TAFA

A Rayela Art Project

Concept: The TAFA List membership seeks to include fiber artists and crafters, development projects, cooperatives, online shops, galleries, wholesalers, designers and collectors. TAFA brings all of these different businesses together in an illustrated database. The common denominators are the love of textiles, both old and new, their place in society, and the need for an accessible market. There are many membership based groups on the web that cater to specific groups within this textile/fiber art umbrella. TAFA has the unique goal of giving all members equal space and recognition in their roles as supporters of this medium we all love. TAFA seeks to have an international representation and to support contemporary and traditional techniques, new work as well as the old.

TAFA went live on February 1st, 2010, using a blog format. It immediately met with enthusiasm and broad support both from its members and the fiber art community. Membership grew to 57 members in the first month, each bringing in specialty knowledge and collective experience that immediately made the group dynamic, diverse and enthusiastic. TAFA members have a vibrant web presence, many of whom use social media to promote their interests. Mentoring and networking opportunities have led members to examine their strategies, hone their web skills and improve the impact of their businesses on the web.

Community: TAFA's community aspect is central to the concept, but completely voluntary. We all have commitments that can inhibit our levels of participation, but those who are able to participate contribute valuable experience, insight and support to the rest of us. Our community is on facebook where we meet privately in a closed group and publicly on our fan page. All members receive a monthly newsletter and those who are not on facebook are always welcome to participate with suggestions and feedback.

Within a week of going live, the TAFA fan page grew to over 100 fans, indicating that there is great public interest in the concept. The membership page on TAFA received over 500 hits in its first month, a sign that many have been looking and thinking about whether this concept will work for them.

TAFA: The Textile and Fiber Art List on Facebook

Building a TAFA community is key to the concept and mission. Member blogs are networked on the fan page and their fan pages are listed as favorites. Every new member listed on TAFA shows up as a new post on the fan page. And, each post on the fan page is streamlined to Twitter.

All of these tools encourage the potential for viral marketing, a core strategy to TAFA's growth and to the promotion of its members.

Members are encouraged to promote TAFA on their blogs and websites through displaying the logo and linking it to the TAFA site, by adding TAFA on to their blog rolls and by writing about it in their blogs. Again, this is voluntary.

Facebook was chosen as our community place because of the excellent tools it provides to connect with each other. Yes, some people hate it and do not want a presence there, but in order to understand how important social media, and especially facebook, is to today's business strategy, watch this video:

Membership Criteria: TAFA's ideal member has an established web business and uses social media to promote itself. Having a professional presence is important: a well organized website, excellent photos, and updated information all help. But, most important is how the person, product or service will contribute to the rest of the group. Does it have heart? Is the artist invested in her work? Will the TAFA audience benefit from this service? Of course, we want each member post to be eye candy, to have impact and to be inspiring. Not all members are great photographers or web designers. Yet, they all provide work or a service that was considered important within our larger context.

Members are approved by me, Rachel Biel. There is a certain aesthetic that I look for: expertise in the work, uniqueness of the product, the handmade stamp. I can usually tell with a quick tour of a website or blog whether this person will contribute something important to TAFA. TAFA will have a broad range of techniques, products, art and other skills represented, but it is not a place for large commercial businesses. For example, we will welcome hand made supplies (yarns, tools, etc,), but not mainstream fabric stores. TAFA represents individual artists, small businesses and organizations that have a strong commitment to represent the people behind the product and to the communities they represent. TAFA is also not a "crafty" place. We are not looking for mass production of headbands, coin purses or cuteness. Some members may have these products as a part of what they do, but it should not be their main focus. If I don't have a clear feeling about a potential member, I call on the other members to weigh in on the decision. Their input has been extremely valuable on helping to shape the TAFA membership.

To apply for membership in TAFA, send your web links here.

Sponsor Spots: Members can either earn or pay for sponsor spots on the right sidebar of the site. For every 10 members referred, one spot is earned for a year. Paid spots are $10 a month or $100 for a year. Income generated by the sponsor spots are earmarked for publicizing TAFA.

Site Format: TAFA is currently set up on a blog format, using Google's Blogger. Eventually, this format may become clunky and unwieldy for a large membership. Advantages of using a blog format include the ability to leave comments, being added on to blog rolls and the streamlining capacities with facebook and Twitter. All of these will be taken into account when considering a new format.