Interacting on Social Media

[UrMom]

Hey peeps, don't know if I'll get any responses on this (not the most likable person on this site), but here it goes.

I've had a comic blog and Twitter account for a while, recently changing accounts to purge my dead subs, which is why these ones are so new. I've done my best to be active despite having no time to draw anything aside from comic pages. That being said I've never had an easy time getting followers to interact. When posting questions or stuff I want reblogged/retweeted, depending on the importance, I retweet or reblog it several times before someone does anything... and it's usually just a 'like'. It's like pulling teeth really.

So, if you don't have time to post extras, how do you coax your peeps into interacting with you while keeping your Twitter/blog content on topic with your comic? Is lack of interaction just a normal thing?
Also how do you stay active when you don't have time to post extra stuff?

I know I'm not the greatest person around. My opinions don't line up with everyone else's sometimes, and I type dumb shit when I'm tired. I try not to show it on those accounts, but maybe it bleeds through. Should I bleach out my personality for social media?

Sorry if someone already posted a thread like this.

[Chopythes]

Well, first of all: Cheer up!
I too feel like I'm screaming to the void when I get literally no interaction on my things.

When it comes to twitter, most people want to follow the artist, and to know about their daily life and thoughts.
(well... I'm speaking for myself here, but I think that's the average on there?)

My account is pretty much me screaming about things and occasionally tweet about updates of my things, so I don't have much experience about running a twitter account dedicated to a webcomic.
I think that'd work better if you had a lot more followers that might just want to know about the comic updates? But here's just me guessing as I'm not familiar with it.

If you've got a personal account and keep the comic twitter account, you can retweet yourself so your friends will see your links. Chances will be higher that they too will retweet it.

That's just my two cents on my experience, but others might have a better insight in this than I do!

[heterodont]

Unfortunately, lack of interaction is pretty common. I don't know if people just don't want to comment or feel like they don't have any authority to - which is weird when it comes to asking direct questions/things of importance people still. don't talk.

Pretty much followers who interact are going to be people who are already initially forward/sociable people who like to talk anyway - so the more followers you get the higher chances you're going to get people like that looking at your stuff. I haven't really found a way to get the more shy..er people to interact.

[UrMom]

Lol yeah, I noticed that not a whole lot of people are even interested in the updates? Looking at 2-3 week old twitter posts about pages there's usually 1 of any link clicks or total media engagements. On the blog I maaay get 1-2 likes on posts. It's kinda weird cuz why even follow the those outlets if you're not interested in the updates? But maybe they're people who already follow the comic itself, and just follow the social media accounts for support? I dunno.

I do have a separate twitter account where I mainly just retweet stuff I like, and complain. Don't have much input as far as my life goes, it's just work, chores, drawing, eating, and sleeping. I'm not very... well spoken either, or have anything insightful to add to stuff like most people. Although I continuously find out that I shouldn't have a personal account cuz I get into a lot of arguments. Lol. (Last one I got into blew up into a huge thing cuz I said I preferred to be called a female over a woman, and so do people I talk to irl, whenever people get stubborn about using neutral pronouns. Apparently the word 'female' is akin to racial slurs in the "feminist" community.)
I've tried retweeting/reblogging stuff to my other accounts before, but no one is ever interested... or I just lose twitter followers. It seems whoever is interested in the comic, and are following my other account, are already following my comic stuff.

Anyways, yeah. I dunno, people are weird. I'm not too down in the dumps... at least any more than usual, but it does get a bit frustrating when trying to get events or important questions noticed. They could at least retweet/reblog the stuff! But that's just impossible to get as anything else sooo~

@heterodont Most artists and art fans are introverts too, well crap. At least I don't feel my stuff is more undesirable than everyone elses now.

[Chronitis]

Well first cheer up bud! Not everyone will like you the only thing you can do is appreciate the love you receive not chase the one you don't.

As for your social media, I say spice it up even though you want to stick to it only being about your comic. The twitter accounts I see of other webcomic creators mostly focus on jokes not related to the comic, or fun (not personal) life updates, like: "Came out the grocery store and the bag ripped! #worstdayever"

[UrMom]

Pff I don't care much if anyone likes me, people have hated me since I was in elementary school, I'm used to it. But I do know how you act hugely affects how people react to your work. I like the people who do like my stuff, but getting important things retweeted/reblogged or responded to is a little more appreciated. If I gotta act more friendly, and approachable for that then so be it.

I think most of those accounts are a mix of personal and comic stuff. I already got a personal account for "no one cares" stuff, but I guess it wouldn't hurt posting it on the comic accounts too? I won't post anything nonsensical, like what I ate for breakfast, I think it's stupid when people post every detail of their personal lives to the public tbh. But I can talk about more interesting personal things... if I have any.

[shazzbaa]

• First, go look at comics accounts that have a bunch interaction, like you'd like to see on yours. Now look at how many people are interacting with them and compare it to their follower count. You might find your ratio of interaction is actually not too far off from average.
  • So like, my last comic update tweet got 5 retweets and 4 comments! I have 989 followers. If my math is correct, this means that about 0.5% of my followers are retweeting. Gigi D.G. is much more established than I am -- the latest Cucumber Quest update tweet got 106 retweets, and the CQ account has 12,800 followers, meaning that Gigi has about .7% of her userbase retweeting her, not much different from my situation. If I just see Gigi's getting 106 retweets and I'm only getting 5, I might wonder what I'm doing wrong -- but in reality, if I had her numbers, proportionally, I'd be very close to her.
  • So, until you have the numbers, I would say, don't expect interaction! "Hey guys, should I do this?" type tweets are probably gonna not get much response unless friends are following you, or you have hundreds of followers.
• Please do have a personality! A lot of folks see this false dichotomy between "completely unfiltered" and "fake friendliness" -- and I think both of those are bad. Be thoughtful about what you post, but if none of your personality is there, why would I follow you? If I look at someone's account on twitter and it's nothing but "hey guys, my comic updated," "hey guys, comic is coming, here's a preview," then I have no reason to follow you unless I ALREADY read your comic.
• I think it can help sometimes to follow creators who are doing the kind of thing you're doing, or are unapologetically the sort of person you want to be. It gives you ideas and conversation to bounce off of on your own account! There are honestly some creators I follow just because their personality is encouraging and their tweets keep me in the loop for things that are being discussed in webcomicky circles.
  • I don't know what kind of Weird Humour stuff appeals to you, but I immediately thought of two of the weird humour people I follow -- Jhonen Vasquez and DaShareZ0ne, two creators on twitter who are unapologetically...... uh, whatever you call what they are. It works for them! And so for me, the people that encourage me to be myself are the people yelling loudly about self-indulgent comics -- for someone else, the creator that encourages them to be themselves is going to be DaShareZ0ne making absurd skeleton memes about how much they hate their boss. It doesn't have to be people making the same kind of work you are!
• Yeah, being approachable and friendly can make it easier to, well, be approached, but if that's not the person that you are, I think people can tell when you're fake. It's possible to have a snarky sense of humour and still be approachable and thoughtful! Just remember that like attracts like -- how you act online will determine the sorts of people who attracted to your social media.

.....well that's probably way too many thoughts, uh, SORRY THIS WAS SO LONG and I hope something here is remotely relevant to what you were asking xD

[danitasibert]

First off, i totally get what your talking about, I'm always wanting to get feedback and just to interact with others online like i see with everyone else, but its the hustle of being a newer/amateur/underground artist.
its sucks, but that is why we have our journey to get to the our foot in the door; its hard but at the same time that is why the art community is wonderful, cause we can help each other out at the time!

you got this don't feel bad!
plus, your personality is YOU even if people some agree/disagree with you, it shouldn't stop you from being .... haha well.... YOU
you shouldn't have to hide yourself from people and online, it will be miserable, have fun with your work, the rest will come later!!!

[UrMom]

Lol if you've seen any of my awful comments here, you'd know I have no issue with long posts. Don't know how to stfu.

Despite following almost every webcomic creator I can find on my personal account, though I don't do the numbers much. I just see their art getting retweeted all over my dash, and people having conversations with them, and all that fun stuff. Feels like listening in on two strangers gushing over stuff at the mall. Posting more artsy stuff than pages does help a lot...
The lack of sharing and such cuz 'introvert', or not even following I get. Apparently lack of talking or engagement outside of 'likes' is a norm. But the thing I never get is the lack of statistical engagement(?), link clicks, expanded details and such. Why follow if you're not even going to look at anything posted? Hmm, I'm probably over thinking things like usual.

I dunno, if you got a bad personality people won't like you no matter how you own it. Even coworkers say everyone will like people who act nice, and extroverted more than introverts who bitch all the time. It's not that I want to be an asshole, I just have a hard time caring about things I'm not interested in. Also I'm just kinda unable to be really emotive outside of grumpy, and the occasional existential crisis. Like, a coworker I new died a while ago, but I felt nothing... which I knew was wrong, but it was something I couldn't help. The only thing that will probably make my fake friendly more obvious is the fact that I hate fake friends. Ironic.
I dunno, maybe I'm just venting (probably should have just went to the bitching thread). It sucks seeing people have such an easy time communicating with one another, but when I try it's hard. Easier to be a douche, or not talk at all.
In a way I was looking to see how other busy people kept up with their webcomic lives outside of the webcomic though.

On a random note, I didn't know Jhonen had a twitter account, you think I would have since he's a big time thing... guy. Admittedly I do get embarrassed by my comic, so I don't try to follow or look for people much outside of those who like the comic already, or those weekly chat accounts.

@danitasibert Well, I'm already kinda hiding myself. xD My mean exterior is just a front... for the most part. But yeah, being an indie creator sucks sometimes, especially one who can't create to their fullest thanks to priorities.

Anyways, maybe I'll close this thread after a few hours. Just gonna see how things roll.

[anitacomics]

Don't worry too much, lack of responses is normal. In fact, it's just a small percentage of your followers to interact, and it's staying the same even when you go big. They just have more followers, and thus the percentage seems bigger.

Anyway, I feel like I'm doing my best on Twitter when I share both personal and comic related stuff. Not really personal, just let them know you're a person running it and not a promotional bot. People get bored if you only post about your comic, it looks spammy.
I do take my breaks from social medias if I don't feel like posting. It clearly results in a stop in growing the audience, but the people interested remain and I stress myself less

[danitasibert]

well even though social media is like a giant pool don't give up, but i have to say you have the interaction on Tapas! that's golden!
I think you'll be fine, don't stress yourself out!
i wish i was like you actually!

[sarrowsmith10]

I think the whole, "create it and they will come" saying is bogus. If you want people to interact with you, you have to interact with them first. Keep participating in #Webcomicchat every week. Talk to other creators and fans.

Retweet other creator's works and comment on their work. Start building relationships with people. When people care about you, they will care about your art and will want to interact with you more.

Life example: I had recently started going to a new women's ministry at a local church. I'm kinda quiet and shy so I sat in the back and when there was discussion about something I didn't say anything (cus I'm shy). No one sat by me the first 3 weeks. I was feeling really upset and I contacted a friend I used to go to Church with and told her that I hated the new Church and they were so unfriendly. Her response? "Why should they care about you if they don't know you?" Her advice was that I needed to take the initiative to say hello to some people. Sit by someone I didn't know and speak up during the meetings. I did these things at 1 meeting, and suddenly I was surrounded by friends and never sat alone again. I'm still quiet, but at least I don't sit alone, and people say hi to me and talk to me.

So, post pictures of your pets, your house plant, your sketches and try to interact with people as much as you can. It makes you seem more human and approachable.

[Aspie_Gamer]

Seconding what Sarrow said.

Getting your foot in the door with other creators (not the popular ones mind you) is how you'll typically get your first genuine fans of your comic. Leaving thoughtful comments, offering to do art trades, guest comics, etc is how I earned my most loyal readers for LoaA. And keeping your comic going even when the odds aren't in your favor is its own reward. I've had someone tell me before that its inspiring how I've kept my webcomic going despite all the problems that have kept it from being bigger than it is even though the writing and pacing is better than it has any right to be compared to some of the "popular" webcomics on both here and LINE WEBTOONS.

Also, don't be afraid to be yourself on Twitter or what have you.

Too many artists feel that they have to censor themselves or put on a neutral "everything's great!" facade lest they have their fanbase turn on them over an unpopular opinion or viewpoint they may have. I am what I am. People don't like what I have to say, that's their problem, not mine more often than not. Now some artists no doubt probably have a throwaway account where they can speak their mind freely and that's fine, but I will say that it is ridiculous how immature people can be where artists can very well lose their livelihood overnight just from one comment they made on Twitter that probably wasn't even remotely harmful or "toxic" to begin with.

Its a reason why I'm glad I'm very lowkey on the totem pole.

What you see is what you get with me and even if I do one day become one of the top webcomic creators, I'm not going to pull a sudden 180 and say only nice things all the time. I sooner trust people who call out BS and don't have a facade of being nice or knowledgeable.

[awesomefeelsman]

At the bottom it'll be expected that you'll have less interaction but consistently putting out your ideas and personality out there would bound to get you some response. What really matters is the stuff you put out there if you believe it's worth something.

Just so you won't be discourage there will always be the 85% of people who would not interact with you, the 10% that would try talking to you and the 5% that would flip and throw their underwear in the air when you post something online.

But just have fun doing and making the things you love. Eventually people will notice and if they like you, they'll follow you.