, and your name is Doug. Clever girl, err I mean boy.

You should check out this link put together by Know Your Meme for more information on the Dougie.

Having shared that tidbit and had some fun, I will admit that Douglas is something of an enigma to me personally, but a number of cool people I know also know him and have him as a friend on Facebook, so I know he is real and not simply a representation of a business model. Though this article might tell you otherwise.

As I mentioned earlier, the How To Douglas newsletter comes out weekly. Every Thursday, like clockwork, it starts with a little note about how Douglas is feeling, his thoughts on the time of year, and an anecdote or two. It’s usually clever, sometimes insightful, and just a little bit silly. The content feels like a loveletter to the arts whenever I read it, which I hope is the intended effect.

And because it comes out on Thursday, the newsletter focuses on events taking place over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday which makes sense given the half life and nature of the content.

If you want to see music, film, art or anything other than a hockey game, inside of a cineplex or a restaurant, How To Douglas feels incredibly refreshing.

But don’t take my word for it. Subscribe and check it out yourself. You just might like it. Comments? Questions? Leave them!

Tim!