Posting on Social Media

[AmazementComics]

I've seen an increase in the number of followers on our social media outlets, and as of yet, it's like nobody notices our posts. How odd is it to get so many followers, but like no likes or comments? Is it really an algorithm thing, or is it something else? Some people we follow have less followers and like 20 comments. Share your thoughts and experiences down below. Topics like these can't be emphasized enough, especially if there are no other means of marketing your stuff.

[alexlcuri07]

Social media is so hard. I have probably about as many followers on social media (Instagram) and none of those really translated into likes, comments, or subs for my novel. My partner was kind enough to boost a post for my birthday and it got over 2K likes but that only correlated to about 5 link clicks and zero subs. I've just slowly fallen away from social media as a viable source of promotion for me. It just doesn't seem to work on my end.

[MeltingCORE]

Heya! It's quite common to amass a large amount of followers but not have the traction to match the follower count. When I was on Twitter, this was an issue with many creators who would get thousands of followers and then turn around and get like... 20 likes on a painting. It's partially due to the algos, yes. And it's also partially due to follower collecting/artist collecting. I'm not saying you're follower collecting but it's likely you may be seeing an upsurge of people following you in hopes that you will follow back. Very annoying when that happens, at least for me. It also happens on Tapas where people will sub to works to collect stories/hope for a sub back and then never read them or read them and never engage with comments/likes.

To try and get people to engage, maybe you could ask questions on your social media posts? Or talk more about your creative process/what it is you're making? Social media is definitely a tricky gamble for artists for sure. I've found that talking about my ocs and creative process gets people more engaged. With Tapas, my readers seem to stay engaged because I post regularly. I've seen some comics/novels that have no clear update schedule which unfortunately causes a loss of interest due to the large, inconsistent time gaps. (It can be hard to catch up/remember when a work hasn't been updated in three or more months without any explanation for the lack of updates...) I don't think you're referring to Tapas in your post, I just put this here to help anyone who needs it and wants more engaged readers! (Also, genuinely loving what you're writing about helps to keep your creative juices flowing so you won't procrastinate on your story!)

[pilot-obvious]

A part of my career is managing social media content for the company I work at, and something I ask myself is, "How will people engage with this? What will make them more likely to engage with it?" I also try to apply that same process to my personal art. I find that letting people have the power of choice is one way to help with this. I did a post where I let people vote on the outfit my main character would wear in one chapter and it got a ton of engagement and discussion. Asking your followers questions can help them connect to you. Letting people ask you questions also seems to help!

Consistency is also key and is... well, hard to do as a creator. It's helpful to create a backlog of work and a schedule for what types of posts you'll post on certain days. Maybe Wednesdays are dedicated to WIPs or you do a Throwback Thursday where you compare your old work to current work. The person who posts 5 times a week will probably accrue more engaged followers than the person who posts once every other week.

[AmazementComics]

As a matter of fact, I was thinking of posting fan every Friday as sort of an ongoing trend moving forward. Don’t know where it’s going to take us in terms of viewership, but thanks for your output.

[VibrantFox]

algorithms are definitely pretty on social media and i'm beginning to think only a small fraction of the few followers i have even see what i post

I've heard a lot of the tips about consistency or using certain tags or posting at certain times of day but i'm honestly feeling less and less sure of what works or if the issue is just me or my art

my method has honestly boiled down to: throw everything everywhere and see what sticks

[Caro]

I feel like social media is always just a tricky spot because what works for one person may not work for the next. I’ve personally never used tags because I can see how susceptible it is to bot abuse having known people who’ve both abused the system and people who struggle against it. But I also see some folks swear by them!

I’ve always found for me the trick has always been to try and only post things that are shareable. A random illustration you like is all fine and good but it needs to say something to the viewer that makes them want to share it with their own friends or something that might say something about them and their tastes. That’s why Instagram comics can tend to spread and grow followers relatively quickly, And you’ll notice in groups where people talk about making this type of content people ask the question “How can I make this communicate better with an individual?” As opposed to “How can I make this drawing better?” (Tho that’s not to say u should ignore trying to draw something well because there’s a great deal there that can also important to the success of a post on social media.)

You cannot expect everyone to catch every post you make when they’re likely following hundreds more people and a lot of folks don’t even actually check social media long enough to engage with every single one of the hundreds of posts that will be made in a day. It’s just unrealistic. The best you can do is figure out what are the types of things that you can post so the people who do end up ~lucky~ enough to see your posts will want to relate to and share with their network of friends who are going to be entirely new to your work. SO, yes all the things people have previously said about engagement are true! How can you engage with your audience? BUT ALSO how can your audience engage with your work?

The types of posts I make that I personally always see a jump on engagement are illustrations that tell a story in a quick single image, silly lil strips I do as warmups sometimes, and funny panels from my comics that might be amusing and shareable without context.

[Geek_Aflame]

There’s definitely an algorithm problem with Twitter. My sister is a pixel artist/painter. I always like and often retweet her work yet 80% of the time I only find out she's made a Tweet if she tells me about it or I know she's just finished something new.

Maybe I'm old fashioned but if I follow someone and regularly interact with their content, I want to see all their posts in my feed.

[frgmnt]

I've seen small twitter artists who had one tweet get really popular, with thousands of likes, and while their follower count might increase it's probably not a huge gain, and their engagement afterwards is only a little higher - eg. ~50-60 likes instead of 20.
It's a sadly common occurrence.

Something that might work (no guarantee) is what @Caro and @pilot-obvious said, try to post content that people will have a good reason to care about. From my observations, it's mostly currently popular memes, relatable comics, shipping and porn... Well, mostly, not exclusively lol. Also things with a very noticeable aesthetic that appeals to many people.
A work might be technically fine but few people will engage with it if there's nothing interesting about it. (ah yes, the bane of my artistic existence...)
Of course this might make you feel like a sellout, just pandering to the crowd, and could make you lose the drive to create but that's just the price

...Take it from someone who's consistently failing at all of the above and losing 2 followers for every 1 I do gain once in a blue moon

[WOSTR]

There's so much business going on.
Follow for follow where someone will do a mass unfollow with many still upkeeping their side of the deal.
I noticed tapas has an interactive competition on Instagram to win a load of ink. To join in you must first subscribe to 20 comics on the list they provide, all happen to be on the front page.