Business Outreach

 We're getting into the scary part of this class for me. The part where we start actually reaching out to people and businesses online. 

I'm the type of person who'll invest hours of work and do countless tutorials in order to redesign their website, convert my webstore to print on demand, download audio books on how to build a social media presence and follow them step by step, then... just let my creation sit forever. 

I wish there was some alternative to marketing towards people. People, have you met them? They're just awful! Sadly, until cats and other inter dimensional beings deign to use the internet I guess that's the dumpster we're stuck digging through.

The seven, actually 8 businesses I connected with on my page were:

Cartoon Saloon: An independent animation studio in Kilkenny, Ireland. They're the force behind the academy award winning "Secret of Kells",  "Song of The Sea", and "Wolf Wakers".

They post pictures not only of their animation, but of their animators helping add a personal level to the page. They also post about animation news and updates like contests they're having or where to stream their productions.

 I like the idea of posting relevant news in addition to my own work. I've been considering posting excerpts from Ted Talks, which discuss social networking and the creative industry, but I'm nervous it will come off as too highbrow and pompous.

I do think posting about other audio dramas, animation or how to articles about pitching a cartoon series (which I'm gearing up to do) might not be a bad idea.

I've been considering creating video snippets of the process me and my husband go through to ready our scripts and create audio recordings. I want to do this as slide show animations, drawing us rather than video taping us. It keeps with the look and feel of the brand and avoids the people who want to nitpick our appearance.

Unfortunately, that takes time, but it's something to consider! 

Welcome To Night Vale: An audiodrama, listed as a radio show to keep up the pastiche. It revolves around the desert town of Night Vale where the supernatural has become natural. The plot unfolds through the announcements of local radio show host Cecil Gershwin Palmer.

I like that this page stays 100% in character. I'd like to do that with our site, with all other things except for blog articles. 

I'm considering adding a category like IRL (in real life) to sort those articles into. Our characters on the show are a boss (Old Scratch) and apprentice (Napoleon Doom) with a very Jane Eyre and Rochester (if you fancy some Charlotte Brontë) meets Sir Hiss and Prince John (if you prefer Disney) kind of vibe.

In real life, were married and trying to run this side hustle while holding down our big kid jobs. It's not nearly as intriguing, but could possibly make for some decent articles.

Adult Swim: The niche arm of Cartoon Network, catering to a slightly more mature audience. It started out with taking animation frames from old Hanna Barbera Cartoons and reworking them into surrealist comedy shows.

Unfortunately, as one of the original Adult Swimmers, MC Chris pointed out, none of these more daring shows really caught fire with the mainstream until Fox cancelled "Family Guy" and Adult Swim started airing it. It's not my type of comedy but I appreciate that it put Adult Swim on the map.

They have plenty to post about, with a whole slew of shows featured in the Adult Swim time slot on Cartoon Network. They also post fun random things that would appeal to an animation minded young adult audience.

I do feel that I need to post more cute, random things. I have a tenancy to exclusively post about my work and the shows. I'm not really a cute, random fun time type of gal. I'm more like a meat robot, that runs down its list of chores for the day, completes them, then shuts down till the next day. 

Though I feel like posting about that might be the sort of quirky, random, forced cuteness my page needs.

It's all Been Done Before: A collective of several audiodramas, written and produced by Jerome Wetzel, who I interviewed for an episode of my podcast The U Mind. 

I really like how they post regular updates about the cast and a lot of behind the scenes clips. It would be very difficult for me to do something like this as I like things to be very polished and professional. 

What other people think of as real and relatable I think of as sloppy and rushed. Though they're posts don't really give me that vibe. It's more of a personal thing.

Girl In Space : An audio drama about X, a botanist stranded aboard an abandoned space station. She documents her adventures through an audio diary.

The posts here are mostly about the podcast with some nice fan art and audio clips. They haven't been as active as they are during their season.They do however post little updates about projects they're working on.

I think I may need to start doing that. Most people don't know why I just vanished from social media. I feel like telling the truth, and saying that I'm studying marketing and trying to put together a pitch to ultimately turn this into an animated series would alienate a lot of my current followers.

Though that might be exactly what I want to do. I'd love to get rid of the people who think I should be creating material for free while living in a studio apartment with my 10 stoner friends and supplementing my income working at a coffee shop. 

Maybe outing myself as a normie, who actually cares about their career is just the thing to do.

League of Ridiculous Conversations: A banter based podcast. I've been a guest on this show before. It's really just a recorded conversation with various bits but the hosts really make it into something hilarious and fun. 

They don't post that often, but they are really good at responding to everyone who comments. I'm not. I have to mentally prepare myself for every interaction, even online. Then I sit and second guess how my words could be possibly misconstrued by someone, somewhere, looking to bring accountability down on me. 

It might seem like I'm paranoid but I have so many instances where something I said like, "My nieces are the freaking cutest!"

That little slip up got me drawn into a huge internet quarrel. In which I was informed of how how "Cuteness is not a contingency for a child's existence, they are not there to amuse you, they aren't your toys!"

After a while I just stopped trying. Methinks perhaps I just need to ban people who want to turn the comments section into a philosophical discourse. 

Also, my nieces AND nephews are the freaking cutest, so there.

Creative Brew: An interview style podcast with a video component. I've been a guest on this show too. Host Quantal Langford interviews entrepreneurs and people in creative industries. 

The show mostly posts about the hosts art, new merchandise and episodes now available to stream. All good things to put into action. 

I used to promote my work on my site, but I felt like my work was attracting the wrong kind of crowd. I do a lot of surrealism and female centric art, which is considered low-brow art. 

(These are all cropped versions of original pieces)

People focus on the dark or sexual aspects, which isn't really the energy I'm looking to attract.

At a gallery I recently tried to show at, they wanted to put my work next to an artist who painted pig fetuses in jars. No offense to the artist, I'm sure she works very hard on her craft, but I didn't want to be featured next to that.

 I couldn't imagine someone putting pig fetuses on their wall, unless it was for a highschool biology class. Even then, I think it would just make the students uneasy about what's to come.

I don't really like featuring my art anymore. I don't want to be the big, gross weirdo for the rest of my life. 

Quantal mostly draws super heroes on his page. That's all well and good, but I've learned that just isn't my scene.  

I'm trying to do more graphic style work for the website. I feel like it's more approachable, but I might slowly reintroduce more painterly pieces.

Comedy Bang Bang: An improv style show, where the hosts assume characters and interact with their guests in strange and unexpected scenarios. Every episode is uniquely wild and wonderful. 

This is a much bigger show than ours, so they can boast behind the scenes shots of their celebrity guests and fun stuff like that.

They also post cute, random quips- which is fine for them, but again with the randomness? It's so not my thing. Must I learn to be spontaneous, random and quirky?

I just listened to a  Ted Talk by Howard Rheingold, who says that companies who are still broadcasting rather than trying to form connections are going to be left behind in the dust. I get it, but I just really long for the days of creating a clean, well crafted post. 

I don't have a problem picking up the weirdos online, I want to pick up a more serious audience...for a horror/sci-fi comedy podcast...which is a bit oxymoronic actually. 

I just don't want to go the rest of my life having to be a clown for people to poke at online. I'd like to be appreciated as a creator, and I feel like in the past I've tried to be too goofy and fun-loving, and suffered for it.

I'm not really sure how to make jokes without becoming one myself. I'm still trying to sort that out.