Professional fine artist, Andrea Rosenfeld, with her extensive retail and wholesale experience, mentors Creatives in their business ventures and helps them to open their studio to their perfect client.

Posts tagged ‘unprofessional business followers’

The “What Do You Do?” Game. How Would You React to Common, Uncomfortable Online Situations?

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The first thing I want to say is that although you are an artist, a small business and project yourself accordingly, not everyone is, well, as socially responsible as you are. How do you react when one of your connections is unprofessional or inappropriate to you?

Well, as a Creative, you’re probably a wee bit sensitive (if you weren’t, you wouldn’t be creating) and you’re human (we come with a defense mechanism built-in) but you have to stifle any thought of attack and DON’T take their words personally. Unless the person happens to be a friend who you connect with on a business site, detach yourself from the comment, post or Tweet. You may possibly run across a scenario that will throw you for a loop. What do you do? How should you react?

Let’s go over a few scenarios and your options (choose and see if it matches my choices below):

Scenario #1 –

Your Twitter feed posts to your LinkedIn site and you see that one of your LinkedIn connections commented on your recent activity in a way that is less than professional. Actually, this connections blasts you and tells you that your Tweet was stupid, and actually, you should aggressively watch what you say on LinkedIn because you are “annoying”. First of all, track the comment to determine if any of your other connections can view it as well. If they cannot, leave it alone or try to delete it if you’re concerned. What do you do next?

Here are options:

Option A – write back a professional message explaining that you don’t appreciate their comment while highlighting the fact that after the message is written you will be removing them as a connection.

Option B – Ignore their comment and immediately remove them as a connection. Don’t pass GO, don’t collect $200.

Scenario #2 –

You’re hot, and you know it, but you’re on this social networking site not to troll for eligible partners but to promote your business and connect with like-minded people. You get a message from an unknown connection asking to meet for coffee. Uh, what? You politely respond that you prefer to speak with potential business relationships over the phone or SKYPE first. Their response is pretty much the same: coffee, cutie. Obviously this person isn’t interested in your cabochons, well actually they are but not the ones you just set in 18K gold. What do you do?

Here are options:

Option A – Ignore the message because really, you’re better than that and understand that even if you met this person out on the town, their demeanor would turn you away.

Option B – ignore and report the message to the social networking site because you’re there to connect in a business sense and they are bothering you.

Option C – write back letting them know that you don’t appreciate their unprofessional messages and that you’ll be deleting them immediately.

Option D – Ignore their comment and immediately remove them as a connection. Don’t pass GO, don’t collect $200.

Scenario #3 –

You’re experienced in a particular area of the arts and or business and you are more than willing to share your thoughts with up-and-coming artists but you’re not a teacher and you don’t have time to be. A particular follower barrages you daily with question upon question upon question to the point that you are becoming their personal, free instructor. What do you do the next time they ask you for detailed instructional help?

Here are options:

Option A – Tell them that as much as you enjoy helping others, going forward, your lessons will have a fee attached that they can pay for in advance.

Option B – Tell them that they would be much better off learning from a local college or artist as their intern.

Option C – send them a link to an online site that has tutorials in the area that they are learning.

Option D – Ignore their comment and immediately remove them as a connection. Don’t pass GO, don’t collect $200.

Scenario #4

You see that one of your best-selling or favorite designs has been copied, “exactly”, by another seller on the social or sales site. To your eye, there is no difference in design, technique, materials, or scale but the price is different. Your stomach wrenches, they STOLE your design!!!! What do you do?

Option A – Write to them, privately, telling them that you KNOW what they did and they won’t get away with it. Then get on your other social networking sites and bad mouth them to all of your followers.

Option B – Write to them, privately, telling them that you KNOW what they did and they won’t get away with it. Then write to the site administrator alerting them to the fact that they stole your design, show them proof, and tell them that you want them removed immediately from this site. Then get on your other social networking sites and bad mouth them to all of your followers.

Option C – Realize that there is no proof that they stole your design and even if you can prove that you made it first, you can’t prove that they “stole” it from you. Breathe deeply and be thankful that you have the intelligence, skill and imagination to move forward in your art and the integrity not to copy but rather be inspired by others. Know that you are on your particular path and they are on theirs.

Option D – Write to the site administrator to report the “theft” but do so from a place of support of others, not of vengeance. You can alert them to the possibility that your design was stolen and you’d hate for this seller to be stealing other people’s work. Contain your agitation, because you’re on your upward path, and offer concern for other sellers on their sale site.

What did you choose? Remember everyone’s response will come from their own morals, codes and experiences.

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