It's been at the back of my mind for a long time that I wanted to create some kind of community space, although it's been hard arriving or pin-pointing what exactly it should be. It's no surprise really that the seedlings of this 'gifts ideas community' has started to filter through, since I've always loved all forms of arts / crafts / design and really love to hang out with all sorts creative people. It has started out with the Facebook page, now three days old or so, and showing good spirit and I'm happy for the those it's been good for but it is just the beginning and I want to find ways to open it up more, increase interaction and exposure for the community.
Right now I've a bunch of ideas, more than I do the technical know hows to execute them all. This is perhaps not necessarily a bad thing, it'll slower me down but not entirely put me off, since in my book there's always a way.
Here's a small development idea for the Facebook page since I would like to continue to build some momentum there. So I'm really throwing this one out for feedback and to gage people's interest on whether or not you'd take this up.
Again, the idea is an open invitation for all independent artists / designers / craft people to submit their 'business card' or cards, as the case may be, as long as it's not an overwhelming number. I'm thinking this might be particularly useful to those who take on commission work, or just want to pick up traffic to their site / stores. The business card would be like a digital jpg photo format so you have more real estate to work with. This would get uploaded to the Facebook page by us, so that we can categorise it into relevant albums.
Since this being digital you will have more real-estate to work with on your card design, you can showcase some of your designs / creations as examples and perhaps as appropriate, keep some personal details off and just direct to your online spaces / email contact for example.
Now the albums would work a bit like a classified ads space (but with no charge of course). Possible categories could be something 'specialist' like 'wedding photographers', 'jewellery makers', 'fractal artists' to something more general like 'mix media artists', 'painters', 'illustrators', 'graphic designers' etc. People's card will be placed in their category of choice and new categories could open up as the need arises. The categorisation part is where your thoughts would be most helpful.
Once the photo is uploaded into the album, you will be able to do three things. Firstly tag your logo in the photo card to your fan page name, secondly, location tag your card and thirdly leave commentary on your card with more description / details or share as you wish. This would give you additional presence on the 'Gift Ideas' page and if browsers are anything like me I always like to check out the photo section :)
If you read this far thank you! Now I'll await feedback / questions and if you want in, then send us your card to start rolling this out.
Thanks,
Sheila
Gift Ideas Community
