Do popular people even notice likes and retweets?

[Darth_Biomech]

People say "retweet follow and like popular artists so they could retweet and like your stuff in return".
Every time I want to like or retweet somebody's work and I see that they already have thousands of likes, I always begin to think, like, is it worth to even bother? For them, it is probably an endless stream of notifications that they just phased out by now, and I'll be lost in a sea of literally thousands of others. 10843 likes or 10842 likes or retweets, why does it matter if in the next five minutes it'll become 12542 likes*? Same with reposts, are you gonna even pay attention to the 500th time somebody reposted your tweet? Fans are just statistics now, another "you have 100800 new notifications since your last visit".

In contrast, it feels very nice to follow small-time artists. Your every like or retweet probably feels important and brings joy to them, while also making a noticeable difference. Who knows, maybe you'll ever be able to become friends if you ever find enough courage to PM them (spoiler: you won't)?

*numbers are exaggerated to better convey the point.

[frgmnt]

People say "retweet follow and like popular artists so they could retweet and like your stuff in return".

Does anyone really say that...? I've literally never seen this exact sentiment, and I do spend more time on twitter than I'd like to admit. If you have some examples, I'd like to see them.
The only thing of that sort I see is "retweet, follow and like small artists so they feel appreciated", and that makes sense.
Also if you don't want to follow/retweet big artists, you don't have to...?

To answer your question, no, I don't think popular artists can keep up with every single one of their 10000 retweets, and it's extremely unrealistic to expect otherwise. They might be popular artists but they're also just human beings with limited time and emotional resources to pay attention to people interacting with their content. said by an unpopular artist who's overwhelmed anytime they get +10 likes on anything

[sushy00]

If you want to go that route smaller artists would notice it more often than very popular artists.
Personally I am not really a fan of retweeting but I give out likes.

[surenlicious]

I do notice. I find it important to notice. You can always upkeep everything if a piece goes maybe viral or something, but I do make an effort. But a small artist can become big too, are you then gonna stop supporting them if they hit a sudden number well yikes?

And why does everyone want to DM people? XD I really, really don't.

[darthmongoose]

It's actually pretty rare for a pro artist to be so big they get more than maybe a thousand likes tops on a non-fanart piece on social media. I'm much more likely to notice if somebody has liked or especially commented on or RT'ed a piece of original work or something related to my comic than somebody who's interacted with something I've drawn or said as part of a fandom, because firstly there will always be fewer, and secondly it means they like my work, not just the fandom I'm referencing.
The big piece of advice I can give is leave a thoughtful and specific compliment and don't plug your own stuff. Somebody just giving a like or a follow out of nowhere unless they have a really amazing username and avatar won't grab my attention, a retweet might, but what tends to stand out is a specific comment. "I love the linework in this piece, what a great inking style!" is a compliment that's specific and suggests an appreciation for illustration that's deeper than just surface level; I'll probably look at that person's stuff.

Don't expect much if you follow somebody with tens of thousands or especially not hundreds of thousands of subs, but you can potentially get somebody with a few thousand to look your way if you give their original work some love, especially if you're working in a similar sort of style and genre to them, and that's a good way to start, because they might have friends who are more well known.

[LCT_m_a_d]

Speaking from instagram experience...
It also helps to consider that it can be exhausting for large audience creators to make time for every interaction. When there's more audience noise, most people limit their engagement to intent-ful fan (unless they rarely post). Saying "nice work" or liking and sharing isn't always as helpful or impressionable as giving the creator insight on what you think they're specifically doing exceptionally well. It's a mutually beneficial engagement. I always treat being a fan as a partnership.

They're just like us, with a lot more people to satisfy

[domisotto]

I think you are better of making a brilliant reply to a popular post that would make some of their captive audience see you

[disqette]

People say "retweet follow and like popular artists so they could retweet and like your stuff in return".

First time I'm hearing this.

Anyways, some of my friends have pretty large followings, them sharing my art with their followers did not do much (if anything) for me in the long run. I'll maybe get 2 or 3 new follows and a hundred likes aaaaand that's about it. You'd get better results from gaming the algorithm and improving your "sharability".

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

I'm not sure that RT or following popular artists in order to get them to reciprocate is a good strategy just because there are so many people trying to get their attention. However, one thing has worked for me kind of inadvertently. A few weeks ago I made some fan art for a manga called The Spicy Ninja Scrolls and when I posted it on Twitter I tagged the creator Kinoshita Jiroh. I didn't think anything would come of it, but amazingly they noticed, left me a very nice note thanking me for the art and RT'd it to their 28,000 followers. That was like a month ago and I still get new likes and follows based on that one piece of art. Now I didn't make that art in order to manipulate social media, but it was a nice bonus. So if you really like an artist and want them to notice you and maybe spread your work to their audience, make some really good fan art and tag their account when you post it. It might pay off.

[Lady_T_Musings]

I can understand the feeling of getting lost in the crowd, but if I like something, I like it. I do however put in the extra effort to try and reach out to other artists whose stuff I dig that have less than 1000 subs. I'll actually comment on those and try to uplift as well as I actually do like to message other artists and will occasionally DM to tell folks I really dig their stuff or to ask a question. I stick to doing this with sub-1000 subscribers as I feel it has a better chance of getting engaged with and mayhaps making a new connection :D!

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Yes, and no.

From what I've heard from popular Twitter users in general (not many artists...big artists don't usually talk about their own popularity, not even critically, which is kind of a shame) they often need to turn off notifications just so they don't have their phone going off every second for 2 straight days. ^^ So even if they want to obsess over every bit of attention they get, at some point it stops being feasible.

But they do notice things like a post going from 12K likes to 32K likes, for example. They have their own thresholds for how well their posts are doing just like the rest of us; they're just bigger. And when they increase fast enough, taking notice of every increase of 1 becomes difficult long before it becomes pointless.

I think novelty should also be taken into account...so the only place where I can even begin to think like this about my audience is my fan animation YouTube channel, whose first video is slowly working its way to 200K views (no telling when it'll get there; it's pretty old).

And I still look at the view counts from time to time, at least to see if 195,739 is getting any closer to that big round number. ^^; And I check for new comments almost every day.

It's a bad habit, yes, but it also shows that I'm not yet at the point where I can take that stuff for granted. I mean, if you look at my channel analytically, the only reason Vid 1 has been seen that much is because it's 3 years old; the newer videos have just a fraction of those views...and some of them never even hit 1K, so clearly it's not necessarily * me * that is popular...

All that is to say, yes, I still notice and care, even if on the outside it looks like I shouldn't...! ;v; And in general I think it's better to give the artist the benefit of the doubt and/or just like the post if you like it. You can support popular and un-popular artists at the same time; there's enough pie for everyone.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

I would rather support people which my support actually matters more to them. Even if I happen to like a popular artist's work, I never like, share, comment, or retweet it. It's like giving money to rich people. They don't need me.

Also RTing popular artist's work in hope for them to RT back seems to be a recipe for disappointment, especially if you don't really like them at all. Many people are trying to join popular people DTIYS by this reason, and got disappointed when said popular artists (Rossdraw level or whoever it is) don't even like or look their piece. Which is understandable because there are thousands entries and they probably have other things to do. I don't think relying on backriding popular artist for your own popularity is a guaranteed clout; there are too many people trying to do the same, and the popular artists may not care about you at all (I meant you are literally a stranger to them).

It is also feel insincere like you're just using them as a tool, but I actually like that notion.