As part of Free Thinking this year, Zealous founder Guy Armitage shared his valuable insight on how young artists can promote themselves online. He explained not only how you can harness your digital presence, but how you can be empowered in the process.
Showcasing your work online is now a must for creative professionals and a variety of products are freely available. The digital space is a vital aspect of creating artistic integrity, recognition and credibility - and there are digital platforms out there to support you.
Top Ten Tips From Zealous
1. Choose your medium carefully. Whether it's Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram or Twitter, make sure what you choose is functional. For example, can you upload photographs? Who will your audience be? Where are the people that you want to engage with?
2. What you do online is a form of storytelling. Share inspirations, failures and success stories in order to keep people engaged - keep your audience interested!
3. Share things constantly. Keep people aware of who you are! Remember an image is worth a thousand words.
4. Look for opportunities online. Make it a weekly task - the internet is forever changing.
5. Make it easy to find you online. Keep the same name on all social media platforms - consistency is integral!
6. Organisation is vital. Set time aside for the online. Maybe set a time each day where you will 'tweet', for example.
7. Find photographers to photograph your work. Make your work look the best that it can be.
8. Collaborate. Working with others is a great form of exposure. They may have different followers to you!
9. Stay true to yourself and create your own unique brand. Don't copy others ways of working.
10. The sky is the limit.
Zealous is an online platform that lets you find and be found, discover new work and find your collaborative counterpart from a diverse range of creatives online.
If the taster of digital empowerment from Free Thinking was just the tip of the iceberg, then it is definitely worth digging deeper to see what Zealous can do for you.
By Sophie Flanagan, Student Ambassador
Feeling inspired?
Join Zealous on their website here.
Watch our Free Thinking highlights in a video here.
View more articles from Free Thinking, with insight from Etsy, Guardian Students, Arts Thread, Bridgeman Studio and Winsor & Newton.