Setting Our Goals and Ambitions for the Coming Year (Our @sndbox Plan for 2018)

A shiny and fresh New Year lies ahead!

As a member of the @sndbox creative incubator and part of the first group of @sndbox "Cohorts" who will graduate from the program at the end of May, wanted to take a moment to take stock and create some form of solid statement of what we are hoping to achieve with Red Dragonfly in 2018, both in our collaboration with @sndbox, as well as in "external" terms.

A Bit About Us

I tend to use the terms "I" and "us" interchangeably, so I wanted to explain that, up front. 

This Steemit account belongs to the Red Dragonfly Gallery, a small independent art space in Port Townsend, Washington, USA. The Red Dragonfly is owned and operated by married Steemians @denmarkguy and @cosmictriage, and we keep the business on its own account here because our individual blogging interests deviate a long way from art.

Our store features artwork from many emerging as well as established artists who could generally be described as "alternative," although we tend to have a heavy focus on fantasy, surreal and whimsical. 

Because we are located in a tourist town, we also offer a number of handcrafted gift items, and much of our artwork is also offered on greeting cards and postcards, as a "concession" to the visitor trade.

2018: Our Social Media Mix

We started this account in June of 2017, for a number of reasons:

First, we wanted to augment our reach with a free standing blog that followed more of an "article format" than you can get with Facebook or Instagram and the like.

Second, we were-- and continue to be-- hopeful of developing a secondary stream of income from writing about topics in art and creativity, in addition to simply offering art for sale.

Third, we wanted to use a growing art and artistic community on Steemit as a possibly "hunting ground" to make contact with new artists whose work might fit into the gallery-- on a physical level.

Fourth, we were hoping to gradually build the Steem Power of this account to the point where we could effectively offer support (in the form of meaningful upvotes) to promising artists showcasing their work here on Steemit.

We currently have a fairly well-followed Facebook Page with 2500+ likes, a fledgling twitter account, and minor presences on several other social media channels.

2018: Account Status and Metrics at January 1st

Just to set some benchmarks, at the turn of the year the Red Dragonfly Steemit account had managed to reach 609.581 SP with an additional 157.998 liquid Steem in reserve, most of which we have since used to power up.

We had made 1,340 posts, of which 81 have been original "long form" content, mostly illustrated with our own photos and art by our resident artists.

We had 624 followers and were following 169 people. The relatively low number of "following" is the result of us primarily following artists and people in creative fields-- with a few exceptions. 

2018: Account Goals-- by the Numbers

For the moment, we are setting the somewhat modest goal of reaching 2,500 SP by year's end. The somewhat low number is the result of what you'll see in the "Challenges" section, below. We expect that we will only be able to power up minimally during the next six months or so.

From the "Content" perspective, it's our hope to be able to post almost daily from this point forward, so we hope to reach 400 original posts by the end of 2018. 

In addition, we believe engagement is the key to success on Steemit, and we are very interested in interacting with-- and supporting-- the growing community of artists here on Steemit. Somewhat conservatively, we'd estimate passing 5,000 total posts before the year comes to a close.

We're also setting as a goal to have 1,500+ followers by the end of 2018. Not going to speculate too much on the "following" end of the equation, as we plan to continue to be somewhat particular. In addition, you soon run into problems if you try to actively follow too many people-- it simply becomes an impossible task to keep up with everyone.

2018: Challenges

We are dealing with a couple of fairly substantial challenges at the moment, and into 2018. Keep in mind here that the Red Dragonfly is not just a blog on Steemit, but also a brick-and-mortar business operating in 3D.

As of this writing, we are still dealing with the aftermath of a flooding event that occurred back in early October. Because we have not received any form of insurance compensation yet, we are rather "cash poor."

Meanwhile, we face a bumpy road ahead; our city has just started an infrastructure upgrade project that will disrupt the road, sidewalks, parking and access to our physical location for the next six months or so.

As a result of these events, we may not be able to power up out Steemit account as much as we might like to-- in fact, we may be substantially dependent on our liquid rewards here simply to help pay rent and bills.

2018: Goals and the Artist Community

In one of our very first posts, we talked about our ambition to become part of the Steemit arts community, and to (eventually) be able to support artists who showcase their work here in a meaningful way.

Of course, on Steemit, that mostly means being able to give worthy work a reasonable upvote and resteeming particularly noteworthy items. At the turn of the year we'd finally reached point of being able to give a $0.35-$0.40 upvote, and we wish to continue growing our SP to support artists.

We're also hoping to "make good" on our intent of finding new and emerging artists through Steemit, whose work might be displayed in the physical space of the Red Dragonfly.

We believe art and art exposure-- even for digital artists-- should extend beyond merely being pixels on a screen. And if you're an actual painter or actual creative, who knows? We might be able to feature your work!

2018: Cryptocurrency as Payment!

Another ambition for 2018 is for the gallery to start accepting both Steem/SBD and also Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies as payment at our physical location.

There are still some minor logistical issues with this, especially with the slowness and fees associated with BTC transactions, but we intend to become the first art gallery in our area to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment.

Stay tuned!

2018: The "Daily Featured Art" Project

As part of building exposure for the artists whose work we feature at Red Dragonfly, we're working on a "Daily Featured Art" program, which we will most likely launch in late winter early spring.

The basic premise is taking a piece of art every day, featuring it in our blog here, along with our web store, web site, Facebook and twitter... showing it both as an exercise in giving additional exposure to our artists, but also to use (in a broader sense) as a marketing tool.

Since we are facing some "disruptions" at our location, some creative sales alternatives will hopefully help us weather the storms. And even if we don't end up selling anything, at least it will help get artists' names out in front of the public.

We are also very hopeful that-- before the end of the year-- we'll be featuring art by Steemit artists whose work has made it to the gallery!

2018: Our First "Steem Backed" Artist Opening

One of our initial ambitions with creating a Steemit account was to generate some sideline income that might enable us to sponsor and feature new artists at the gallery.

For those not so familiar with the nature of the art business, promoting a new artist can be a somewhat costly affair: You can spend lots of time, effort and money on advertising, promotion, public relations, press releases... and yet you end up with absolutely nothing.

The beauty of Steemit is that it allows us to have a blog that generates a sideline income we can use to save up for special events we would not otherwise be able to afford to put on. When you're a small gallery like ours, an additional $1,000 to throw at an event can make a huge difference to your chance of having a successful outcome. 

Thanks to our membership in the @sndbox creative initiative, our blog is gradually building a following that's allowing us to set aside funds for events. And we are deeply grateful for that!

2018: In the Pipeline - SteemArt™ Shows

On a more ambitious level, we are contemplating a larger project-- possibly in cooperation with @sndbox-- to help artists worldwide expose and market their art.

It's difficult for artists to go "out and about" with their art. Yes, there are galleries-- but what about outside events like multi-artist art shows? 

There used to be more of them, at least here in the US, and they used to be more affordable for the average artist looking for a breakthrough. Now? Not every artist can commit to an $800 booth fee for a long weekend, along with travel expenses and more.

SteemArt (working name) is the idea of creating an "art hub" show for Steemit artists (along the lines of the art featured at SteemFest in Lisbon), a collaborative effort under an overall umbrella. But then we additionally wanted to branch out further; borrowing loosely from the popular TED talks, there could also be SteemArt-Local events, where artists could group for joint shows in their cities or regions, but still under the SteemArt umbrella.

Of course, there are lots of details to work out there, and many miles to go before we come to realization, but we're excited about the possibilities!

And There You Have It!

That's about it, for our 2018 hopes and aspirations. If you've actually made it all the way to the end, thank you for your interest and support.

We'd like to extend our heartfelt thanks to @voronoi and @hansikhouse, the amazing and tireless brains behind @sndbox, without whom this journey would have been far more laborious and slow. Also a special thanks to @natureofbeing for your ongoing support and encouragement! 

Thank you for reading! Red Dragonfly is a proud member of the @sndbox creative 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.