creative

Nobody Liked This (Facebook pt. 1)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Facebook is a huge social network. Like seriously huge.

This we already know.

With just over 1.79 billion users, it’s even more popular than YouTube, which has roughly 1 billion users, but definitely more so than Instagram (5M) and Twitter combined (3M).

With such an incredible base of people using it on a regular basis, it’s kinda impossible to not jump on the Facebook bandwagon. Yes, there is an argument to be made that younger people are moving towards social media networks like Instagram. And it is true that Tumblr, Reddit, and Pinterest are growing in little leaps as well, but when it comes to large scale networking, Facebook is king of the hill.

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The Social Network

And it even has a 2010 movie made about it which we affectionately know as The Social Network – an award winning movie that received Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, and Best Film Editing.

You’ve probably seen the movie too. And whether you have or not, I’m gonna give a quick recap on it. It tells the story of friends Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) who build a website called Thefacebook for ivy league students to meet and date, while Zuckerberg has been simultaneously employed by Harvard twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer) to build The Harvard Connection. The Winklevoss’ eventually sue Zuckerberg for stealing their idea, while Napster co-founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) works his way in on Zuckerberg to improve upon the website, while also convincing him to push Saverin out.

It’s a gripping movie which puts a dark twist on the decade of 2000-2009 and also tells a rather human story about social media.

Facebook Marketing For Creatives

But the thing is, you’re a creative professional, and you need to start marketing yourself better. You really should find a way to get your work out there and in the hands of the people who want to see your content.

I know those people exist, because I run into them all the time in both my real life AND digital travels, and it’s not that difficult to reach them. You have to understand the basics of Facebook marketing first.

Facebook has three major ways of connecting users to content – Pages, ads, and groups. Each of them has a particular value and purpose, but by combining them together you’ll learn how to get where you’re going and effectively to boot.

  1. Facebook pages are to individual profiles what corporations are to small businesses. This is where you share content with your followers and get them involved in your personal brand. You have to set up your business page if you want to get to the ads step, so do that first. Then focus on lifestyle over product. Also want to be actively involved in comments and service… this can include incentivizing your user base and sharing user content too.
  2. Facebook ads are targeted content that you share with a specific audience. The goal is to share with those consumers that fit a particular audience and ideally it will highlight particular aspects of your brand. You’ll want to have a clear objective in mind, rotate ads often to prevent disengagement, and target key data points.
  3. Facebook groups are different from pages in that they provide a place for people to get together and share content of a similar effect. It’s more community minded and less brand driven, which means that you can learn a lot about what people think of you/your business by asking questions and starting conversations.

Now to be perfectly honest, those are simply the tools in the tool-belt, what you really need are a set of instructions and a how-to guide on construction. But in order to do that, I’ll have to write more about it, and that’s better served for another theory. After all, we only retain about 3-10% of new information in a single pass, so I’ll let you mull over this for a few weeks and then come back at you with part two. Sounds good? Excellente.

I hope you have an excellent evening dear readers, and to my American fans, I hope your new president treats you well and is a good steward to the global community.

Tim!

 

 

Explore Some More (Megan Warkentin preview interview)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

 

Exploration is important, it allows you to learn things about yourself, to make friends, find lovers, to live life in a more productive and harmonious state. And in the most obvious of ways, to experience that which you did not even know about – gaining in wisdom and knowledge.

Cameras, laptops, smart tech, mobile phones, all of these things are the result of exploration. The same can be said of conceptual exploration. If we don’t stay active with our thoughts, we stagnate and we die. Metaphorically or sometimes quite literally. That’s one of the many reasons for timotheories, a way for me (and the ever-expanding timotheories squad) to communicate ideas and activities to you which are obscure and not readily available.

As you know, I meet with artists on the regular in the hopes of communicating key principles of business, creativity, and social skills we all need, yes myself included dear readers, in order to function properly as an artist, also emphasizing that exploration never ends. We have to embrace that uncertainty and exploration in order to continue along our merry way.

Which is what this month’s featured artist has her eyes keenly tuned toward. In fact, she thinks exploration is vital, so much so that she’s made it part of her artistic practice to paint individuals risking life and limb in order to test their own mettle. But more on that later, I still have to release the complete interview folks.

Using metaphor and the literal, Megan Warkentin is a graduate student at the University of Alberta who is the final chapter of her degree, preparing for her graduate exhibition this fall semester. A born and raised Edmontonian, Megan has been involved in the art scene for quite some time, but her major contribution has always been in the arena of painting. I’m incredibly proud to have the opportunity to share a sneak peek of our interview with you today, because she has some great ideas on how explore as an artist.

I’m jumping off the walls in anticipation, I can’t wait anymore, so here is a preview of episode 12 of timotheories interviews, enjoy.

I must be a fan of long weekends, because I did the same thing last month. Releasing a preview over the long weekend is a great way to explore my own timing, but I got it to you didn’t I?

I’m out of theories for now, dear readers! Have a fantastic night, I’ll be back tomorrow with a review on the new Bon Iver album. It sound be a good one.

Tim!

Lean Into The Grind (David Wiens interview preview)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

 

In video game culture there is a term associated with the time it takes to increase your characters skill or attain level progression or even acquire additional items. It’s called level grinding.

We all do it in video games, especially those who play RPGs or more recently, those who play social games which have a pay-to-win model.

Those who pay get to skip the grind and reap the benefits almost immediately. This mentality has led to some not-so-nice feedback from the gaming community and a rather crude nickname for that 2% who spend the most – whales.

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I have this theory that the reason why people hate whales is because they cannot afford the same convenience of “skipping” the grind. But what they don’t realize is that often, the developers have set up a model that no matter how much you spend, the difficulty and challenge stays the same as you climb, thus the reason that demographic continues to exist – as they dump money into a social game, more opportunities and rewards crop up that warrant continued commitment.

Which is why perseverance is so valuable.

As you gain levels in life, you appreciate the commitment and recognize the patterns of it so that the grind becomes a natural element of your progression through life and not something to be feared.

Which is why today’s interview with David Wiens was going to be so fantastic. He serves as a shining example of the value of a creative player with perseverance locked down.

But I made a mistake.

You see, I promised I would share a new interview with you this Sunday, and that’s not really the case. What I really want to do is to give you a teaser of things to come in this month’s entry before the real thing. This is because I’m test driving some new lighting equipment and I want to get your feedback on the how things pan out visually.

Examples to follow:
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And thus we have arrived at A quality lighting. Sound familiar? It’s exactly what I did with the Paige Knickle preview a while back.

That’s why I am SO incredibly pumped to give you readers a test shot of episode 9 of timotheories interviews!

This month’s featured artist is a dedicated product photographer with a passion for perseverance and the commitment to follow through. Below is a clip from our interview!

I’m ridiculously excited to share this preview from the David Wiens interview and you will see the final result next week, but for now, enjoy our brief interlude and the rest of your Sunday. Maybe dig in and start building a new nightly ritual for rest and relaxation? Or read a good book?

I’m out of theories for now, dear readers! Have a fantastic night, and I’ll see you tomorrow with something to clap to.

Tim!