I got some fascinating responses which I would like to share:

Abigail Ramos at 10:19pm March 9
artists are our most valuable historians… they document the times from the perspective of the people and in a much more meaningful way than words ever could. ok, i think i’m way off from your question though. i dunno. ;p

Jeremiah Moore at 11:23pm March 9 via Facebook Mobile
among other things, artists are digesting and remixing symbols… & bringing new structures… these create new cultural and personal pathways, paving the way for social change.

Lizzie Scott at 11:55am March 10
Artists (sometimes) expand what we consider to be possible, and (one hopes) allow us to expand our thinking in general. Without revolutions in our ideas, we get totally stuck with “that’s just the way things are.”

Marc Mitzner at 3:12pm March 10
Artists challenge the “norm” – what is socially acceptable & what isn’t – as well as point out the folly in what IS the norm.

Anyway, just a reason to love it…

I’ve lately been getting a lot of people to join Facebook (you can find me here). It is an interesting tool for both expanding your audience and keeping in touch with your existing audience. At Creative Capital we talk about how you leverage (crude term that I don’t think they actually use) your core group of friends to reach out to a wider audience (mainly their friends). This works in FB because it is a) effortless and b) information is passed on through a trusted friend. It makes updating lots of people really easy because it is all automated and you could just be showing up in someone’s feed consistently. If you want specific stories about how this has worked for me or friends of mine, message me and I will share.

Anyway, one of the things about facebook is that it can a) be a real time suck if you let it and b) can be filled with useless crap. Here’s the quickest and easiest way to streamline your time (I normally don’t spend more than about 5 minutes a day on average on it – sometimes more sometimes less).

1. Don’t add applications – you know, the things like Vampire or Mob Wars, Movie Soulmates and all the other stuff that really is a time waster. Maybe you add them in the beginning to check them out (although I don’t even recommend that) but certainly remove them if they get out of hand. It also can make your presence less professional – unless that is the look you are going for. If you want to add some fun applications, then just limit yourself. I have FriendWheel and Places I have Been. Which I don’t keep up with anyway.
2. Manage what you receive in the feed. On your “Home Page” scroll down to the bottom of the “News Feed” to find “Preferences for Top Stories”. Here you will find a slider to adjust for the “Story Types” that you want to receive. I love the updates (friends of mine hate it) and the events, but am not as interested in profile updates and relationships. So I have adjusted it to suit my needs. This helps to ensure that the information that you are receiving is more suited to your interests. Here you can also adjust who you want to hear more about, and who you want to hear less about.

3. If you find that the constant emails from Facebook are a big distraction, then you can adjust that too. Under “Settings” “Account Settings” “Notifications” you can tell FB what items to notify you about. If you are selective with this it will keep your inbox cleaner and not take the focus from the things you are supposed to be focused on.

4. Finally, and potentially most helpful, control those people who are sending you invitations to join everything under the sun! (You know who they are!) Under “Settings” “Privacy Settings” select “Applications” and then “Other Applications.” Scroll down to the very bottom where you will see “Ignored Application Inviters.” Here you can add your own host of “Application Inviters.”

Another thing you can do, if you do enjoy what I call “update haiku” is set up your phone so that you can send mobile updates. If your carrier isn’t supported (thanks t-mobile!) then you can create a link between Twitter and Facebook so that when you update Twitter (which you can do through a text message) it will automatically update your update. Thats how I keep so connected! I swear I’m not in front of the computer that much!

I should also add that in order for your network to be fruitful and successful you do have to participate. So the time that you do spend on facebook – do so wisely and in a sharing frame of mind. (I installed the “Share on Facebook” google bar application so that I can share interesting news stories and blog posts). I rsvp to events that I am attending and comment on photos and walls. I have joined (and supported groups) and fan-ed pages. So your time is valuable and so is a well nurtured network.

Most of all – have fun with it!

I will be honest, it can all be pretty overwhelming, but here’s what I am *just beginning* to figure out.

First, that idea of the exponential audience. What’s really cool about facebook (other than the ability to post blog posts, events, images etc of your work) is that if you post something like an event, and a friend of mine decides to attend – that attendance and the information about the event, is posted to all of her friends. Here’s a non-art example. I  posted to my “wall” (a place to leave notes) a note about a fundraiser for the rescue where we got our dog. I included a really cute picture of my dog. All of my 100+ friends on Facebook saw that posting. One of my friends was interested in the post and posted it on her own wall. Now all of her 100+ friends (of which we only share about 10) saw the posting too. So over 200 people now have access to the information and can act on it.

A similar thing occurs when I make “pages” for my different art projects. When I make the page, my friends see that I have done so, then they can become a “fan” of the page/project. When they become a fan they will recieve updates/events/images that I post which are specific to that project. Also, when they become a fan, their friends will see that and can become fans as well. And, should you chose, the page can be made available to the public. So I have 3 different project pages (HighWaterLine, Insert ____ Here and Seeding the City) on which there are a number of “fans” who are not necessarily “friends” of mine.

Is this making sense? I hope so. Its a little like free word of mouth advertising. There is a certain advanced level of trust that occurs on Facebook, as you chose who your friends are, and therefore anything they are attending is probably of more interest to you – sort of pre-screened in a way.

Starting to sound pretty good? Let’s jump into the idea of these strangely titled things like Twitter & Plurk. These two sites are what are called “microblogs” or sometimes “lifeblogs.” They limit each posting to only 140 characters.  My last 24 hours on Twitter look something like this…

The difference between Twitter & Plurk (other than the interface – Twitters is simpler) is that Plurk allows for more conversation between users, as opposed to the sort of shouts or blips of information on Twitter. What I have figured out to do is to set Ping.fm which provides a way to post to both of them simultaneously (thanks again maplemama!). I already have Facebook set up to update my “updates” via Twitter.

So why bother? Well, Facebook’s exponential power makes it quite obvious, but the micro-blogs are more complicated to understand, and that’s what I am working out right now. I know a couple of my friends primarily use the services to keep in touch with close friends and family – its a pretty nice way to update people on what you are up to moment by moment. (I joke with my friends and family that they really need to join one of the services so they can know what I am actually doing – but that would in fact be the best way to keep up).

They are definitely useful for promoting your blog or site (I announce every new post) and have gotten a couple of referrals to the sites from Twitter (twice as many from Facebook), and I just started Plurk yesterday, so I will let you know after I post this blog. They are also useful for learning things, I just read a great blog post, Social Media – Should You Use it Or Focus Upon Building Your Own Properties? by ProBlogger, who I follow. The best method of using these types of services is to take the time to find your community in the masses and really try to grow and nurture that community. As with any friendship, you can’t just blast in there, announce your blog and expect everyone to come running, there has to be more give and take (just like in real life!) and more engagement with other people. Which can be quite fascinating, I have, over the years met many wonderful people via the web (many of which I do end up meeting in person and many of whom I have been able to maintain a long term friendship). Once you build up that community, you will reap the rewards.

So the difficulty becomes finding a balance between your studio practice, your blogging or website maintenance, participating in social networks and participating in in person networking. There is no doubt that as an artist networking is extremely important. As is paying attention to the business side of your art (including promoting, finances and planning). With all these demands, is there balance? I think there can be, I think focus and time management – both offline and online is really important. I don’t let myself just go wandering around the social networks. I follow the conversations and posts which are of most interest to me, and leaving the rest by the wayside. I also take the time to comment on a worthwhile post (or as you may have noticed lately – bookmarking it to share [trying to figure out the best method for making these weekly posts instead of daily]). That commenting is all part of the social give and take.

There are a lot of posts out there about why and how to act online, why blogging is worthwhile etc., so I don’t need to restate a lot of it:

A post on “catchers” and “throwers” on the web, and how to be courteous as either

1,000 True Fans

The importance of social media marketing

Cory Doctorow on why an artist’s biggest enemy is obscurity, not piracy

The amazing compilation of “Blogging for Artists” put together by Katherine Tyrell

That should keep you busy for a little while, but remember Stay Focused!