What do you say....? Artists mainly just want to create art, they want to be in the studio, versus doing many other business duties, such as art marketing. But unless they have a business partner who takes care of that, the artist is a one person enterprise, and thus must do some art marketing.

Many art marketing efforts are naturally taking advantage of the internet. Most now have websites and many are involved in Facebook, use Twitter, and have other internet initiatives. Is it too much?

To cut down on time, with all that Facebook offers, why not skip the effort of having an art business website?

About Facebook:

Facebook is a website � one website among many. It just happens to be a hugely popular website. 900 million users and the largest IPO in recent times, confirm that!

Facebook is about the connection, the engagement, the instant gratification. You go out and network. You talk to your fans, your customers, it is a place for conversation. You engage with them, and they engage back with your art.

Facebook is one of the best places to get comments on new works, and your friends may even share with their friends, a very powerful tool.

But in the days following the IPO, as the stock price slid, questions have come -up about how it will ever make money? A recent article suggests teenagers are losing interest, (or maybe just want social media services away from their parents!) and suddenly Facebook does start to look mortal.

Like so many websites before Facebook, there are always risks. At one time "My Space" appeared to be all we needed - where is that now?

Your artist website:

Artist websites can leverage social media, but are still valuable to have. All websites offer you a bit more opportunity and control than Facebook.

The opportunity on your own artist website is that you can expand on your services, products and mission.

Your website is where you can provide more in-depth information and content. It is organized for readers to find content they want fast, not only what just happened recently.

Your website will not change constantly, you will control the changes. Your artist website is where everything is stored, maintained and developed.

So if I really do need both, what to do?

If you see the benefits of both, then you have to find a way to combine the work. Services like Hootsuite help you manage multiple posts and services like Twitter, and Facebook. That can help.

Some artist websites such as MyArtClub.Com let artists save time by doing all their art marketing steps at the same time. Artists can post a new image on their website, and via MyArtClub.com can email, Facebook and twitter at the same time. Messages can be the same, or can be varied to suit the audience. More details are available here.

What will you do?