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Benjamin Cahoon | Episode 937
Benjamin Cahoon is a ceramic artist and arts administrator based near Portland Oregon. While managing a studio and working in social media consulting/content creation, Benjamin has been professionally practicing art for over 10 years and teaching for 7. Benjamin’s practice contains atmospheric firing, large scale installations, conceptual sculpture, and illustration.
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Why is it important to keep your profile up to date on social media?
Absolutely. It’s important to have information that is update so that people are spending less time trying to understand what you do and more time enjoying what it is you are there to do. You know? Your job as a maker on social media isn’t to try to find your audience, it’s truly just to make the work and make sure all the things on your page point back to your work so that the people can find you, I would say.
Is it important to plan in advance what you are going to do with an app or some other way? Is it important to put your social media interactions in a schedule?
I think that a schedule would provide a lot of structure for people to be able to vamp and play around because once you have a set structure then the stress of not having that structure is taken away and there is a lot of energy that goes into stress. So when you are able to put that energy into what you like doing. making pots, you are going to be a much more efficient and happy person.
Is it better to have a diversity of platforms that you are on, just because any of them could change the rules of the game on you and you could be left out in the cold?
I am going to say yes with a whopping caveat. (laughter) Baseline, yes, having the same content on multiple platforms, say you have work on Instagram, Facebook Reels, Tik Tok, and YouTube shorts, but it’s the exact same content, you can be reaching four completely separate and equally as effective audiences with that same content. However the whopping caveat is you need to access your personal availability and capacity because if you do not feel you are able to keep up with four platforms or don’t want to invest the time and energy into those things then it will not add to you. It’s going to take away from yourself. So it really goes back to that stress is energy, you get to choose where to put your stress and where to put your energy.
Does it matter about frequency of posting on these platforms?
Yes, for those people who are listening who are looking for specific eureka moments from me this answer is going to be a little bit, meh. But that depends entirely on your audience. Each one of these platforms yields a completely different data base of people and so if you find you people are responding well on Fakebook and not on Tik Tok then pour your energy into Facebook.
Do we need to stress and make a perfect post or do we need to just make a post?
One hundred percent, just make a post. Vulnerability is absolutely the way to people’s hearts. Showing the true authenticity of the moment, of your pot, of your failures, of your successes, of the hardships, is how you are going to connect with people and show that you are a real person. Not one of the machines that is throwing pots. People want to connect with people on social media and not a product.
How does one go about doing a special promotion or sale like a mug sale?
Yeah, that’s a big one and it’s very fun and the whole thing is drumming up excitement and drumming up silliness and novelty of the event itself beforehand. And then making the process as easy as possible and as quick as possible for the user to look at a mug and say, I want that, and then give you the money. Absolutely that is the most important thing. You could have marketing skills, marketing skills, marketing skills, but if it’s hard for a person to buy your pot they might give up half way through. So make your process for the transaction as simple as possible.
Book
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
Contact
Instagram: @benjamincahoon