Poets & Storytellers, Here's How To Reach More People.
On #WorldPoetryDay, here are some tangible steps for artists/poets wondering how to reach more people.
For some context each of my videos video was viewed millions of times across platforms and helped launch my career as an artist:
One path is the Gary Vaynerchuk route: Keep creating new work and share everything cause you never know what’s going to catch on or move someone. In the beginning I felt each piece was too precious to not “do it justice” with a production, but Gary's strategy works for lots of people.
Today I feel more comfortable sharing unfinished writings on Instagram Facebook etc. because I have this base of content I’m proud of. Kind of a “manage my insecurity about what people think of me/my art” strategy that braver people than I can skip. But it’s also helpful to have a really well produced video, and you don’t necessarily need to spend $ to get that.
First step is self-awareness, it’s easy to get lost in our own feelings about our work. Ask yourself with a critical eye “Is this piece really going to stand out amongst ALL the content on the internet?” “Out of all the things people could do, will want to collaborate with me on this?
There are plenty of brilliant visual storytellers on Vimeo. Look through the staff picks and see which styles you like, then message them and ask if they want to collaborate with you to tell your story. Make your message personal and expect 9/10 to say no. Find their email too.
You can only have 2/3 of the following
1. Good
2. Fast
3. Cheap
So if you don’t have a budget, be prepared for this to take a long time. Each of mine above took a year to make since I didn't have budget and they were passion projects for all involved.
Think about distribution through this whole process, can you find someone who already has a big relevant following who will share this finished project (that’s gonna be awesome) and credit you?
I hope this is helpful! I definitely wouldn’t recommend putting all your eggs in the well produced video basket as nothing is guaranteed. I would recommend doing both of the strategies in this thread at the same time.
If you feel called, tag an artist who might benefit from this information.