This third and last installment of NFT Onboarding for Artists. We will go into how to market and brand yourself all while informing people about your art work. Check out our previous articles about NFT Onboarding for more information on the different types of NFT art, how to mint your work, pricing and more. There is a lot for a newbie NFT artist to learn, but the contents of these articles will get you up to speed. So now, let’s get into marketing your work!

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If you are currently looking for specific info, jump on our discord discord.umbadaima.com, or search “Umba Daima” in the Discord search, to engage with your new community and get your questions answered. It’s important to exercise caution on Discord, so we published the Best Practices For Discord: How To Avoid Scams And Preserve Your Sanity. It’s worth a read!At Umba Daima’s discord you can connect with people, to learn and find community members to collaborate with. The Umba Daima community wants to see you win!

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Marketing & branding

When we engage with NFT art we are engaging with an evolution of art in the digital form, Web3 and the blockchain. Web3 through NFT markets can cut out the middlemen and give the artist powerful tools to sell art to global audiences.Someone from the past would consider tools like this… magic. Your minted work is immutable, it can’t be removed from the record by anyone but the owner, you, it’s accessible for people around the globe to appreciate, purchase and trade, while you collect royalties into perpetuity for your work. All of this sounds great, but there is a missing link that needs to be resolved. Now that you have created your NFT artwork, priced and minted to your preferred marketplace, you still need to highlight your work by letting people know, and feel, who YOU are through experiences with your artistic creations.

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In business talk, you need to brand yourself and market your work. Branding, basically, is the process of crafting the way your engagements on all platforms, as well as IRL, make people feel. In this branding philosophy you must consider who you aim to target. Who will resonate with you and your “product”, in this case your art. Typically you'd consider where your potential audience is, and how they think and behave… That's the common wisdom in the business world. In traditional business practice you’d use every drop of data to your advantage, to inform strategy, to make the sale. But is Web3 just a mechanism to turn artists into business people? It’s unlikely, or at least many would hope not. Instead, this is an opportunity to change the game and recalibrate. It’s a moment of redefinition and rebalance.  Nevertheless, it proves true that it is vital to connect with your audiences. You need to help people find you and care about your work. There definitely is overlap as well as lessons that we can take from the field of marketing and branding, while we can hold integrity, authenticity and care in the midst of selling digital art. A keen focus on the social media tools that empower today’s online communities, will assist you with navigating your marketing strategy.

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If you’ve been in the NFT game for even a few days, you’ve probably been exposed to how important online community is. Refer to our NFT Community: Digital Expression Touching the "Real" World article for more on NFT communities. With NFTs as a motivating factor and with social media at your disposal, you have all you need to connect, engage, build relationships and sell your NFT art.

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Fortunately, you've gravitated to the Umba Daima community. You’ve got a head start! Umba Daima is one of the best NFT communities for artists. Not only do you have access to information and support, such as our informational blog posts, you can benefit from our free promotional opportunities across Umba Daima’s social media, IRL marketing and promotional channels. Through Umba Daima you also have an established thriving community that you can draw from to get support, feedback about your art, and spread the word about your work. Be sure to leverage these tools supports and opportunities,hey are extremely useful and valuable. Now that we’ve mentioned perks of being in the Umba daima community, let's look at some standard social media tools that are available to you to market yourself and how best to use them, starting with Twitter.

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Twitter 

You may be surprised that Twitter, with it’s 280 character limit, is a critical tool for NFT creators.

It is a place where you can engage with people in more ways than many are aware of.  In an earlier era what Twitter offers would amount to an amalgamation of emails, business cards, fliers, posters, art reviews and more. Your Twitter profile picture, name, banner, profile description as well as your posts and messages, are all means of communicating and engaging with people. All of these should be consistent with your brand;when someone visits your page they should get a feel of who you are and what you have to offer.

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Your profile picture gives you an opportunity to introduce your brand without saying a word. Whether you use a photograph, logo or other piece of art to represent you, it should stand out and be consistent with your overall brand. Though many people change their profile picture to reflect their favorite PFP project of the week, this can be confusing and may inhibit people from recognizing you and engaging with your brand. True, showing love via a PFP image in your profile picture is a standard in the NFT world, but from a branding perspective it’s a better idea to select an image that harmonizes with your brand and stick with it. If you want to change up your profile picture you may choose to change the colors or certain elements while keeping it recognizable. That way as you navigate different spaces, posting and engaging, audiences will begin to recognize your brand.

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Your Twitter handle, or name, is another element of your profile that should synergize with your brand. Too often people choose random names that don’t speak to who they are and what they are about. As an artist your handle should make it easy for people to search for you on the NFT markets, where you mint as well as on other social media platforms. Again, the goal is for people to notice, remember and want to engage with you. Keep it simple and memorable.

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Your Twitter banner is prime real-estate where you can give a glimpse into your aesthetic, or give some other relevant brand information. Make it creative, aesthetically pleasing, thoughtful or otherwise fitting with your brand. You can cycle in art you want to showcase or present a stylized message for your visitors.  The banner is a way to engage. Don't take that real-estate for granted. 

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Your profile description is even more limited in characters than tweets are. You have 160 characters to make a great impression. Prioritize the most important things about you as an artist. The description is the place to let your visitors know about you as an NFT artist. Speak to your style and experience. Share where they can find your work and shout out any affiliate Twitter accounts by “@”ing the account in the description.

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You'll do most of your active engagement on Twitter via your posts, liking, retweeting and commenting. Engaging with relevant accounts is a vital way to both build your brand and broaden your Web3 community. When you engage with others they notice you. So follow those whose content aligns with your brand, like, retweet and comment on their work. People appreciate it! You’ll find that people will follow back and they will be inclined to like, retweet and comment on your work too.

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Tweet your works in progress (WIP), about your process and also post your finished art to your Twitter page. People will appreciate a glimpse into your process as well as into your mind. When posting a minted piece of NFT art, share the link to the work on the NFT market, but also include the image or video in the post so that when it is retweeted people will be able to see the artwork. Be sure not to post your work to other people’s Tweets unless they’ve requested it, or if it is otherwise appropriate, such as a genuine response to what they are discussing. Now that you’re set to go on Twitter properly, let's talk about Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse. 

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Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse

If Twitter proper amounts to an amalgamation of emails, business cards, fliers, posters and art reviews and more, then Twitter Spaces and clubhouse amount to intimate meetings, conversations at art shows, exhibits and art socials. These platforms enable both intimate and large scale verbal communication interactions. Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse are incredible tools for engaging with NFT communities. Collectors often decide to collect as a result of interactions on these platforms. These audio based technologies allow for intimate conversations that help communities and individuals bond, share stories and hangout together. The impact of time shared in these spaces can’t be overstated. 

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Speaking on Twitter Spaces and Clubhouse can be intimidating at first but just jump in and chat, ask questions and make friends. People are kind, supportive and helpful, for the most part :-) When you do get on, encourage the good vibes by being courteous and relevant to the conversation at hand. Don’t request to jump on stage in a Twitter Space or Clubhouse where they are speaking to a specific topic and then change the subject to your art. That won’t be appreciated. Either find a space that is for sharing, or “shilling” as some call it, or just go with the flow of the conversation, meet new people, and be recognized and welcomed into new communities and spaces.

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You will certainly get opportunities to talk about, and point people to, your art. Be patient. The first goal is to connect with Web3, NFT and crypto communities. Just by being present, people will notice your profile image. They’ll click through to your profile. They’ll notice your beautiful banner.  Then they’ll glean the information in your description. And, all of these pieces of your branding puzzle will fit together beautifully. Since they are consistent and thought out, they will give off the vibe that you intended.

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Other platforms

You can go far building community and developing your brand using Twitter and Clubhouse but they aren’t the only show in town. Using the same care and consistency on other platforms can help further extent the reach of your brand.

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Discord is a social media platform that is used for more than just marketing. It’s like all the social media platforms built into one. Many communities are built around Discord servers, sojump onto the Discord servers of communities that you want to engage with, interact with people, participate and take advantage of opportunities that are presented to you. Also, many Web3 and NFT community Discords, as is the case with Umba Daima Discord,  will have a channel set up for you to share your work. Go to that channel and let people see your talent!

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Instagram and TikTok are great places to share your art, let people in on your process and tell your story. Use hashtags in your posts to attract people that are looking for flavor of content. Regretfully you can’t place links in Instagram post descriptions so you can’t point people directly to your marketplace page from your posts, but you can put links in the profile description. People who love what you post will check the description for more information. You can put a Linktree link in the bio that points to all the links you want to highlight, as well as to where they can buy your art!

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Your art probably won’t sell the moment you mint. Highlight yourself by letting people know about you and tell your story! As was mentioned above, keep it consistent and on brand. Try to have the same handles on all platforms. Be aware of the tone that you are setting across all platforms and media. If someone follows you on one platform and they find you on another, they should be able to tell that it’s you. Details such as your profile picture and banner do matter. They help you to tell your story and help people to recognize the phenomenal artist you are. Express yourself using the amazing tools that are available  such as Twitter Spaces,but  make sure to be patient, courteous and contribute to the conversation. With all of this in practice, together with your beautiful art. You’re bound to win!

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