I am so freaking honored to have Livi Tait on the site today, as not only has her blog led to some incredible experiences and she is the PERFECT example of how jargon-free = awesome, but Livi is also one of my best friends from college and I couldn’t be prouder of her.

Check out her social media tips below…

Who are you and what’s your site about?

I’m an art lover, who can usually be found in a museum or gallery most days of the week. My blog is about those visits – exhibition reviews and interviews with the artists, curators and gallerists I meet along the way.

How did you get into blogging? What prompted The Tait Global?

After graduating from college, I really missed writing about art (I was an art history major). Additionally, family and friends often asked for suggestions and my opinion on various exhibitions. I felt if I was already spending so much of my free time looking and reflecting on art, I might as well start sharing those thoughts.

How did you first start growing the blog?

Twitter. Twitter. Oh and Twitter. When I was working in New York (before I started my blog), I really enjoyed exchanging ideas and reviews with all the NYC art scene tweeps. Once I started blogging, those were also my first readers (well them and my lovely friends). It kind of grew from there. After the Metropolitan Museum and Guggenheim started retweeting my reviews, it took off on it’s own.

What was the biggest hurdle when first starting out?

Finding the right balance between art jargon and personal opinion. My first (unpublished) post was pretty much an art history paper. Finding a way to make art (and my reviews) approachable for people without art backgrounds was a big challenge. Most of my readers obviously have a strong interest in art but I didn’t want to scare them away with historical terms.

Do you feel like having a degree in what you write about has effected the way you blog about art?

My art history degree has shaped how I look at works of art, if I consider a work successful or not, why or why not I think an exhibition is important, so basically, yeah, it definitely effects my blogging. That was a big challenge since art history can be very elitist, but having, hopefully, found a balance, I think it’s what sets me apart. Most of the art bloggers I read are artists. They have very different takes on exhibitions. Initially that was scary; disagreeing with some famous NYC art blogger, but ultimately we have a different way of seeing, analyzing and writing about art.

Rapid-fire Questions

Favorite social media network and why?

Twitter. It’s is my news source, my gossip magazine and my art history textbook all in one.

What kinds of people do talk to online?

Anyone. Obviously, most of them have some sort of interest in art but there’s this banker from Abu Dhabi I regularly chat to just because he used to live in Switzerland and misses it a lot. I’ve also started following tons of people tweeting from Egypt, which has definitely changed my twitter time line!

Any cool things that have cropped up because of social media?

I’ve made a spin painting with Damien Hirst, chatted with my favorite contemporary artist Olafur Eliasson and gotten a hug from Paulo Coelho. And that was all in one day! [Check out Liv's post on the World Economic Forum.]

When I started tweeting and blogging, I would’ve never thought anything like that would happen. I’ve made some incredible friends thanks to social media. That sounds crazy to a lot of people who don’t regularly use it but it’s been amazing.

I went to Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB), one of the biggest art fairs in the world, in December. Just being able to go thanks to my blog was in itself incredible, but what still boggles my mind is the doors that opened thanks to social media. The art world is NOT an easy field to break into.

Jeffrey Deitch, the current director of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in LA, throws the must-attend event of ABMB every year. About 300 – 400 people are invited and it’s the Who’s Who of the art world. You know you’ve made it when you get invited. I was tweeting back and forth with one of my favorite art tweeps about trying to finally meet in person, when she mentioned she was  going. Once she realized I wasn’t, she sent me the contact info of two people she knew at the MOCA and told me to send them an email. A few hours later I had an invite! I had been blogging for six months at that point and got to spend the night hanging out with some of my art heroes, while listening to LCD Soundsystem performing for us. Unreal!

I’d like to be a curator one day, so other priceless moments have included interviewing some of my favorite curators for my blog and asking them first-hand for advice.

[Marian's note: Can we just pause for a second and acknowledge how utterly amazing this all is? Three cheers for Livi and her insane success - all through social media!]

Best Twitter tip (generic, bull-shit, jargon advice is greatly discouraged)?

Talk to people, not at people. Engage in real conversations. For a while, I used to get up at 3am every Thursday morning to participate in #artchat, which happens at 9pm EST. I met some awesome people that way and learned a lot too.

Best blogging tip (“”)?

Write about something you’re passionate about. Whatever inspires you. And as Marian likes to say, keep the jargon (and BS) to a minimum!

Go right now and check out Livi’s blog, The Tait Global, and follow this sassy lady on Twitter, @aodt.