How can I get more followers on social media?

[yoboketto]

So I’ve been struggling with getting noticed by people online. I personally think that my art is pretty good but I don’t seem to get recognized. Is there any tips on what I can do to showcase my presence on the internet and get media attention?

An Example of one of my own recent works:

[jensrichard77]

Hard work is the answer. Nothing comes easy anymore. The internet is swarmed and people are fighting over scraps.

But don’t give up, keep posting and keep chatting and keep being a great person and the following will come slowly over time.

[doublemelon]

by doing fanarts of popular thangs right now, like Genshin impacts and Boku no Hero.
Unless you are already doing that, then idk.

[sorible]

Use a lot of tags. I should probably start doing this too, but certain tags can get you more attention. Like @doublemelon said above, do fan art for popular games, anime, etc. I did a couple pieces for danganronpa (not on instagram) that got a lot of views/likes.

[VibrantFox]

I'm gonna be honest hard work is kind of a joke because folks can do the bare minimum and blow up so that's...not it

Your Hu Tao fanart looks great and tbh I'd be surprised to know that something of that quality isn't performing well. Some of the most common advice is using relevant hashtags and participating in art tags or events (i.e. inktober, drawgust, faebruary, etc)

One thing in particular with fanart is using tags related to the given franchise. Genshin for example is pretty active so if you can get your work in front of the fandom with game related tags that can improve your numbers

overall tho there's no guaranteed means to performing well on social media especially since none of them are designed in our favor (there's a post that breaks it down but i can't find it will link when i do tho) but the best that can be done is posting consistently and reposting old art that did well. and i mean it on the last bit; art that you really liked or that did well kind of disappears after the initial post so boosting that post or just sharing the artwork again in a new post gets it in front of another set of eyes.

also if you wanna keep up with hashtag events on social media this airtable calendar covers some of the big ones so your free to browse what you might be interested in participating in (just be sure to check rules for whose allowed to participate in some of them)

airtable link because i didn't know it'd turn into a calendar

edit: FOUND THE LINK! this kinda breaks down in a simple way the way social media algorithms work very good thread i promise (also i'm not sure if there's alt text on the images but if anyone has a way to check that'd be awesome)

[EncryptedWriting]

I agree with all the people above. Hard work is key, but being smart with your allocation of hard work is a whole other. I think fan art would be a really wise choice and DTIYS to get things off the ground.

[joannekwan]

On instagram you can use up to 30 tags in a post I believe, so use all that you can. Insta is nice since you can type whatever you want after the # sign and tags will pop up and show how many posts are actually using that tag. Instagram also has a large set of tags you can use so even generic words like "animeart" or "animeartist" have a tag that people will follow and possibly discover your work through.

Even if just one popular tag is applicable to your piece, like the ghosts here, I suggest using it and trying it out. Like even if the ghosts aren't the main focus of this piece, I'd include #ghosts, #spooky, #halloween in the post.

Twitter though … I haven't a clue about. I hate their tagging system since tags only show up while you type if they're trending. Then I heard that the algorithm suppresses posts with tags too, so focus on key words in your main post. Even if you include tags, they have a smaller limit of what actually 'works' at 3 (I believe).

I hope this helps even a bit. Good luck!

[FGC_Checkmate]

I suggest doing exchanges. Look for others in a similar situation as you (smaller/less popular artists) and give them likes/follows/comments and politely plug your work in return. That way two people benefit from it. It's not particularly fast but it's an organic way to build a following.

[MeltingCORE]

There's a lot of different ways to gather followers! This is just my personal story: I have over 10K on Instagram and I post around once a week, occasionally more. I have a decent following on Tumblr and am slowly regaining on my new dA too. But I've also been on the art side of social media since I was a teen. First people knew me for my "MeltingCORE" story (The Reactor Girls) and now it's for "Red Shift". (My industrial animu stuff, basically.) I never cared about getting followers but I do enjoy looking at other people's creations and making them feel happy with compliments if I enjoy their work. I naturally began to gain followers across platforms as 1) my work rapidly improved and 2) I made friends/acquaintances. That's pretty much all it took for me. Interacting in the community! (But that also was over many years.)

You deserve more! Your art is incredibly well rendered. (The teeth are my favorite part!)

[Kaydreamer]

I hate doing all of these things, but this is what I've observed to have worked for others, so:

• Fanart of currently popular franchises. This is the fastest and most reliable way to blow up, but if your prefer doing your own original work, it can really suck the air out of you - plus, people following you for fanart may up and leave if you revert to original work, or start drawing stuff from a different fandom.
• Draw This In Your Style challenges from prominent artists with styles and aesthetics similar to your own. They'll usually reshare the work of people who join in, and that can result in a nice little spike in followers.
• Game the algorithm. Right now on Instagram, it's all about stories and reels, so post lots of stories and reels. This will result in your regular posts being boosted a little as well, because the algorithm 'rewards' you for doing what it wants.
• Make sure you're tagging your stuff appropriately!
• Join in with trends. The two which come to mind were the Bowsette one a year or so back, and the Sailor Moon Redraw. They spring up randomly, and you have to be fast to get yourself on the leading edge of them, but if you do, you can explode in popularity overnight.

To be completely transparent, I hate all of this advice except for hashtags. My largest following is on Webtoon, it's the size that it is because Webtoon promoted me, and it hasn't resulted in much growth on social media at all. I really don't pay attention to social media numbers. But if you do want a large social media audience, and you enjoy fanart, this is the way to go about it.

[Caro]

I would listen to all the advise given already but I’ll toss in my experience though it may not be useful or relevant to most people!!!

By and large the best growth for me has always been when I lean more into comedy and strips. Even when I’m not actively working on a strip I will promote my comics by isolating a panel from the comic that I think would be funny enough for strangers to want to share with their friends with no context.

Social media is all essentially word of mouth so its worth thinking about what would get people to SHARE something and I think this advice is applicable to a lot of webcomics folk because 9 outta 10 times when I go to a webcomic creator’s social media there page is content to notify the readers they already have but not content that would hook a new reader or attract sharing and interaction. And this is can look different from creator to creator. For me, its comedy.

I’m at 75.5k on IG now because I started a warm up comedic slice of life strip that I do before I do my graphic novel work. I put more effort into it than I honestly intended to and because if that strip my Twitter went from 2k to 22k in a couple months. It is Very Sharable content and it funnels a ton of readers into my more ambitious/“serious” work so its worth it for me in the end. I don’t use hashtags, make fanart, I’ve never done a DTIYS, or buy ads, I just actively make things with the intent of having people WANT to share them and practiced with a ton of trial and error along the way.

Obviously, this isn’t advice for everyone! Not everyone wants to do this or want to take the time to hone their comedy writing and that’s perfectly fine but I like sharing my experience and what works for me and hope its something that someone would find interesting and potentially useful!

[fleurravenbooks]

okay 1st of all your art is so pretty
2nd hard work/talent dont matter when it comes to popularity, so dont think your art isnt good. Try drawing popular stuff, maybe if you can do little giveaways once a week where you do simple drawing of either someone's oc or them or their fav character (i said simple because i know it takes quite a lot of time)

[Danaeaoife]

Okay, well yeah, you should just keep trying your best. You should also improve on your art. Although some of it looks nice. there is still a problem with it.
I like the ghosts and all, but it just doesn't look like Hu tao.