How To Go Virtual

In a time where we may need to stay indoors or socially distanced from others, there’s plenty of ways to connect, share, and experience the arts online. Here are some suggestions.

Keep in mind: whenever you plan an ongoing, recurring, or one-time event, you should immediately submit it to be featured on our Arts Oasis calendar.

What services can be helpful?

How to set up a business Facebook page

Once you’ve filled out all the information and uploaded a profile and cover image, then you can click the Events tab and create an Event.

Facebook gives you the option to make it a recurring event if you want this event to happen consistently each week.

You can then put an Eventbrite link in your Facebook event bio.

How to make an Eventbrite event

Go to eventbrite.com and sign up for an account (you can just login through your Facebook account if you want).

Now create an event and fill out all the info pertaining to your upcoming event.

Be sure to click the “Online Event” option under “Location”.

You’ll have an option to create free, paid, or donation-based tickets.

Publish your event!

You have an option to edit the payout method to receive your funds from ticket sales.

Under the “Invite and Promote” tab you can link your business Facebook page to Eventbrite or just click the “VIEW” button in the top right bar and copy the link once you're there.

Share this link in your Facebook event bio and Instagram page bio.

Then, Invite all your friends to the Facebook Event and advertise it on your Instagram.

How to maintain a business/brand Instagram account

Create a new brand-only Instagram account or use your personal one.

Post daily on your feed and story to advertise your upcoming classes/events.

Use apps like Canva, PicsArt, or Adobe Spark to create aesthetically cohesive content.

Use Planoly to plan what you will be posting.

You can even use Instagram’s LIVE feature to record yourself and your talent and share it to people for free and get them excited about your work. When you’ve ended your LIVE session, you can keep it for 24 hours or share it to Instagram’s IGTV featured option.

More on how to do this here https://help.instagram.com/225190788256708

But if you want to be getting paid for your work, it’s best to stick to sharing your instructional videos through Eventbrite and Zoom or other video platforms listed below.

How to Monetize Your Youtube Channel

You could alternatively make a Youtube channel but it’s a bit more complicated to make money through Youtube. “Forbes estimates that for top talent, a YouTuber can make about $5 for every 1,000 video views.” More information on how to make money through Youtube can be found here: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/72857?hl=en

Alternatively to Zoom, there is also Skype, and Google Meets. Below is a comparison of the top three group video platforms.

Google Meets

Free and unlimited until September 2020
After September 2020, it will have a 60-minute time limit and a 100 participant limit
Available on iOS, Web, Chromebook, and Android
You’re able to admit/accept or deny people from entering your meeting
You can send people a link to invite them to your meeting
16 people can be displayed at once on the screen
Alternative plans available for $10 and $20 a month
You can share the screen
Recording available

Zoom

Free version allows up to 100 participants and calls limited to 40 minutes
Alternative plans available for $14.99 and $19.99 a month
Known security issues
49 people can be displayed at once on the screen
You can share the screen
Recording available
You’re able to admit/accept or deny people from entering your meeting
Can change the virtual background
Offered “Webinars” And “Meetings”

Skype

Offers majority of its services completely free
Available across Windows, iOS, Android, and Mac
50 participant limit
You can share the screen
Recording available
Some say it makes your computer run slower

More helpful tips for how to host a digital event through a video conference platform can be found here

Disadvantages to Instagram and Facebook

It is difficult to transcend the dominance of platforms like Instagram and Facebook. For Artists, Instagram is similar to Amazon--it seems inescapable as a governing resource and permeates our culture. Instagram, in particular, has been an essential platform for activist and artistic coordination during the pandemic. Nonetheless, many artists have made the decision to boycott Instagram, and we would like to be transparent about the more sinister aspects of this commanding platform. Utilizing the internet will always be a paradox for artists; by accessing visibility, you are often relinquishing control.

It is no secret that Facebook is mining and exploiting user data for profit. In 2016 millions of Facebook users' personal data was harvested without consent by Cambridge Analytica to be predominantly used for conservative political advertising and the construction of political “psychographic profiles”. Furthermore, Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012, which consolidated both companies' data collection efforts and complicated their privacy policies.

Artists concerned about their art being shared without direct permission should be wary of posting on Instagram. Posting on any social media platform--whether it be Instagram or Twitter--effectively grants permission to anyone to share your work through an embedded link. Photographers have attempted to sue websites for embedding their Instagram photos in articles and failed. In 2020 the New York District Court ruled that the website Mashable can embed a professional photographer’s work without breaking copyright law, Judge Kimba Wood noting that Instagram reserves a “fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable” right to photos on its service. If a photo is posted publicly, it also offers embedding as an option — which, in Wood’s estimation, effectively grants a sublicense to display the picture.

Instagram is also notorious for propagating design appropriation. Many Instagram artists have reported that their designs and concepts have been copied or imitated by mass corporations (Dollskill, UNIF, Urban Outfitters) without compensation. This is not a problem directly caused by Instagram, but those with a significant following should be aware that corporate design teams are guilty of pulling content from independent creators.

Facebook and Instagram allow racism, hate speech, and white supremacist content to proliferate on their platforms and often do nothing to address this issue. For example, Mark Zuckerberg recently failed to denounce Trump for hateful and violence-inciting comments. In order to combat the platform’s insufficient stance against discrimination and hate, colorforchange.org launched a #stophateforprofit movement calling advertisers to remove all ads from Facebook and Instagram. Several major companies have since halted advertising.

Instagram has a suspicious history of censoring accounts deemed “sexually suggestive”, a policy that disproportionately targets people of color and queer people. The platform has been accused of “shadow banning,” where they bury “hypersexual” content by making it difficult for users to find. This act counteracts attempts to increase the visibility of queer, trans, and nonbinary bodies and hurts the accounts that it censors. In addition, the platform’s guidelines against sexually overt images result in an over-policing of black, brown, and queer bodies. Plus-sized women, women of color, and non-cis bodies are shadowbanned, flagged, and removed for being “sexually explicit” in an act that reproduces the invisibility and marginalization of these communities. Instagram enforces heterosexual cis-gendered white norms for what is acceptable to be seen in our patriarchal capitalist society through their discriminatory shadow banning activities and through their purposefully ambiguous guidelines dictating what constitutes “sexually suggestive” content.

ALTERNATIVES TO INSTAGRAM/FACEBOOK!

It is highly difficult to achieve the same level of Instagram connectivity on alternative platforms, but many websites are still available to artists who want to move beyond dominant social media. Artists are increasingly choosing alternative social media channels that promote authenticity, copyright protection, and equal opportunities for all users. Navigating Instagram also means navigating a suppressive algorithm and a massive virtual art industry. Utilizing a different website can liberate artists from the constraints of a business model, and give artists access to more intimate or niche audiences. The following are some alternative photo-sharing and messaging platforms.

Facebook/Messenger Replacements:

Mastodon

Federated site
Like twitter but you can include more words in your post (up to 500)
Allows for trigger warning of sensitive content
Users can look at local servers or other federated servers that are interconnected.
Largest and most popular of federated sites.
Downside: less popular than Facebook and convincing all your friends to join might be difficult.

Textile

A “set of open source tools that provides a decentralized database”
Provides a Textile blog and social interaction through Slack
Offers documents on how to “ to connect and extend Libp2p, IPFS, and Filecoin”
Downside: might be too advanced for those not versed in how the internet works

Wire

Secure and end-to-end encrypted chat that you can use without giving your phone number out.
Replacement for Facebook Messenger.
Downside: made to work exclusively for collaborative professional work, requires a subscription.

Signal

Encrypted chat that you can use by giving your phone number out.
Another replacement for Facebook Messenger if you are comfortable giving away your phone number.

Instagram replacements:

Behance

Free social media and photo-sharing network designed for photographers, illustrators, graphic designers, architects, filmmakers, editors, and artists. No limits on uploads.
Owned by Adobe, Behance emphasizes editing tools and allows you to see what’s behind your favorite digital works. You can upload work directly from Creative Cloud.
Technical information such as camera model, lens, and exposure are available for each photo.
The platform won’t alter your images in any way, and large images are allowed, so the quality is far superior to Instagram.
Downsides: Difficult to protect your work: anybody can download images. (Watermark it!)

Tumblr

Popular, public media sharing platform with many opportunities to access niche audiences
Superior image and video quality to Instagram, which immediately lowers the quality of images
Free, easy to use, and works similarly to Instagram with direct messaging, hashtags, etc.
Allows your “portfolio” to reach a large audience
Limited advertisements and a step away from Instagram’s business heavy model
Downside: difficult to protect your work (Watermark it!)

YouPic

Free, works like Instagram: create a profile, share, comment, chat, etc.
Used by professional photographers

Vero

Share photos, videos, music, events, and other media for free
Made as an app for Android or Apple.
No ads and an anti-business philosophy
Used by famous artists
Free