/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

Hello /ic/

I've been at the social media based digital art game off and on for several years now.

I've had Twitter in particular for 2 1/2 years with barely 1,000 followers to my name

And its not for a lack of trying on my part though I'll admit I got burnt out treating social media like a second full time job and as such I focused more on quality over quantity.

And before you ask, yes, I tried this and I tried that to grow my following and overall presence on social media.

Anyway, I'm honestly at a crossroad in my life as a digital artist on social media in 2023.

Do I just continue toiling away in obscurity while everybody around me somehow manages to be more successful than I am at running an art based social media account and lie to myself that "oh, likes and followers don't matter I'm not missing out on anything!"

Or do I "break bad" so to speak and do whatever it takes to quickly rise in the social media algorithm without having to copy Sakimi-Chan, CuteSexyRobutts, or whoever's big in the social media art game these days?

I've been at this long enough to know that the typical advice you see everywhere on the internet about growing a following for your art on social media is either outdated or only works for artists who are already social media famous and to be frank I myself have wondered late at night what the REAL honest to God secret is these popular artists deliberately seem to gatekeep from us poor plebeians who are stuck in the mud.

And the reason I say that because I sincerely doubt that the big time artists "magically" went from being "just like you" with barely 1,000 followers to 50,000-100,000+ followers in the span of a year or two after aimlessly plugging away for years on end before that.

No, not without doing something that they don't want to share with the average joe for fear of word getting out and their entire social media career being called into question.