A Tree Fell in the Woods

Two days ago I delivered a painting to a client.  It was a great experience for both of us and as we were standing in her kitchen talking about art and life, she validated a point I am constantly stressing to my social media clients: If you aren’t online, you don’t exist.

Well, of course you do exist, but to millions of potential customers you are invisible, unaccessible, and quite frankly they sometimes wonder if you are even a legitimate business if you aren’t somehow represented online.

You know the old question, “If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” Not only is this an interesting philosophical question, but it’s a practical question regarding acknowledgement of reality, existence and social media efforts.

Theoretically, you could have a whole forest of trees falling over all day long and making a heck of a lot of noise, but if no one finds out about it, your firewood business is probably not going to be very successful.

On the other hand, as the owner of “Falling Tree Exotic Wood Farm”, you could have a simple Facebook page, a blog about forestry and harvesting wood, Tweet random thoughts you have while walking in the woods, Instagram the daylights out the lovely scenery that surrounds you daily, and perhaps even pin a few fantastic log homes or rough hewn farm table on Pinterest  with a contact information so cold and/or crafty folks know where to find you.

What does this have to do with my art client?  It’s simple. She told me she had been thinking about having a portrait painted of her and her daughter from a particular photograph for several years. One recent night, while surfing the internet on the sofa in her pajamas, she decided it was time to make it happen. She visited Facebook, looked at handful of local artists that had samples and contact information. Then she contacted a couple of us.  I was easy to find, accessible, responded right away and was ready to do business.

One month later,  she has the painting she wanted and I have another happy patron telling others about my work.

If I had not been actively represented online, she would have simply chosen someone else. Just like that. I would have never known the difference and she would have never known about me.