Recap of Our SIFF Forum: How Any Artist Can Hustle On Social Media

After seeing the success and growth of Thin Pig film clients like SADIE , Canal Street , and the Tribeca Film Festival official selection Black Hat , we’re more confident than ever that any artist can kick butt and take names in their online efforts. That’s the attitude we took when we produced a Forum panel discussion at this year’s Seattle International Film Festival .

In collaboration with SIFF, we wanted to embolden artists of all kinds by showing them living examples of social media success. The five panelists were all influential artists, mostly hailing from the Seattle area, and each of them were overflowing with refreshing perspectives and hilarious stories. The crowd was full of writers, actors, musicians and more, and their openness to new points of view made for a very chill vibe.

Here’s me, Ben M.F. Rapson , giving my silent review of how awesome it felt to be sharing the secrets of social media success with such vibrant panelists and enthusiastic audience members:

From left to right in each photo, you can see how much game each of these spellbinding artists brought to the event: Tiffany Burke (Tiffany Burke Photography); Wynter Rhys (writer/director); Kristian Mercado Figueroa (writer/director ), Sassyblack (funk musician), and Miss Indigo Blue (owner of The Academy Of Burlesque).

As for the education itself, check out a few of our slides from the Forum intro. The overarching message was that any artist—and really, any business—already contains everything they need in order to be successful on social media.

You have the power to decide that what you care about matters, and that it’s important enough to post about every day. It’s never all about the amount of followers you have; it’s about how engaged you are with the followers you do have. You never know how powerful each new connection will be to your business or career so focus on quality instead of quantity.

Finally, the most important practice for anyone looking to promote themselves on social media is consistency. Posting every day, and in many cases multiple times per day, tells your followers and potential followers that you’re worth keeping up with. Over time, that consistency will lead to a strong online brand and a fiercely loyal fanbase.

THANK YOU to all our panelists, as well as Dustin Kaspar and everyone at SIFF. Photos by Quinton Peters.