Growing on social media - a few things I learned 🌻 (Patreon)

Hey guys!

First of all, thank you so so much for your kind messages and understanding about my hand issues. It means the world, truly. I've been having some "free" time since I'm not drawing and I've been doing house stuff, cleaning with one hand (not easy 😂) and updating my websites. 

I was thinking what could I post on here not involving art and it occurred to me to write some general tips maybe? And I just started writing down what helped me to grow on social media. It's not something I talk a lot because I feel there's a lot of cool insight already and I don't feel I have anything extraordinary to bring to the table, butttt maybe I do have something if I talk about it from my own experience. So yeah! Some stuff is pretty obvious, some stuff maybe not, here's a lil list 💖

✶ Participating in challenges. The art community comes together with art challenges! -Inktober, Mermay, redraw challenges, artvsartist, DTIYS etc. My first explosion of followers came with Inktober 2019, I think it was because a lot of people was checking the hashtag at the time and I was also creating some pieces I really liked and they were good I guess? so it was a mix of good timing and content ! I really like when it feels like we're all in the same page, participating in the same things, it reminds you that it's not just you drawing alone in your house but there's all this people from around the world that love and do the same thing you do. Idk that's cool.

✶Posting videos/reels. Nowadays is known that IG pushes reels and they have way more reach than regular posts. If that's something you like creating, I'd recommend you to definitely use that tool. I find doing reels a bit easier and fun than YouTube videos just because they are quicker to edit and you have all this cool music available to use, so I don't mind creating reels from time to time and that's been helping to keep my account growing.  I remember my second wave of followers came before reels were a thing, but I was posting those process videos drawing Disney princesses so I guess it's kinda the same: people like videos. And fanart.

Quick info! I don't usually film the whole process when doing a reel, I just film some specific clips that I feel would be interesting to share (3-4 clips when sketching, 3-4 doing line art, inking, coloring etc) and put them together using Inshot -a super friendly and easy video editor app- 

✶ Fanart. We all know fanart is going to attract people. People will easily interact more if they see art of characters that resonate with them. Fanart is good, for growing an audience and for the heart too. These past few years, however, I tried to maintain my content around 30% fanart 70% my own stuff just because I enjoy doing original art as much as I enjoy doing fanart and I feel is important for me to not lose my own stuff. It's just a boundary I set for myself that might not work for everyone and that's fine. Do whatever makes you happy!

✶ Being quick when something is trendy. This sounds so bad haha but hey, I'm just writing everything I learned !! It's not the same doing Encanto fanart the day after the movie releases vs 1 week later. The hype will be much lower by then plus people will likely be tired of seeing so much Encanto fanart that they will probably interact a bit less. I learned this because I did a Cruella sketch and I post it one or two days after the movie release and jesus, it's my most liked post on Instagram EVER and the drawing is really NOTHING special. It blew up entirely for the timing, if I post it now it definitely wouldn't be the same. That being said, this is just something I noticed and by no means I'm saying to do something quick that you don't feel/want just for likes or because is trendy, that's pretty much obvious.

✶Algorithms are not the enemy. I know IG algorithm sucks and I know it can make everything more complicated, but that's not all there is and we have to be aware of that. There're my reason why someone might not be growing on Instagram: timing, inconsistency, not connecting to people, maybe you're focusing in quantity rather than quality, maybe your captions don't feel genuine? not using the right hashtags ?? maybe you're posting too much sponsored content etc etc etc.

 I know many artists that are constantly blaming the algorithm for absolutely everything and not only it can become super tiring to read bit also I wonder if they know that making quality work is still important. I mean, maybe your art is really not resonating with people and that's okay too. We should accept it and move on, in order to grow and improve. Hiding behind the algorithm excuse can be damaging. Making good work should be the number one priority for us artists, everything else is the by-product of that. Ask yourself if you're drawing for people and likes or because you genuinely enjoy it.

✶Posting frequently but not to the point of burning out. If it becomes  a constant pressure, you have to stop. There's no reason to post everyday, find whatever suits you best and feels natural for you. Post when you have something you're happy to share, don't post because you it's been 4 days and you think instagram wants you to post. I know it's hard and I'm definitely still learning. While I was away on vacation I posted around 4 times in a month and although that made me anxious at the moment (cause I'm used to post a bit more than that) when I came back I realized that my engagement was perfectly fine and instagram didn't throw me into the pit of forgotten accounts. All this algorithm talk is stupid and do things to our brain unfortunately, when it's something that shouldn't matter. We love what we do and we do it for ourselves and we love sharing it and that's it. It's truly that simple.

✶ Being you. I know this sounds cheesy, but it's important. I also know it's not an easy thing to find our voice and our own path or our own style. It's okay if you're still in the process of figuring it out, but know that people will find you and truly connect with your content if you're genuine and authentic, rather than a copy of somebody else. Avoid obsessing over a few artists and open your world, get influenced by everyone and everything. I had an art director once that told me to follow artists that do the opposite of what I do or what I find interesting. If you like figurative art follow artists that create abstract art, if you like to draw people, follow a bunch of artists who draw animals, if you prefer doing landscapes follow people that do technical architecture drawings, etc.

✶ Hashtags are meh. I still use them yeah, but I'm 95% sure they do absolutely nothing to reach more audience, at least on Instagram. I think there're just a very few words that might show our post to new people but in general, I really thing they are worthless. I know because I haven't used hashtags (or used just a very very few) for the majority of my IG journey and my account grew nevertheless. These days I use them a bit more and I don't see any changes. I'd really focus on using very specific hashtags that are relevant with your content rather than filling a whole paragraph.

✶ Connecting with people. From answering comments and DMs you receive to leaving comments and sending messages to other artists, I've discovered that it's important we give a little back of what we receive. I've always liked posts but for some reason it was veryyyy very rare if I left a comment somewhere. It's been some months since I've been trying to change that and do it more often, because it's enriching and it's another way to show support, feels good!

✶ Don't rely in just one platform. Managing one social media is tiring enough, I know, and I'm not saying we should use all existing apps, but maybe consider having a second option as back up, let your followers know that you're on Twitter as well, or maybe Facebook, Tumblr, whatever you like using. IG is pretty popular but not all people like it or use it so it's good to have other options too but also because we never know when something will stop existing nowadays heh 

✶ Find the platform that works for you. Not all the platforms are for everybody and I'd suggest to identify the one that suits you the best if you think something is not working. For example, all these tips and stuff I'm writing really helped me to grow on Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok but when it comes to Twitter, it just doesn't work for me. I can post something on Instagram that can blow up but if I post the same exact thing on Twitter, people couldn't be less interested. I've been trying to understand Twitter for a long time now, thinking what could I've been doing wrong but I guess a big portion of Twitter is not only sharing art but also sharing your thoughts in a way that is fun, compelling and.. intelligent ? I'm not good at that, I've never been good with words and I'll never will, so it's just not for me haha and that's okay too!

✶ Have all your pages organized. There're many sites now that allow you to have all your info in one place. I've used linktree for a while, now I'm trying Beacons and I know there's this one called Carrd.co that seems pretty cool too. Having all your links in one handy link allow people (and potential clients !) to find your work more easily around the vast internet.

Anyways, that's all I can think for now. If anything else comes up I'll make sure to add it to the list. I always find myself saying "have fun, love what you do!" and what I mean by that is always ALWAYS remember why you love creating art. There're few things that can beat that. No algorithm, no social media pressure, no art blocks, no like counts, no one can overpower the feeling of doing something because you love it. And when you like something, you become good at it. That's a fact.

I hope this was helpful somehow, let me now if you have any questions! Also, if you have any suggestions for posts like this with tips, not involving drawing, I'd love to hear. I'll go answer your messages now 💖

Much love,

Gret