Social media experience

[river121693]

I don't think valuing your mental health over sub count is messing up at all, infact, it's much better in the long run to prevent burn out. It's hard to say if you'll actually have more followers if you promoted earlier, cuz if your comic hasn't progressed far enough, people might not sub at all. They might even ignore your comic when they see it again in the future.

Personally, I wish I could do more social media stuff, but I've accepted that I can only do so much. I just do what I can and let my account grow organically. I've found it more important to find a supportive community where you can give each other advice, encouragement, and share each other's stuff.

[cherrystark]

My two bits - social media isn't really "worth" it unless you are built for it. There are people who can work a social media account so it works in their favor. They get the money, the reads, etc. They just have to post and they're successful. It's really not worth the hype if you're not into it. On my writer's FB page, I have women trying to boss babe their way into high book sales - not even once considering that the reason their readers aren't flocking to buy the book version of their serial is that they already paid for the story in another version. In the digital age, people don't really need multiple copies of media anymore. On my private page, a lot of my school friends are moms now, so its family pictures, motivational memes, and MLM pitches. It's exhausting.

While I'm still running my writer page to build my brand, I'm taking social media as it comes. It's not worth worrying about subscribers because people can be fickle. They might like your work but never get around to subscribing or unsub if they haven't read it in awhile. There are millions of reasons.

[NickRowler]

I first joined Twitter years ago to promote myself but I never felt like it did anything. And even over the years, the site seemed to move away from promoting and more into just fighting about politics. I ended up leaving the site over the rising concerns of anti-trans views flooding the site.

I do try to promote on Instagram and Tumblr but it doesn't really do anything. I wish I was better at marketing myself on these platforms.

[thepenmonster]

But the world decided that a person without socials is a person without worth so I keep some presence. I do have "Pen Monster" accounts on all of the major platforms that I don't use just to keep the name away from ne'er-do-wells, but they haven't been used since I opened them.

The only spaces I use on the regular are PillowFort and CoHost.

[powerplantanimations]

I'm getting a hold of social media. Specifically Twitter. I've been stressing about it but.... turns out I just do what I do here. Go figure lmao.

[VibrantFox]

I stopped stressing about twitter when i realize there's really only so much you can do to control the way things perform which the reality is you can't...go figure ┐(´ー｀)┌ but when it comes to sites that demand constant and consistent posting for the sake of relevancy (instagram) i do not bother

twitter has worked best for me when i use it as a social platform, interacting with and sharing others works, than just for personal promotion. I'll share art, talk about interests, things i'm working on or just passive discussion (albeit not often coz i'm shy over there) so like the above mentioned using it like the forums makes it easier (especially if you don't bother stressing numbers)

lately (for a while now really) i've had a lot more fun and gotten very cozy on tumblr coz posts don't die as quickly and it's way more chill (plus not as much of the crazy bait posts or discourse like you'd find on twitter or ig) so it's a generally very pleasant experience and you're encouraged to block or unfollow folks if you don't wanna see stuff and it's not a sin and most folks don't judge unless they're deep in the social media koolaid themselves

as for other posting platforms it's been artfol and inkblot (tho more the former) that i've had fun with, granted artfol is mostly visual art but people have made use of the text post function for writing stuff and inbklot i'm pretty sure has been expanding to include various mediums much like deviantart or furaffinity

like there's no denying social media does get stressful and its easy to worry if you're doing enough especially with the way some of these more mainstreams sites are structured but like...it's better to take it easy and do what you can than worry about stuff that's out of your control. that's like it definitely took a while before i figured out how to navigate and what worked (for me at least) but the moment i decided to be a bit more lax and not all "i have to capitalize every moment and find the best tags and ideal posting times" or whatever i had a much better time :3

[GumshoeComix]

"i have to capitalize every moment and find the best tags and ideal posting times"

yea every social media whether it be twitter IG youtube etc wants you to spend all day monetizing yourself to the point where it takes the fun out of what you do

[GumshoeComix]

I'm no good with twitter, its very much a social website, and it encourages conversation where I'm typically a nervous person

[VibrantFox]

a lot of sites purposefully push that mindset as a norm because it's people's posts that keep those sites relevant so honestly rather than letting them take advantage of me the user i rather do what i can to take advantage of what they've got to work in my favor, granted not everything works but it's way better to keep control in your hands posting when you can or when you want than being held to some "mysterious algorithm"

trying to keep up with constant posting and hashtags and all that stuff is what led me to going through really bad burnout so i care a lot less if keeping up means hurting myself and potentially making me hate what i know i love doing

[conventurecomics]

I use Instagram, and twitter. They help a little bit.I use IG for art mainly, and twttier for my website updates, and some promo art as well.

[gabriellabalagna]

I had a similar experience. I barely did any social media b/c honestly, I hated it. As well, I didn't know how to use social media affectively as a marketing tool.

However, for many years, this allowed me to just focus more on my art. Now I have a giant backlog of content that many people have never seen - meaning lots of stuff to post on social media! And now that I have two comics under my belt, I have more time now to focus on marketing.

So yeah, it all turned out okay.

[clarissapattern]

That sounds good that it's all worked out well for you.

Although I prefer the negative stories as then I can justify not trying to build up anything on these platforms!

[KennethLopezJr921]

Ive had social media access since I was 15, but I didn't start using it as a tool to promote my artwork and series until 2 years after in 2019. I started out using Instagram but I did transition to using other sites like Deviantart, Twitter, Discord and.........Furaffinity -_-

Most of my time was spent on Instagram but up until 2021, I wasn't posting my comic on tapas so I would mainly post it there. However, my activity there has been curbed, mainly due to bad experiences with the site during the pandemic (social media addiction and stuff like that) and because its not the same site it was when I first joined. I've had little to no growth there since 2020, because it feels like most of the new followers I get are bots or scammers trying to steal my account. Plus, Im not accustomed to making video content and I dont want to post a video because "I have to in order to get new likes". Thats something I've come to understand with this whole social media thing. You don't have to post every single thing you draw, because if you do, it becomes an obligation and it stops being fun.

Twitter is an interesting case because I grew up having a disdain for twitter, due to the amount of toxicity I saw seething from the site. It and Tumblr were cesspools in the eyes of 16 me. Its still there, but I dont have the same hate for it like I had when I was a teenager. Social media is a big place and as long as you dont go out searching for those garbage corners, you're experience will be okay. That and not checking the trending tab, especially if its anything political. Anyways, most of the interaction I get from twitter is from people who Im already following. I rarely get any new followers but it doesn't bother me now. I've learned to detach social media numbers from my self worth and while it can bother me, its not the end of the world. I know social media does involve a health dose of interaction but Im way to busy to do that thanks to college and my comic, unfortunately. Or fortunately if you look at it in a different way.

DeviantArt, I also grew up seeing as a cesspool but not in the same way as twitter. I attribute it mostly to watching videos about the weird and disgusting shit found on the site, and because of that I never imagined I'd create an account there years later. The ironic thing here is that unlike my twitter and instagram, Im able to get new followers and eyes on my comic. Initially, it mostly centered around my female characters which I was iffy about at first, but realized it could work in getting new fans and eyes on my series. Then again, my success there might be because I do post my comic there along with tapas and others. I could say the same for FurAffinity, but I've only been posting there for 6 months so I cant say anything else on that.

There are other sites that I use but my Instagram, fur affinity, twitter and DA are the ones I use the most. Its really hard to manage more than 4 socials for me.

[Headypigeon4180]

I grinded Twitter and was far, far less happy and my anxiety would shoot through the roof if I stayed on it too long. Regardless most of the subs and readers I have are from people running into me as I leave comments on comics. with 1.8K comments on Tapas alone people run into me more and I frequently find I have much better chats with people that way. I'm a reader and a genuine member of the WT, Tapas, Comicfury, Globalcomix, Duck community, as opposed to somewhere like Reddit where i'm just not the demographic for the site and feel displaced.

[clarissapattern]

what is the demographic for Reddit?

[thepenmonster]

People whose first word as a toddler was "Actually"

[RedLenai]

My social media experience has been normal, I never felt like I had some kind mental health issue regarding it, but I did had problems with IRL people from local art communities, but that was a problem outside of social media, mostly related to entitlement, elitist mentality, segregation and ego.

I recall I started at DeviantART when I was 12, basically sharing my drawings and not expecting much in return, just feeling happy whenever there were +favs or similar. Comments were a bit complicated but since English wasn't my first language, so insults in another language were almost insignificant to me, but same for those in Spanish.

I always treated it like a video-game, if I'm feeling frustrated I can't pass a level, I stop and do something else, samer for social media, if I feel I'm getting invested in a pointless argument, I redirect myself to something else and done, better do it with a cool head than getting mad and make even more mistakes or simply getting frustrated.

I originally didn't start as a comic creator, but as a fanartist and Oc creator, I posted anything I felt like posting, like practices, sketches, wips, finished works and similar. And nowadays, I still do the same thing, the only thing I can mention is that people rather interact with something they already know about, for example, my original work or webcomics don't get the same amount of engagement as the content of the few fandoms I'm in, yet I'm an individual that doesn't need much to feel satisfied, I don't hope... idk 5K subs I have in one of my accounts to engage, but having the same 20 people doing it is enough, even if they don't comment (Something that nowadays has also been low, people rather react or give like, than type)

Being on social media for so long, more than over a decade, also shows me that there are periods of engagement, generla public seems more active and other times it simply almost non-existent. Webcomics are currently going through that phase since the "boom" is slowing down quite drastically, so even if you were to self promote is not like your content will be drastically different if you did things differently 3-4 years ago... maybe if you were at the beginning of the webcomic boom that was around 9-7 years ago.

[MohammadCamp]

I used to feel bad thinking I might’ve missed out by not starting earlier, especially since the algorithms keep changing, but I’ve realized that it’s never too late. Sometimes having that backlog of finished work, or even just more experience under your belt, makes it easier to craft better posts when you do start.

If growing a presence quickly feels overwhelming, there are also options out there for bridging the gap, like buying pre-established accounts. It can save time on platforms like Reddit or Quora where building credibility from scratch takes a while. Sites like https://digitalstorenet.com/product/quora-accounts/ offer accounts that provide that head start. It’s something I’ve thought about when I hear others mention the grind of starting new profiles.

[joannekwan]

[joannekwan]