I have been reading article after article lately on how Twitter can help promote and manage a business. At first I thought to myself, “how can anyone REALLY be doing anything when they have to type everything they do on Twitter?” The point of this micro-blogging site is to keep each other updated on a play-by-play level, am I right? Who has time for that?

But, after a few more articles, webinars and seeing Twitter links on many of my artist’s friends sites, I threw caution to the wind and I decided to give it a try.

It didn’t take me long to realize that if I said I was “working on a painting of xyz,” someone might ask about it later. So, in my warped, task achieving, type ‘A’ personality mind, Twitter transformed itself into this this really cool accountability for the tasks I need to get done And at the SAME TIME it keep me updated, on task while sharing with my “followers” stuff from my life. I don’t write most things on there, that WOULD be overkill, and I really wouldn’t accomplish anything, but I do try to include some highlight of the day and interact with other Twittters, too!

I am finding that everyone has their own approach to the types of entries that they share. The best thing for me, is that I can see what other artists around the world, friends, family member, and successful professionals are doing. My art licensing friend, Tara Reed, who wrote an excellent free e-book on Twitter, refers to Twitter as her “virtual office.” What a great way to stay in touch! I am realizing that we all lead the most interesting lives which further fuels the fire for what we do.

I don’t know if it has helped business yet, but I realize that building a brand takes a long time, so until I find out I guess I will be posting about it one tweet at a time.

You can follow me @cherishart on Twitter.

I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn.”

You may have been sent an e-mail with this exact request on more than one occasion by a friend or colleague. If you have dismissed this invitation as just another one of those time wasting, friend collecting sites, then you may be at a considerable disadvantage.

So, if it’s that important, what exactly is LinkedIn you ask . . . and that’s a great question!

LinkedIn, found online at http://www.linkedin.com, is by far the largest and most professional, business-oriented, social media, networking site on the World Wide Web. Although it has only been around since 2002, it has over 25 million participants worldwide and grows at the rate of over 130,000 members each week!

LinkedIn is easy to use and opens the doors of opportunity to develop meaningful relationships with key players of the human race, in a new and effective way. The basic concept of how it works beckons back to the theory of “six degrees of separation.” On LinkedIn it will only show you up to three degrees of separation, but that alone will connect you to millions of professionals once you start linking up with other users. Your network will consist of your connections (1st), your connections’ connections (2nd), and then the connections to which they are connected (3rd). This dynamic function will start to make more sense as you begin see it in action.

It’s a good idea to create and maintain a professional LinkedIn profile page if you want:

• a beneficial way to promote your art brand, products and/or services online
• to meet key players in your areas of expertise
• to discover new business or job opportunities
• to learn about a new industry in which you hope to expand
• to reconnect with colleagues, classmates and clients

5 Things I Love About LinkedIn

• LinkedIn helps me to “stay in touch” and “touch base” with people that are important to me. Often, we get so busy that we never follow up on important connections and we loose out in the long run. LinkedIn is a superior tool for keeping you cognizant of your important connections and gives you an easy way to contact with them when the time is right.

• LinkedIn gives you a visual reference of your network, helping you readily discover commonalities. You can find someone with a skill you desire. You can post jobs or even apply for them online. When you are looking to join or serve with a new company, you can use LinkedIn to conduct preparatory research. LinkedIn makes it easy to discover which connections you have working with that company or who is associated with it, even before you have your first interview.
• LinkedIn is a great way to learn about any industry. You can see what other people are up to, see how they are promoting themselves and view their notable accomplishments.
• LinkedIn manages my database of connections for me. I don’t have to go and look up an e-mail for anyone that is connected to me or even open up my e-mail composer to send out a message. It gives me an instant connection to their e-mail in-box from their profile page.
• LinkedIn makes it simple for each member to keep their own information current for the benefit of the community. This feature helps users quickly access updated job summaries, aspirations, interests, status, website links, and more.

One last thing about social media sites . . . there are so many of them out there. If you are using them for your business you will need to carefully select the ones that help you best maintain professional connections and ultimately keep your brand in front of your clients. Professionally, I use Plaxo, Facebook and Twitter, in addition to LinkedIn. MySpace can be good too, if you approach it with a professional touch. But, if you only choose one, I urge you to go with LinkedIn, as it will give you the most professional online presence and effective online networking available.

10 Tips to Making the Most of Your LinkedIn Profile

> > > > > Wait, there’s more! < < < < <

Get the rest of this article “Leveraging LinkedIn’s Networking Power” including the “10 Tips to Making the Most of Your LinkedIn Profile” when you sign up for my e-zine.

These complementary LinkedIn profile tips and information on how to use them will dynamically shift the way you use LinkedIn. Get ready to turbo-charge your online networking activities and reach out to your industry!

You will also get links to LinkedIn groups for the areas of:

• Art Licensing (Licensees & Licensors)
• Publishing (for Authors & Children’s Book Illustrators)

Also, when you sign up for my “Something to Cherish Souvenirs E-zine” for occasional art and info updates, you can also gain exclusive access to the Cherish COLOR” Trends Toolbar. If you are inspired by colors, you will appreciate having this little tool in your back pocket as you use the internet, giving you access to color trend and color mixing information from all of the leading sites on color.

Hosted by the Office of Advocacy of the
U.S. Small Business Administration on 08/08/2008 in NY

How Will the Orphan Works
Bill Economically Impact Small Entities?

http://videos.cmitnyc.com/asip.html

“A Seminal Event”
“Unprecedented”
“The most effective advocacy in
opposition to these bills I have seen.”
“The Gathering of the Tribes”

These are some of the comments we’ve received from last Friday’s Roundtable on Orphan Works, conducted by the Small Business Administration. Artists, photographers, songwriters, musicians, writers and spokesmen for collateral businesses all made this the best attended Roundtable the SBA has conducted.

As one member of the audience said, perhaps the only good thing about the Orphan Works bill is that it’s brought so many creative communities together. The full house is the best measure of the concern creators have about this effort to undermine copyright law.

Key points to emerge from the discussion:

• The high cost of digitizing and registering work with commercial databases will make compliance impossible for most artists.
• This will cause billions of unregistered works to fall into the public domain.
• To make money, commercial databases will have to promote and facilitate infringement.
• Infringer-friendly databases will compete with artists for clients.

As one panelist summed up:
this bill “will socialize costs and privatize profits.”

View the Roundtable Video Now

To learn more about who was there visit the IPA Blog

LEARN MORE & TAKE ACTION
AGAINST THESE BILLS: www.owoh.org

Please forward this message and link to every copyright holder you know.

Just released! You can find Something to Cherish™ highlighted on page 100 of Total Art Licensing Summer/Fall 2008 issue. Click here to enjoy the whole magazine.

Total Art Licensing is published in May and January and has a readership made up of manufacturers and retailers around the world. It covers key art licensing-related trade events such as Surtex, Licensing Show and the International Spring Fair. To find out how you can subscribe digitally to Total Licensing magazines, go to: totallicensing.com

Greeley, CO (March 3 - April 25, 2008)

Cherish Flieder and Benjamin Hummel, Colorado native artists & children’s book illustrators, in conjunction with the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, bring to Colorado art lovers a show entitled “Illustrated Books.” Through April 25th, the Madison and Main Gallery in Greeley, CO will display original artwork, prints, journals, cards and the award winning, co-illustrated children’s book, What Would You Like to Do Today? by Larry Grizzell. For more information please visit the gallery at http://www.madisonandmaingallery.com and the artists at http://www.paintingforlife.com.

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