The real secret to marketing is that none of it works
Honestly? WIPs.
Notice how you jump onto a project when someone isn't promoting their comic but showing concept art? Ever notice how you run and ask "who is this angel" when you see someone post sketches or even just doodles of characters and then they say "Oh this is X for Y's comic"?
People like Work in progress.
We like seeing people actively working on something, being excited about the process, and letting others in on it. It feels intimate. The number of people who followed my work were excited when I was posting doodles and concept art. I had a conversation about my characters, I even showed snippets of script. And when I finally posted updates, people were like "DANG! You really changed xyz" or "Z totally looked like that type to do this"
I dunno -- I don't think it's all that crazy. I just feel it's really a matter of letting people get a glimpse of your process, seeing how you think or how you do your thing. You give them a reason to care.
Honestly? Yeah I agree.
Also I tend to check out people's work more depending on how much they promote it (spam/no spam) and their attitude towards others.
Yeah, that's probably one of the better ways I've gotten people to look at my comic as well in the past before I rebooted it. I usually will post character art I do for my comic onto my art instagram and also will occasionally show updates on comic pages. That method has just always been tricky at times due to the workload of the comic and not always being able to keep up with interesting concept art.
It is good advice though! I do enjoy seeing others' concept art. It's just tricky if you're busy or don't have a large following outside of your comic.
I tend to do that too. If I see people only spamming but not actually engaging with the thread, then I tend to ignore them.
Going along with works in progress and not spamming, just be yourself. Comment on comics/novels you love when they resonate with you. Or comment silly jokes. Be active on the forums. Post casual/intimate stuff on your social media, like jokes or pictures of your cats. I love seeing artists/authors being human bc it makes me put them on a pedestal less and appreciate just how much goes into their project/s.
I may have to post pictures of my new hedgehog when I get him haha. He could be the resident mascot for my comic. My old hedgehog, Pepper, was a sort of icon on the social media app of my college, so hedgehogs are powerful in their ability to make people happy.
Awwww yes! How adorable 🥰 speaking of which, if you have twitter or a tumblr, please share! I'd love more mutuals to get hyped about our characters with.
I have both! Would you prefer the one's for my comic or personal one's or both? I can dm you my personal accounts
Create content on social media that is...engaging and brings entertainment value:
- Comical or relatable
- Meme-able
- trendy
This thread I have made14, with probably 4 hours of effort put into it total, has been quite good at getting engagement. I doubt anyone has decided to read the book based on it, but it keeps those already interested in the loop. The hope is that some of them are shared across the internet for years to come, but at least they're OK in the thread as-is lol
I really do need to use the power of memes. Too bad my brain has erased all memes from my head as soon as I realized the potential they have. Time to scour for some on my phone
Searching for ample material took way more effort than actually pasting images/deep frying them. It's hard to find good memes these days.
I vaguely remember doing a tapas takeover with one of my characters when i'd introduced them as a new mc for Gekkering. I'd gone so far as to edit some of the comic pages and added little 'hidden messages' for folks to find and decipher. it worked pretty well and got folks to sub and i even tossed in some quick drawings for flavor.
potential eye strain warning for this one
if anyone manages to scroll down far enough on my page it'd likely pop up but i genuinely don't remember at what point i'd done this
I mainly inspired by the Sonic Twitter Takeovers (you can find the audios on the official sonic twitter and their youtube) but the general idea is that the "character" runs the page for the day answering questions and maybe posting a bit of goofiness. The point being to get a little more than the usual reader engagement and give an opportunity for folks to interact with their "faves".
I personally think Twitter or Instagram would be a bit better for such a thing unless you keep the event limited to the comic (the walls on Tapas aren't really accessible to mobile and thus you lose out on some potential engagement esp, without notifs). It's practically the same as maybe a character QnA but I like the idea of a 'takeover' since it gives the involved characters a bit of "sentience" as they're engaging with the readers