Continuing "Study Notes" for Red Dragonfly's "Daily Art" Program

Note to readers: These posts are intended both as "updates" as well as a place for us to take some "permanent" notes about what we're developing, so we have an easy online destination where we can lookup things.

In the previous post we were laying out the bare bones of how we are planning to structure our "Daily Art" posts.

We touched on the content, and promotion through external venues like Facebook, twitter and others.

Nature as art

Consideration: How to Tag?

Tagging "Daily Art" posts requires some careful planning. It may not seem like much on the surface, "just tag it with art," right?

But it's not so easy.

"Art" would definitely be one tag

"DailyArt" would also be a tag we would make "permanent," so people could just click on that tag to see a complete listing of these posts. There's a "risk" element there, in that other users might adopt the tag, as well... but that's a bridge we'll cross when we get to it.

The other tags are a little more ambiguous... and they would be used mostly for categorization and exposure.

Since the posts are "commercial" in nature (i.e. the featured art is not just to look at, it is also for sale) we would like to tie these posts into existing Steemit Economy initiatives, as well as arts initiatives.

Just today, @timcliff announced the new "SteemEconomy.com" initiative, which is an aggregator site of venues that accept Steem/SBD as payment... and taking these as payment is part of our core reason for even doing this. So it would follow that "SteemEconomy" would be a tag we'd use. 

So now we're down to just TWO "free" tags. At this point, I'm thinking of "free" tags as actually being descriptive of the art, itself. But is that even viable? Or the highest and best use of space?

Or would it make more sense to continue with another "fixed" tag, maybe relevant to one of the existing on-Steemit sales venues like @steemshop? The idea here being that we want the posts to receive maximum exposure as possible "sales" outlets.

So if we do that, we're down to a single "free" tag. Artist's name? Subject matter? Type of art? Or should that tag be used to connect with one of Steemit's arts initiatives, like @artzone? 

The conclusion we are reaching — after discussing with a couple of other gallery owners with significant online presences — is that art is a browsing experience, not a focused experience. 

In most cases, people just "happen upon" a cool piece of art, they don't actively search for it. 

As it looks at the moment, it would seem most likely that our "Daily Art" posts would end up having all five tags be fixed, from one post to the next.

If you actually read this, thank you for being part of our process! Feedback and comments are invited and welcomed in the comment section!

Red Dragonfly is a proud graduate through the @sndbox creative incubator program, part of the "Cohort 1" team of May 31st, 2018. Please support Sndbox and the @sndbox-alpha curation initiative!

The Red Dragonfly is an independent alternative art gallery located in Port Townsend, WA; showcasing edgy and unique contemporary art & handmade crafts by local and worldwide artists. All images are our own, unless otherwise credited. Where applicable, artist images used with permission.