Online presence for writer Adrian Hornsby
Online visibility is essential to attract the right clientele and increase your brand awareness. Your online visibility tells your audience a lot about your professionalism. So it’s critical to give consistent attention to your online visibility and behavior.
What can we learn from British writer Adrian Hornsby’s online visibility?
Online presence for writer
Can you briefly describe what you do?
I’m a writer and maker – a writer primarily, but writing is about more than words; it’s about conceiving a journey that you want to take another person through. I use language but also visual and performance media (e.g. illustration, video, theatre sets and installations). Bringing those into the world is part of the creation too.
Which digital channels are relevant for you?
Digital channels for me as a writer and maker:
- Website
How effective is your website? What goals does it achieve for you?
My website and social media presence aren’t, for me, massive distribution channels. Most of my commissions come through organisations that bring their own platforms, and that’s mostly how the work goes out: e.g. publishers for books, or theatres and festivals for shows.
My website is more for people who want to look me up for whatever reason, which may be commissioners or funders or just people who are interested.
— The primary goal is to provide an online portfolio for professional purposes.
— The secondary is to promote work to a wider public.
— The other aspect of websites and social media that’s valuable is communicating with other artists and collaborators. This can be for sharing ideas, letting other people know what I’m interested in, or if I have a specific question or need, the online creative community is great for sourcing. I.e. it’s not just a megaphone, it’s a forum.
Do you communicate your WHY? If yes, how?
No, but I probably should. I promote the why of individual works, and firmly believe that if a work can’t tell you why it exists, in 99% of cases, it doesn’t deserve to. But the why of me overall – aik!
Do you sell your (art)work online? If so, through which channels (gallery’s site, own website, art-site…)?
Books are available online via publishers and amazon; tickets for shows via websites of wherever they’re showing. I don’t handle a lot of sales directly or sell fine art via galleries or my website.
The most successful way for you to get into your client’s sight?
The most successful way for you to get into your client’s sight? To be honest, it’s word of mouth. The best things come through recommendations. What does this show? Networks are very powerful – even in the digital age, and possibly more so.
Thank you for sharing your recommendations.
1. Know good people – and not necessarily powerful people, but interesting people. They tend to know other interesting people, and if you can move fluidly through these networks, interesting things will keep surfacing for you.
2. Don’t burn others – if you’re an asshole, word will get around. And if you start working with assholes, you’ll fall out and they’ll say the asshole was you. This is a natural law.
3. When building an online presence, think about what users need over what you want to express. In artwork it’s often the other way around, but something like a website has a utility. Don’t be a mystery and expect people to pore over you – they won’t.
This article was created in collaboration between Adrian Hornsby and Hélène Mulder.
If you’re a creative professional with reflections or practices you’d like to share — on visibility, presence, or how you shape your place online — I’d love to hear from you.
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