It’s odd how close this sounds to “I’m an engineer / developer, not a marketer”. If you’re wondering, they’re both wrong.

Talking, Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana

Via A Photo Editor and SpringBoardMedia:

I understand the whole “I’m an artist, not a marketer” thing, actually, but in this day and age, to not think about your audience in advance is not just poor business, it ignores the fundamental changes that have hit every business and every art form – that audiences are more participatory, so you can’t just try to engage them with a product and no conversation.

The interesting thing to me? The art v. marketing debate closely mirrors the product v. marketing debate. Make a great product and it sells on its own, right? Not really. Make great art and it sells on its own, right? No. All artists know that.

One thought: creating viral expansion loops is a powerful way to build marketing, activation, usage, referrals and reactivation into how a product is built, deployed and used on the web. All companies that use the web today have to carefully consider how their product is used and how the act of using the product markets the product.

The real question: how can artists build viral loops into their art?

Answering that question should really be a full post…