Career Advice for Artists

Getting Linked on LinkedIn

By Renée Phillips, The Artrepreneur Coach

This article is an excerpt from an article that appeared in the Art Calendar Magazine www.artcalendar.com.


Launched in 2003, LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site. LinkedIn has over 75 million members in over 200 countries making it the world's largest professional network.

Experts agree LinkedIn is the best place to cultivate Business-to-Business (B2B) relationships. It can help you establish connections through which to sell your art, as well as find freelance, part-time or full-time jobs in the field.

You can connect with potential employers, promote your own skills, set up support groups, and search for job leads and contacts.

LinkedIn is organized for easy access. After you sign up, take a look at your homepage. If you scroll down, you'll see that you can view all status updates, photo updates, group updates, recent connections and more.

Setting up a profile on LinkedIn

This is a bit different than setting one up on another networking site. On LinkedIn, you are trying to cultivate business relationships, not necessarily fans of your art. As such, you will want to create a serious profile, almost like a resume. Include your complete employment history, as well as your education, affiliations, activities and interests.

You may also wish to list your exhibition record and awards.

Be sure to include links to your personal Web site, blog or Twitter page in the links section of your profile.

You can manage your LinkedIn updates via the Network Updates feed, and control which types of updates and how many you’d like to see.

Use a range of applications, such as “SlideShare,” where you can create a slideshow of your work.

You can also arrange for your blog entries to appear on your LinkedIn profile.

LinkedIn profiles are public, so they tend to rank higher in search engines when someone searches for you online; be sure to use strong keywords throughout your profile.

Finding and Building Connections

Finding connections on LinkedIn is more strategic than some other sites. Here are some tips.

1. Network only with people that you know.

2. Avoid rejection. Members are permitted only five rejections (or IDKs, short for “I Don’t Know”) when sending out connection requests before the member’s account is suspended.

3. One tip to make finding the people you know easier is to import your webmail address book.

4. LinkedIn can locate anyone you know who is already on LinkedIn so you can send them a connection request.

5. You can also invite people who are not yet members of LinkedIn to become a connection, but they must sign up in order to be added.

6. On the bottom of the homepage is a section devoted to people you may know from companies where you used to work or from schools you attended. This is a great way to pick up several connections.

7. Build your network by reaching out to others through discussion groups.

8. If there is someone you meet in a discussion group that you want to discuss something more pricate, you can send "reply directly."

9. Ask people in your network (your first-degree connections) to introduce you to members in their networks (your second-degree connections).

10. Ask someone you know to forward your profile to a connection of theirs that they think might be interested.

11. Take advantage of the new LinkedIn feature that permits you to send a personal message to people not in your network.

12. To locate businesses that may be interested in your art, place keywords that relate to the work you do in the search function.

13. Be Professional. Professionalism and etiquette apply on LinkedIn, as anywhere in business. Know what's appropriate to write in a direct message or discussion comment.

14. Avoid rudeness, aggressiveness, solicitation and profanity.

15.To get people's interest stay involved in the site and post status updates regularly.

16. Avoid repetivie requests from others to see your artwork.

17. Contribute to fellow LinkedIn users by offering tips, resources, inspirational quotes and links to interesting articles.

"Recommendations" add value to your Profile

Seek to exchange recommendations with connections you know well. One of the many wonderful features of LinkedIn is that members can write professional recommendations for each other. Any recommendations you receive are posted below your profile. If someone is considering establishing a relationship with you, having these testimonials is invaluable.

It’s wise to have a variety of recommendations from employers, galleries that represent you, collectors of your work, and award and grant givers.

LinkedIn also allows you to read other people’s profiles and their recommendations, even if they are outside your network.

Don't ask for a resommendation from someone you just met on LinkedIn.

Join Groups to Build Connections

Probably the most effective way to meet new people is to join groups. Groups will enable you to meet a variety of art professionals with whom you otherwise may not come into contact.

You will increase your professional connections in addition to getting professional guidance, leads, answers to pertinent questions, and more.

You are permitted to belong to 50 groups, any of which you can un-join at any time.

Try not to overextend yourself; just choose the groups you think you might like, and if after a while, you find that one isn't for you, try another.

To locate groups, go to the Groups Directory, and use the "Find A Group" function.

Search by geographic location or keyword.

Use LinkedIn to Find Answers to Questions on Any Subject

Post a question in LinkedIn Answers (similar to Google Answers or Yahoo! Answers). Questions can be posted to entire LinkedIn community.

The identity of the people asking and answering the questions is public, so artists and art professional can get to know one another while getting feedback and giving answers to questions.

For example, when Marilyn Green www.marilyngreenart.com), a New York artist, posted a question about how to accept credit cards on her Web site, within hours she received 26 different responses.

Advice from Lee Down, technology consultant

“When you join the groups, sign up to receive e-mail notices,” says Lee Down, a technology consultant and business coach, and the founder of OMC Social Media Solutions in Canada http://omcsocial.com. “You are more likely to participate if you are making the keeping up-to-date easier for yourself.

Rather than having to go to that web page, and those individual discussion groups, you simply read the email digest or notice about discussion topics that come in your email.

From the email, you can quickly scan, and reply to conversations that are relevant to your experience.”

Down says, "In a professional environment like LinkedIn, adding value to conversation is critical for success. By responding to questions and conversations upon topics intelligently and humanly, you establish yourself as a worthy participant, a potential expert, and certainly someone who cares about community and others.”

You may also want to read Renee's article "Social Networking: Benefits for Artists"

Join Renee on LinkedIn. http://www.linkedin.com/in/reneephillipsartcoach

Join Manhattan Arts International Group on LinkedIn.

Follow Renée on Twitter @reneephillipsny

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Career Help for Artists

Renée Phillips is the Director of Manhattan Arts International. Known as "The Artrepreneur Coach", she counsels artists worldwide.
Learn more about how to get her advice.

She is the author of Presentation Power Tools For Fine Artists, and Success Now! For Artists: A Motivational Guide For The Artrepreneur.
Learn about these books and how to order them.