Robin Cembalest has more than 48,000 followers on Instagram (and growing). I just got started pretty recently on Instagram, so that feels like a lot of followers to me.
And so I was very interested to learn how Robin has built such a following as a social media and editorial strategist “for the art world and beyond.” She has a great feed!
But even more so, I was especially interested to find out how my fellow nonprofit leaders (that’s you!) can learn to bring a more artful approach to your social media outreach, to the huge benefit of your organizations.
We discussed the most important elements for a successful social media strategy, how to best use social media to tell great stories, and how the various social platforms differ in their messaging and audiences.
I sure learned a lot. I know you will too.
About Robin Cembalest
Described by artnet as “one of the leading lights of art-world social media,” Robin Cembalest is a journalist and editorial strategist. The former longtime executive editor of ARTnews, she has published widely in The Wall Street Journal and many other publications, and maintains her popular @rcembalest feeds on Instagram and Twitter. In her consulting business,
Robin Cembalest Editorial Strategies, she works with art-world clients to design and implement editorial and digital content. She also founded and directs the Niboristas, a mentoring and networking group for art-world professionals.
In this episode
- Often, a picture has to tell a story by itself
- Instagram as a diary of events
- Building a huge following requires more than content alone
- How to work within people’s attention span?
- What language makes the reader want to know more?
- How to design your message so the piece is demystified and inviting
- What do the printed page and digital media have in common? Where are they truly different?
- How do you get people to click on your link?
- If you are not in the art world but instead you run a homeless shelter, how can the story of your mission be told through social media?
- Who needs to be on Facebook? What is it useful for? Is everyone leaving?
- The followings you build in one career will stay with you – keep that in mind
- How far ahead of a launch or event do you need to build your platform?
- What is the role of the board in social media?
Links
- Joan Garry’s Instagram
- Robin Cembalest’s Instagram
- Explore the Nonprofit Leadership Lab
- Joan’s Book: Joan Garry’s Guide to Nonprofit Leadership: Because Nonprofits Are Messy
- Music by Jukebox the Ghost
- Voiceover Work by Cindy Cap Solutions