So how do I use twitter?

[MarMarTche]

I managed to avoid it for sooo many years but then I saw a post on this form (the twitter artist panic post) and it made me feel like I missed out on something.

In classic FOMO fashion, I made a twitter account and I have no idea how to use it. I'm not a tech newbie - I get how to post, like, retweet, and comment. How do I get in on the 'community'? Do I just post my art into the void and hope for the best?

How do I find other artists to follow?
(also - drop your @'s, I'll follow)

[MartaTod]

I post in the void, but most of the contacts I got from replying to self-promo posts others created. Like when an indy publisher or another comic artist with bigger following goes "share your portfolio/comic below" and a bunch of us reply. Sometimes the original poster retweets the replies too, so there's better chances more people get to see what we shared.

There's also general hashtags like "porfolioday" and "selfpromosaturday" when everyone just promotes their art/portfolios in the tag.

I'm still not sure how exactly Twitter works, but it can somewhat detect topics from the post on its own too, without tags. And then it shows up in the topic search results. Hope this helps! My tag there is @martybarok if you want to connect.

[MarMarTche]

Huh, very neat I really appreciate the reply! It definitely helped me better my understanding of the whole thing and get an idea of what to look for!

[artamazon]

It kind of starts out feeling like you're posting to the void. The way it worked best for me is when I genuinely wanted to connect with people and just go there to have a good time and look at memes and cool art. I found a few communities and fandom hashtags to post art in. I started commenting on people's posts, retweeting their art, following people I like. The more you interact and post, the more people get to see your name and art, and if they think you are cool and post interesting fun stuff, then they will likely also follow you too. Eventually you just kind of find your people. It takes a bit, but I've found a lot of cool people on Twitter. Like MartyBarok said: also definitely take part in the artist hashtag events and self promo threads.

You can find me at @ArtAmazon

[MarMarTche]

Sweet! Thanks for the input - memes and cool art's exactly what I'm looking for.

Awesome art btw!

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

Can you find one or two twitter users in the community? Follow them. Contribute genuine thoughts & ideas. Be interested in them & their projects, sincerely, not just to hopefully use their circle of followers for your gain. Expect that it may take some time to establish yourself.

[MarMarTche]

@Ordinaryaverageguy Maybe I'm nostalgic for the old days of deviant art but I feel like I've lost track of the 'community'. It used to be so easy to find people to connect with online, people who were interested in the same sort of niche and to just post art and have fun. Now there's way more people, way more artists, but it feels harder than ever to find them and make a genuine connection. I'm sure they're out there but - I'm still looking I guess.

[smokesalty]

I used to get no traction until I started being actively involved on the webtoon community on there. I started interacting with fellow creators, participating in comic discussions and tweeting about comics. This meant that a lot of the other creators following me would retweet my stuff, which allowed more people to see it.

I usually tweet random things, and if I see people are liking it, I link my comic in the comments with my coverpage in case anyone is interested.

Hope that helps! My twitter is @smokesalty

[NickRowler]

I can understand the frustration that you are talking to a void.

I try to post daily but it doesn't really do much. I am to nervous to talk to other people because last time I did that someone got pissy at me. Even following other people is awkward, my timeline then suddenly gets full of softcore porn or political fighting and I feel bad that I have to unfollow someone... I find the site in general overwhelming and I sort of try to stay in a corner where I like Sonic fanart and Simpson quotes.

I'm @NickRowler if you your posts are mostly wholesome I will follow back.

[MarMarTche]

I haven't been on the platform long enough to encounter softcore porn although the second I signed up there was a looot of politics... that and literally the first person it told me to follow was Elon Musk... felt very Tom from MySpace to me.
Hoping that whatever algorithm they use for recommendations picks up on my nerdy interests and just recommends me none of the politics aha

[MarMarTche]

Look forward to seeing your random tweets aha!

[artamazon]

You can go to the three dots on the left side side where it says "More" and then go to Topics and then select topics you are interested in. That should help it show you more of the topics you actually want to see, though I'm not sure you can totally escape what's trending.

[MartaTod]

I feel this so much. Even few years ago it was easier to connect. I don't know if it's because of the way internet got lately that people just stopped interacting out of fear they will annoy the other person or they just stopped caring. I see this on Instagram too. Everyone just drops a like and moves on.

As for getting overwhelmed by politics and trending topics. You can switch your feed to "Latest" by clicking on the little starts icon in the top right corner. It will then only show you tweets from people you follow. I did this when the negativity in suggested posts got overwhelming. It has improved my time on the app a lot, and I get the posts in chronological order now.

[MarMarTche]

Yeah it could be the pandemic contributing too, everything been online and it changed the dynamic of a few spaces

I appreciate the tip about switching to latest. I didn't know you could do that, I do enjoy that it lets you opt out of the negativity aha

I picked a few topics and I've been getting only cool suggestions so hopefully that keeps up

[powerplantanimations]

Focus efforts on Instagram and then just copy and paste posts over there to your Twitter account. That's what I did.

[system]

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