/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>4243551
http://www.instagram.com/ronanlynam

>Post your most popular piece from 2019 - the one that got the most likes / shares / reblogs, etc.
Pic related is my most 'liked' post of the year, at 292 likes over ~3850 followers (~7% engagement rate).

>Feel free to share any other thoughts and reflections
Engagement rates this year have been the lowest for me since I started. They're seemingly down for everyone across the board, especially ever since the wildly successful introduction of stories (people don't scroll through their feed as much) and different relevancy-based feed algorithms. My average engagement rate seemed to be around 2-4%, or around ~100-150 likes per post. Last year it was more around 4-6%. Past years was even higher, with less followers. Supposedly, the average engagement rate for artists is around 5-6%.

I also deleted several hundred "ghost followers" this year to try and boost engagement rates & therefore reach, including deleting(blocking) accounts which were obviously abandoned, and accounts that were clearly just mass following others using a bot follow4follow scheme. I think deleting ghost followers had a marginal benefit to engagement rates and the reach of my posts, but it seems pretty slim.

I firmly believe social media should be used with a particular goal in mind, and my goal was always to connect with and increase my visibility with art directors for places that my style is appropriate for. Getting likes and friendly comments is nice too, but increasing my visibility as a freelancer was always the most important. With decreasing social media engagement, it's just becoming more and more clear that there are other, most effective & time efficient ways to achieve this goal.