What's the coffee shop analogy and how does it apply to my social media content?

Imagine you meet someone new at a coffee shop or bar. You sit down, introduce yourself, and they ask what you do. You say you’re an artist. They’re interested and ask where you’re from. But instead of answering, you just say ‘I’m an artist’ again. They ask what you’re doing in town, and you reply ‘buy my art, it’s on sale next Friday.’ That would be an incredibly weird, one-dimensional conversation. You’d never do that in real life—you’d have a normal back-and-forth where they learn about you as a person. Social media is the same thing: it’s just a conversation. If every single interaction is only about your art or a variation of art, you’re being one-dimensional and boring. No one would want to get to know you. The interaction should be 90% about who you are as a person, and people should be banging on the door to get that last 10% about your work. That’s how you build real connection.

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Asked by an artist wondering how to approach social media differently · Answered by Patrick Shanahan · art-marketing-podcast · 2026-02-09