The idea of moving to new platforms sounds like a chore

[smokesalty]

So, I've recently been hearing people talking about moving to post their art to other platforms (mainly on twitter.)

And honestly hearing this, I just go uhhhhh. Like growing an audience on a new platform is so draining for little result so often. Like, people mentioned moving to tumblr, but the thing with that site and a lot of other art hosting sites is that it is incredibly hard to grow from posting original content.

I know that on deviantart and tumblr, I can post fanart and easily get a f ton of interaction and shares of my work. I still get people finding my old crappy fanart and liking/favouriting it. But if I post original content, I will get like 2 interactions (not even kidding on that.) And my heart isn't in being a fanart artist. I like doing it on occassion, but ocs and storywriting is always what I've been passionate about.

Now, this isn't me whingeing (or trying to), it's more feeling like trying to actively post and grow a following for my original content feels like a waste of time and super demotivating. I'm guessing this is the case for a lot of people.

The sites where my original content does well (instagram and twitter) is because I've spent years growing people's interest in my projects, and I'm part of the comics community and am friends with a lot of comic creators. Doing this is much harder on other sites, and I hate the idea of only interacting with people on those sites for connections and growth. That's sleazy to me.

As much as these sites can suck, I'm sticking to Instagram, twitter and tiktok as my platforms. Do not have the energy to move elsewhere because of all the stupid crap going on at the moment.

[bulgariansumo]

I don't have much to say other than.... yeah. You basically put my thoughts on it into words.

[daeygur]

I understand! Unfortunately, for me Instagram and Twitter never really worked out.
I've been on there since I started drawing in 2014 and could never get passed 28 followers.
Plus, since they started inventing reels my art never gets any likes or even reaches anyone. Twitter makes me severely depressed from all the politics that go on, and no matter how much I block or mute them it just keeps popping up.
This is very frustrating for everyone I presume.

[thepenmonster1]

You did it once, you can do it twice.

[VibrantFox]

i absolutely feel this fatigue and it's especially frustrating when twitter was probably one of the main places i was actually doing well on but admittedly i've been doing okay on tumblr even if i'm still kinda "baby" in terms of followers but there still interactions with both my fan content and original stuff

the one thing with original versus fan content tho is that it's a matter of finding those niche circles which i think can be easier on sites like tumblr (at least imo since i've been on there a while) and it doesn't put weight on numbers in the same way as places like twitter or insta which has been the biggest plus for me coz you could've posted something days, weeks, months, years ago and it'll still gain traction because stuff there has a much much longer lifespan as opposed to the other two where someone looks at your stuff for like two seconds and keeps scrolling (one of the reasons tumblr folks are so adamant that people do not treat tumblr like their silly little fast paced social media because tumblr is an entirely different beast that does not operate by the same stupid rules)

like i think the one reason people kinda fail on tumblr or at the least maybe struggle is they absolutely do not get tagging or how to navigate these websites because yeah from a front facing position it does seem like fanart is the only thing thriving but when you go a lil deeper you can find whole circles who are obsessed with oc content and original stories within different niches whether it's divided by genre, character diversity, themes and tropes and so on.

That's like the more time passes the more i wish folks would stop looking at fanart or fanworks in general as something to shill out for visibility sake and instead as communities of folks who enjoy a certain piece of media wanting to share in their love and excitement for it coz genuinely the more talk i see kind of trashing on fanart just sting when i've managed to find a lot of friends through making fanart for mutually enjoyed series or franchises.

At the end of the day growing on any platform can and will be challenging so even if it does suck starting from zero for the umpteenth time in a row all you can do is keep going at whatever pace works for you

[daeygur]

Is there a way to navigate the tagging? :0 that's the main reason why I could never figure it out!!!! I also got likes from the cheesebot but no one else.

[NickRowler]

I have reposted some of my old art to Instagram that were originally posted on DeviantArt. I guess for me, I have stuff on DA which I don't really want to repost but I still want to keep it up on DA. I can understand people being worried about AI art but I doubt people would want to make ai art based off my old Naruto fanart from 10 years ago. So that is why I am not deleting my account.

However when it comes to Twitter, I can see why people are concerned. I wonder if we should all go back to personal blog sites. LOL

[VibrantFox]

It's honestly not as hard as it seems if you look at tagging as a way of labeling or categorizing

this post covers it briefly along with some other stuff but ideally if it's a fanwork post then you're probably gonna tag it as is related. So when i do something for say Sonic then I'll tag like "my art, fanart, sonic fanart, sonic the hedgehog, [the names character(s) included]" and then medium like digital or traditional art or writing and sometimes software (like i'll tag medibang or medibang paint to find fellow users)

When it comes to original stuff i try to keep tags sorted so they include the story the oc is from if they have one or character design if it's just a one off, names of characters included in the posts and then other relevant tags for original content

I've also made a tag for my own art (vi's art) so that i can use the "/tagged/(insert tag)" bit of the url to create a page just for my stuff on my blog but if anyone wants to find my stuff they can also search it on tumblr and it should come up (tho other vi's do pop up as well)

Another thing too understanding that sometimes you just gotta hunt folks down (not in a creepy sense) but like find those circles so if you do enough digging in tags related to original characters you can find some good pages with stuff like oc prompts or oc shares and things of that nature (it's something i'm still working on but i know there's value to it plus i want more oc prompts to use as inspo and to chat with fellow blorb makers)

also not every "bot" page is a bot but like gimmick pages (tho the porn bots are definitely a thing that exist and drive me nuts) but like sonic approves or ___ heritage posts and so on are stuff you'll see so even if you're thinking "oh well just this one random thing liked my stuff" it could very well be people you just gotta check the page

also looping back to tags specifically some folks kinda ramble in em similar to how folks used to use tags here on tapas as a secondary description box for stuff that wouldn't fit or wasn't super relevant to the page. But they're also useful in reblogs coz while some folks do reply directly to posts no one really comments directly on a thread to go "lol same" coz that stuff is for the tags so getting comfy with using em (and heck reading em too coz i've gotten some sweet comments there) helps

That's like in terms of using tumblr in a more general sense I've purposefully relegated different tasks or interests to different blogs so my main (vibrantfoxart) is mostly for me posting my art and the occasional reblog of something that needs boosting from elsewhere or to share info (like i've been trying to share helpful how to use tumblr ones ppl are posting as more folks migrate) meanwhile my secondaries are for sharing stuff that's not mine so one for general reblogs, one specifically for sonic stuff, another for splatoon and then going back to original content i've got one for oc lore dumps for the ppl who wanna read it while also keeping my main page clean and then an comic/ask blog i'm trying to revive

[Kelheor]

Honestly it's tiring enough so I don't even think about it at the moment except the last time I was on Instagram, the only platform I am actually trying to be active on, they did this alt text update (which is a good thing by itself), and now I can't copy past the hashtags I use from previous posts. I can't even tell how annoying this is, because I don't feel like updating Instagram frequently enough as it is and writing 20 hashtags anew every time really doesn't help.

[NellieVP318]

The only social media site I'm really active as of right now is Instagram. I mostly either abandoned, got rid off, or lower my activity on other social media sites I have been on. Since all the talk about Tumblr, I have thought about resigning up for a Tumblr account. I used to have Tumblr account but deleted it years ago.So returning to Tumblr would be an option again.

TBH for me, moving platforms seem like a chore since I only use it to connect with people that I have interacted on other sites. Right now, I rather lower the number of sites that I would be on since I can't be everywhere lol.

[AmazementComics]

This same problem is one I experienced. Trust me, it's not just you.

[system]

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