March is going to be a very interesting month this year. The agenda for the month could look overwhelming. Our agenda looks crazy between work, basketball, moving, me turning 40 (just wanted to throw that there), sculpting and painting parties, workshops, presentations, and classes. Not to mention writing for the blog, reviewing the book, and working on my sculptures. Time management is a great thing.

Overwhelming and crazy are two words that could well describe online media for artists specially when it comes to social media platforms. “There are so many!” “It looks so complicated!” “They take so much time!” “I rather be creating than wasting time in front of the computer.” “I don’t want a slave of that.” Those are just a few answers I get when I talk to artists about online media. The fact is that social media is not complicated at all and it only takes time to set up, but after that it only takes as much time as you want it to take if used effectively. On the other hand, many artists don’t know how to use online media even if they wanted to.

I ask a few questions in order to establish an analysis or pre-assessment of the situation (I am an instructional designer and the analysis is one of my favorite areas of practice):

Do you have an email account?

How often do you check your emails?

What kind of phone do you have?

Sounds silly but those questions can provide more information about online aptitudes than you think. I could add some other questions regarding having an online presence but at this time think about those three questions. After the presentation in March I’m going to write a few postings regarding the subject and the experience at the event. I am sure that the discussion is going to be very interesting. I learn a lot from people’s questions. I am not the kind of teacher that tells people what to do and how to do things. I just help people making sense on their own and adapting the information I provide according to their own needs and goals. I don’t consider myself an expert at anything but being me. That I’m doing pretty well so far.