Ten years ago, if someone had told you that you could have your own personal news reporter covering the both the big stories and the minutiae of your life and work, the idea would have been laughable. If I told you the same thing today, it still might sound absurd.

The funny thing is, statistics show that a great many of us do have this reporter, and if you look in the mirror, you’ll see them. When we write in our blogs, or make posts on our Facebook pages, or tweet what we’re doing, or post a video to youTube that shows our new project we are acting like print and tv journalists reporting on ourselves.

Having the tools to tell the world about what we do, and what we believe is one of the most liberating and empowering technological benefits of the past ten years.

We can share anything we want, and we do. And that brings us to the flip side to this endowment – since everyone received these tools at once, there have been tsunamis of content that have flooded the web, and it’s easy to get lost or become essentially irrelevent. The web is not a panacea in our attempts to get out the word of what we’re doing.

But all is not lost. We’re not back to square one! We just need to learn the techniques that are search engine friendly and will make sure our story gets heard over the din.

I have spent some time studying these techniques and methods, and, in the process was flooded with more hype and exaggeration than your average visit to a used car sales lot. Here’s the thing. It’s actually not complicated to stand out from the crowd. All of the good advice I learned boiled down to a few simple suggestions:
1. Provide interesting content. Don’t be boring. Tell your unique story and provide a means to interact with you or your content. Celebrate those on similar creative paths who are helping to move the field forward.
2. Update your content regularly.
3. Ensure that your website(s) follow web standards, are easy to navigate, and communicate your story clearly.
4. Spread your message across different web media. Some people enjoy Facebook. Some enjoy Twitter. Use both, but tailor for each.
5. Be useful if you can. Explain how you do what you do from time to time. Share a trick every so often. Contribute to other websites or forums where your expertise might be helpful.

If you can clearly communicate your passion and excitement for what you do each day you’ll find people listening to what you say.

As a creative professional or creative organization you already have a big advantage over a lot of businesses because most creative professions tend to be intrinsically interesting.

If you can take that advantage and also be helpful, clear, and interactive you’re going to see your web presence grow in popularity, and you’re going to see an uptick in people who buy your products and services.

If you can find a quarter or half hour a day to keep sharing new developments you are really going to rock the world, and probably, along the way, attract a lot of interest from the traditional media.

It’s really that simple, and you probably know it already.

But if you know what to do, but just can’t make the time to make it happen for one reason or another, consider giving me a call.  That’s why I started Artcentered Media. I know it’s a tough economy. But I don’t want to see other creative professionals struggle just because the right people haven’t seen what they can do. My job is to help busy creative professionals like you follow those simple suggestions above so that their stories get heard above the noise. So the right decision makers can see their hard work.  I’ll coach you on how to do it, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll blog it, tweet it, facebook it, and link it in for you myself.

I’ll be your personal journalist and between my reporting and your stories we’ll attract enough interest and excitement in your work for you to start picking and choosing your clients.

And that’s where your story really gets interesting.

Stay tuned!

(photo of ostrich reading his caretaker’s newspaper via flickr commons.)