1. Social media - Social media is a highly valuable tool for any artist. Once you've got exhibition dates confirmed, make sure you announce this across all of your social media channels. Create an event and invite people to it. Don't overdo it though - if people see you constantly posting about an event, they'll get sick of reading about it and will be put off. Make sure your posts contain enough relevant information to attract people to the event and make sure you mention any freebies or special offers on at the event. At the exhibition itself, have your phone / laptop / iPad or whatever with you and make sure you regularly post about it. Take photos and upload them with comments on how well the day is going. Let your followers know if your day's going well. Get connected with others you meet and make sure they know you're actively on social media.
2. Personal invites - Even though it's still a good idea to announce your exhibition across your social media channels, people love receiving personal invites. It's something that people just don't do that often anymore, so people get excited when they receive one. Draw up a list of contacts, friends and family and get your personal invites written out. To save both time and money, it's a good idea to keep your list reasonably short. Send your invites to the people who you really want to turn up at your exhibition. A personal invite can be more persuasive than an email that's composed and sent to loads of people at the same time. You should send your invites out a good few weeks before your exhibition to give people plenty of notice.
3. Email - It's still a good idea to send an email announcing your exhibition, as well as using social media and personal invitations because you can reach lots of people very quickly. You might have a lot more email contacts than people who you can send invites to, so make use of these contacts and send them emails inviting them to your exhibition. Make your email concise, informal and friendly. Keep to the point, but remember to include all of the key details. A good idea is to ask people to reply to you saying whether they'll be coming or not. Include some photos so people can be reminded of you and your work and can get a taste of what the exhibition's going to be about.
4. Text - If you've used the above three methods, you should probably keep texting for reminding people about your exhibition. Compose a short, friendly text letting people know your exhibition's coming up and remember to send at a time when everyone's going to be awake - if people are woken up in the middle of the night by their phone going off, they're probably not going to take that much notice of your text. Use your phone to keep in touch with people on the day of your exhibition. Fire off another text on the day and have your phone with you so you can reply to any queries or arrange any special appointments with people.
