Social media and promoting your art (2021)
I’ve been on social media for quite some time, but as an artist I started to post my art only last year as I joined one fandom. It's a hard step to decide: either to share your arts with others or to just keep it for yourself. Although if you’re feeling like it’s going to be okay, then go ahead. I can give you some advice if you’re not completely decided. I'll tell a story of how I’ve got into art twitter & Instagram.
At first, I was unsure and was doubting myself and my art worth. My first posted art was completely unnoticed, but when you’re just starting it’s normal; not many people know about you, nobody discovered your talent yet and it takes some time for others to notice you.
The most important thing while starting to post your art on any social media is, that you have to not give it too much importance. It’s just a medium which connects you to your potential fans and people who might like your art. It’s good when you find some supporters, but in the meantime, remember, that likes and followers count doesn’t mean anything as long as you enjoy drawing your things.
As I mentioned before, posting art for the first time can be disappointing for you when you don’t see enough interaction with your arts, but I noticed some things that can improve your art notice: Instagram has hashtags as an aid for reaching more potential fans.
On Instagram, there is a limit of 30 hashtags, so I usually use all of them. The trick is to use smaller ones, try to find as many keywords that would apply to your art. Hashtags like #art are usually full of many other arts, so there won’t be a big reach, because everyone is using those big ones. You can even check how many posts are on # and decide with that fact either to use it or not.
On twitter it’s little trickier, when you use # there, you impoverish your description, because there is a limited number of symbols. But there is still a chance to make your art known! There are cases when somebody only posts art and people notice it right away, but it’s a small chance for beginners or people who don’t have any experience. It usually starts with small groups of supporters and friends you find there, but fandom can boost you too. It's important to not let fandom absorb you completely to the point you don’t want to draw anything different than fanarts, because other arts aren’t that popular.
What if I stumble upon obstacles?
There are definitely going to be obstacles, I can assure you. It doesn’t matter if big or small ones, social media are evolving and changing. So do fans and audiences. There may be times when you already reached your highest point for some time period and then your reach might fall down, but that doesn’t matter that much. True fans will stay with you even during hard times and there are always going to be better days ahead. Sometimes you have to find a different approach, sometimes just wait on some change, you can’t control the system of reach many times.
I’m currently there, stuck with smaller numbers than I used to see, but those are just numbers. I recently posted art I’m really proud of and it didn’t get average reach and numbers. Does it make my art less important and great? No. I really like it and if more people see it, they would probably like it too. The mistake is not in you or in your art.
Although your approach can affect the way you see your art, it can sometimes hurt you too. I saw many artists on various social media writing something like “nobody sees it anyways, it’s not worth posting it.” or “my reach is so small, is my art that bad?” and those artists usually get depressed about their self-worth with art or it discourages them to the point they delete their account or leave certain social media. If you felt this way as well, it would be better to realise that social media are just a tool to get people to see your art, it doesn’t affect the quality of your art. But for some people, social media aren’t the right thing. Maybe you may like only one of them, because of the way it helps you gain new fans, maybe you didn’t find the right one yet. It’s completely up to you which one you will enjoy posting to.
Remember that the things you enjoy drawing should always stay in the first place, everything else is secondary. Don’t let people decide what you’re going to draw or like.
2022
There are few new things that I noticed over the years; and a few of them aren’t that great:
#1 Algorithm can change to the point it won’t give you any chance
There are times on social media, when there is a new update and suddenly the approach that was working and you gained some normal reach before may fall down. For example, on Instagram, it can change from month to month; suddenly hashtags aren’t working, not even fanarts and your reach is smaller than half of the one you had before. That can lead to social media burnout when you think nobody cares about your art anymore, but the opposite is true. People care, they just can’t see it.
Algorithm work in the way to highlight artists, who use algorithm to their advantage – they post regularly, almost every day. Instagram doesn’t care that your art has a good quality; they care about how many people your art can attract. So, that means if more people are interested and interact with the post, more people will see this post on Instagram. If you don’t gain enough interactions, then your art may get flopped by algorithm. And quality > quantity doesn’t work here either. I’ve seen many artists who post sketches/WIPs often and get more interaction than artists who spent days on finishing their pieces.
With this in mind, you need to decide if you wanna give it a shot and try to adjust to the algorithm, although it may not work every time. Also, watch out to not become a slave of algorithm. If that approach of everyday posting isn’t working for you or is even damaging your creativity, you should stop trying to adapt to the trends and just enjoy what you are doing without focusing on numbers and reach.
#2 Not following trends may put you into disadvantage
Trends are another thing that affect a lot of artists; if you go with trends, you usually get noticed by more people, since many people care about it. If you wanna enjoy stuff you do and it’s not trendy, you may not have the numbers as the other trendy artists. Even if your work is more complicated or you draw a lot of things you enjoy, others get more attention with their fanarts that are currently trending.
Example may be some popular movie or show that is just trending and everyone wants to draw fanarts of it. If you join, you may be noticed by many people too; it doesn’t have to happen though. I tried that several times and it can be as disappointing as the reach with original work. You usually see people gaining so many followers by joining some trendy fandom and you may stay overlooked even if you drew something for it. There are just too many great artists in the trendy fandom which will overshadow you with their arts.
Most recent examples I experienced are from TOH fandom, which is wayyy too big and even if you wanted to share something with them, they eat content without even focusing on it too much. You get new art almost every minute and the odds for more people to notice your art there are small. Mostly only the extra talented people or people deep in fandom can get recognition for their work and you’d need to work hard to even get their attention. Another fandom I tried to reach was Arcane fandom, but I noticed many people actually cannot reach fandom that easily if it’s currently trending and if you never interacted with it.
Anyways, no matter what you draw; original work, backgrounds, original/D&D characters or anything that ain’t gonna reach a certain fandom; you always need to draw because you enjoy it. And if you enjoy it, then it doesn’t matter if it’s trending or not.
Trends may put original artists into disadvantage, but the world needs original content & art! You may never know how original work can help you in the future! You’re drawing for yourself.
#3 Dying communities/fandoms won’t support you as much as they used to
This just happens from time to time. You enjoyed drawing something, people enjoyed it as well and you had a great nice community. But people change, and many people move on from stuff they used to like.
This means fandoms you enjoyed may be slowly dying out. And if you keep on with only a few people there, suddenly your happy nice community will be just a few individuals enjoying your arts. And it may discourage you from creating more, since most people don’t care about it anymore, and they may not care about fanarts as well.
With this in mind, many people and artists move on as well, and yet if you still enjoy the movie/show that people don’t care about anymore, you may still want to draw more art. You never know when new fans could come and find out you’re one of the last pillars of the living fandom that still creates. And maybe you’ll also realise, that there are more people who never actually found you so far and may enjoy what you do.
And the most important thing, once again, is that you enjoy drawing not for the community only, but for yourself as well! Fanarts actually got me into drawing more, since I enjoyed what I was doing and nobody told me what I should/shouldn’t draw. I was free to decide what I wanna draw and enjoy, and I enjoyed fanarts the most! And my art improved by drawing fanarts and I was developing my skills in the meantime.
So, no matter what content you enjoy, you can draw whatever makes you happy and not worry if others still care about it as well. The fandom will live with you as long as you enjoy creating and interacting with the stuff that brought you there (shows, movies, etc.)!
Thanks for reading through this article!
I watched ‘Social media for artists’ course from Erica Wiseman last year, but got inspiration to write this even sooner! You could check it out as well, but some things there are outdated, for example instagram’s tricks that worked back in 2020…
Comments