Saturday, August 29, 2009

Social media fixes for the not so social artist


My Agent Mark McVeigh has 2 cats- Monty and Ellen. I imagine they make great assistants with the deluge of manuscripts and phone calls that must arrive daily. You can follow the goings on of The McVeigh Agency here.


Blogs and Facebook and Twitter - can be a distraction from the work at hand. But- they have really helped wipe away the feelings of isolation that myself and many illustrators/authors used to feel. I have my go- to blogs and my "friends" and "followers" - to inform me- teach me- make me laugh.
As the social media world has expanded - it's crossed over from just social networking to career related networking. I've been feeling this transformation when posting on my facebook page. Do I post about my life as a Mom?-a wife?- Do I really need to let my agent know I hate to cook dinner or how excited I am for Beatles Rock Band? The flip side - my chatting about art- and tweeting about my pursuit of publication has to fit between my sharing of friend's stories and how did we deal with
potty training or first crushes. It's a wide straddle between the two worlds. Some choose to keep the two separate, having a professional account and a personal one. I am inclined to let it all hang out. Mindful that I should think twice - before I post; I'll let everyone know All of me.

8 comments:

sruble said...

". I am inclined to let it all hang out. Mindful that I should think twice - before I post; I'll let everyone know All of me."

I think that's where I am too, although I try not to post too much personal stuff.

I LOVE the cat picture! Is that what you were working on yesterday? Nice!

Kelly Light said...

yeah- I doodled it yesterday - as a warm up.

FAVREAU said...

Kelly, these kitties are too cute!

sruble said...

I wish my doodles were like that!

sam said...

We are Who we are! You ever notice that it's usually the business side O da business That wants to keep our "Package" clean. HEY we're Artists! Take us out of the box & play wit us! :o)
Let it out! Woo Hoo!

Nora MacFarlane said...

That's a doodle? Love it!

Kelly Polark said...

I choose to let it all hang out, too. I joined FB to reconnect with hs friends, then family and now writing peers. So what you see is what you get! Non writing posts and all.
There's going to be a Beatles Rock BAnd?!!!!! Woo hoo!

Anonymous said...

It's too hard for me to keep the professional and personal worlds separate, so I let them collide as they may. I just don't post anything I wouldn't mind the weirdos of the world knowing (I imagine most weirdos are bored by me anyway).

As a fan, I'm interested in knowing that you hate cooking dinner and love Rock Band! The silly personal stuff makes you more friendly and accessible.