/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

[How to grow on social media. No.6866443]

I want to really get down to brass tacks and discuss genuine strategies on how to grow a new account on any platform from scratch. Assuming you dodged all the beg traps and actually have drawing skills, What’s the plan?

For me, I started with twitter. My strategy was to target specific large accounts known to repost decent art. Draw an OC for free here and there.. and boom. Repost. This approach is akin to DeviantArt's group feature, where joining large groups can amplify your exposure. Another strategy involves building mutuals with fellow artists. Collaborative reposting and audience sharing can be highly effective, especially if your connections have more followers than you. As much as we all hate Reddit, it is yet another source to get some eyes on your art. I’ve found that subreddits are a good way to get some attention in front of an audience that doesn’t follow you at all. This is great, especially if you find yourself drawing something niche. The sites I’ve mentioned are that I’ve used to grow the audience I have, however the one I harbored is exclusively into fan art for video games more than any other type of art. Even generic anime crap won’t sell with them. This is what has brought me to try and establish a new wave of social media accounts.
I know that most faggots here don’t have the skills to even set up an account, but I’ve seen folks from here that are genuinely good at what they do. I'd like to help them get started. Let's discuss relevant topics, such as effective hashtag usage, audience engagement, content planning, consistency in posting high-quality content, platform selection, and considerations for using paid promotions or creating a consistent brand. All these topics are fair game and encouraged. Let’s actually do something good for each other. I want to hear about your strategies, experiences, and insights.

[Anonymous No.6866444]

didn't read. just post regularly if it's your stuff is good you'll get followers

[How to grow on social media. No.6866447]

whats your follower count? What platform?

[Anonymous No.6866455]

Why is it so important to you to have lots of followers, such that you'll draw stuff you don't care about to attract an audience that doesn't care about your art, only the character you drew? Is it a money thing? Can you even monetize an audience only following you because of Steven Universe fan art?

[Anonymous No.6866457]

>>6866443
>I want to really get down to brass tacks and discuss genuine strategies on how to gro
No.

If you knew what's this board general opinion on this specific topic, you wouldnt be asking this here. It's a waste to time trying to tell people how to grow on social media because you will always meet with anons in bad faith complaining about every single advice you provide, calling you a retard for not seeing social media and socializing with people online the same way as they do and overall being pissy about social media in general.

This is not a topic worth discussing here and you might as well not bother and look for another place to discuss this. Also TLDR.

[Anonymous No.6866460]

>>6866444
Consistency can be an issue depending on how much rendering you do. How long does it take you to finish something with max quality?

[Anonymous No.6866463]

I did read that stupid ass wall of text and it's cringe

[Anonymous No.6866464]

>>6866457
I mean I get where you’re from. This place is a fucking abyss with relatively nothing good to offer, but there are atleast some faggots here that have helped me out in the past. Im interested in seeing if anyone has even a smidge if helpful information.

[Anonymous No.6866468]

>>6866463
How would you do it then? Enlighten me.

[Anonymous No.6866473]

>>6866443
>What’s the plan?
Dramas and politics

[Anonymous No.6866533]

>>6866464
>Im interested in seeing if anyone has even a smidge if helpful information.
I do, actually, which is why it pisses me off to talk about this topic so much on this hellhole, nobody ever listens and simply like to complain while pretending to know the subject like the back of their hand while in truth they know shit about it.

Anyways, if you want my two cents on how to grow an audience on social media:
1. Craft yourself an appealing and unique art style. Make something to catch looks for being special in it's own way and not just another anime artist in the sea of anime artists.
2. Pick a content of your liking and stick with it. Whether it's a small niche, a huge franchise or your own OCs, make sure to create a content schedule of your own.
3. Balance quantity and quality. A doodle can have as much potential as a fully rendered piece, so for the sake of consistency, balance your doodles with your finished pieces just so you always have something to offer.
4. Make friends online and grow your community circles. By interacting with more people you get the chance of improving your craft and also grow among a supportive community. Cant always do things on your own.
5. Know your platforms. Do your homework and study the place you interact in just so you can make the most of it and dont fall for the issues it may present.

That's it from me. My following is roughly 1.3k, I havent grown much because I stopped using social media and didnt quite follow these advices, but Im positive I'd see some improvements if I come back to it and do the social media grind.

[Anonymous No.6866552]

>>6866533
Something I can actually use. Finally.

I do have a few questions:

>2.make sure to create a content schedule of your own.

I have no idea what a content schedual here, could you elaborate

>3. balance your doodles with your finished pieces just so you always have something to offer.

Do you mean like post a fully rendered peice for every 3 or 4 sketches you post or something else?

>5. 5. Know your platforms. Do your homework and study the place you interact in just so you can make the most of it and dont fall for the issues it may present.

What platform would you recommend?

[Anonymous No.6866626]

>>6866552
>I have no idea what a content schedual here, could you elaborate
I mean a specific set of things to draw for your account, fanarts, OC, specific stuff, as long as it's consistent, anything goes.
>Do you mean like post a fully rendered peice for every 3 or 4 sketches you post or something else?
Whatever suits you the most, as long as you always give something to your following, the important part is to not shy away from posting doodles and also not neglect your finished works
>What platform would you recommend?
Cant help you here, my advice is that you should try what suits you the best and test the waters, if it doesnt work, simply move to another. Take /ic/'s opinion like a grain of salt here, also, because anons will find one million reasons for you to not even try the site, but I believe you should regardless to see things for yourself.

[Anonymous No.6869671]

>>6866460
Then just post WIPs idiot

[Anonymous No.6869731]

>>6866443
hack into a popular account and retweet yourself.

[Anonymous No.6869740]

>>6866443
hack into a popular account and retweet yourself.

[Anonymous No.6870002]

>>6869740
based

[Anonymous No.6870588]

>>6866533
>My following is roughly 1.3k
Cool. Mine is a 480 on Twitter and 240 on New Grounds, and like 150 on Pixiv (though I'm not sure how Pixiv actually works). Anyhow; is 1K enough to make money off of art? Like printing something and selling it to them or taking commissions and the like?

[Anonymous No.6870597]

>>6870588
Commissions, yes, but prints, no. To sell prints, you need to have 30k followers and don’t think about selling plushies unless u have 90-100k+ followers.

[Anonymous No.6871033]

>>6870588
If you're a decent artist, most accounts reach the min. wage point at around 75k followers.

[Anonymous No.6871275]

>>6871033
>75k for min wage

Well.. Atleast you let me know what expectations I should have.. How do you know tho?

[Anonymous No.6871290]

>>6866443
>Posting on Reddit
from my own experience, posting on Reddit didn't have much carryover to my other social media accounts. You'll get attention and upboats on Reddit for sure, but only on Reddit.
Take it from someone who had multiple art posts that had reached 10k+ upvotes.

[Anonymous No.6871295]

>>6871290
Correct. Ive had posts that reach 3k and I got like maybe 1 follower.

[Anonymous No.6871297]

>>6866443
Just draw and people will come if you're good, what's this retarded bullshit you're talking about? Permabeg

[Anonymous No.6871299]

>>6866468
Retarded teenager, probably underage

[Anonymous No.6871321]

>>6870588
Lmfao, how delusional can you be?

[Anonymous No.6871349]

>>6871290
Reddit is actually the worse site/app to market your shit

[Anonymous No.6871435]

>>6870588
A good rule of thumb is to look at your amount of followers and calculate 0.25% from it.
That's the amount of people that would (potentially) buy your shit. That's why you need around 100k followers or more to make decent cash.
If your niche is fetish art, your chances for potential customers go up. There are plenty of >5k fetish accounts that get a decent amount of high paying commissions.

[Anonymous No.6871450]

>>6870588
>>6870597
>>6871033
>>6871275
High follower base =/= Profitable career. There are people in the 100k range barely hitting minimum wage, and people not even in the 50k range making a living. It's ultimately about how and where you market yourself and what type of projects you're working on. People are likely to be invested and show support in something like a comic, an animation or a game. ESPECIALLY games, that market is flowing in dough. Obviously having a lot of followers increases your chances at support but it doesn't mean that you can't kick start or make it at a smaller level.

[Anonymous No.6871591]

>>6871435
>If your niche is fetish art, your chances for potential customers go up. There are plenty of >5k fetish accounts that get a decent amount of high paying commissions.
Does it have to be pr0n or will ecchi/fanservice pin-ups do?
>>6871450
>People are likely to be invested and show support in something like a comic
Awesome. Let's say I reach those 1k followers, do you think if I print out like a 100 copies of a comic at least a 100 people from those 1k would be interested?

[Anonymous No.6871752]

>>6871591
>Awesome. Let's say I reach those 1k followers, do you think if I print out like a 100 copies of a comic at least a 100 people from those 1k would be interested?
Oh you sweet summer child. The market for physical art is scarce. It's why stuff like webtoon and digital artwork flourish because all you need is an internet connection to access it. Physical has tons of hoops to jump through such as printing costs, publishing, shipping etc. If you're some no name, It's just a general net loss to have things be physical than digital. Also this anon >>6871435 has the right math but also think about it, 100 people are more likely to tip a dollar or 5 bucks, to a patreon or substar, than purchase a whole ass comic. I'd drop that down to the 25 people range and thats being generous

[Anonymous No.6871866]

>>6871033
> 70k to make a living
Bullshit. I make way more than minimum wage with 7k followers and I know a lot of fellow freelancers around and below the 10k mark making an easy living.

Also a better way of calculating is to check the people actually seeing your posts and/or visiting your profile page per month when it comes to potential clients

[Anonymous No.6871870]

>>6871866
Yeah >>6871450 is more on the money. Smaller followings can still do well financially if they market themselves hard enough.

[Anonymous No.6871872]

>>6871752
>100 people are more likely to tip a dollar or 5 bucks, to a patreon or substar
Something I asked on another thread... Since I have little following; If I open a Patreon nobody will follow me because you need a shit ton of people to following you already for Patreon to work. Let's say I do a nice pin-up saying I have a Patreon and pay Twitter ads to have that show up on people's feeds, that's gotta bring some people in to Patreon right? Like a hundred maybe two.
>I'd drop that down to the 25 people range and thats being generous
Make the physical comic a particular tier, the other's being high red PDF's with maybe exclusive or NSFW illustrations that I don't post on social.

[Anonymous No.6871873]

>>6871866
He’s probably talking about making money through prints and plushies.

[Anonymous No.6871881]

>>6871873
I'm not sure 75k is actually enough in that case, unless you sport a really big portfolio of printables. Passive income is a lot harder to generate a living wage with than getting commissions or contract work.

[Anonymous No.6871922]

>>6871873
>>6871881
Not sure if plushies but I guess I could try. I was thinking about printing an small amount of comics (between 50 and 75, 100 tops) and sell them through DMs or something. There are print shops nearby and I think I can get color copies relatively cheap. Also, I'm talking about "floppies" not TPB or manga-like volumes, those would be a little more expensive to produce.

[Anonymous No.6871927]

>>6871872
Just don't be a retard and make 1 dollar pledge tiers. 3 should be the minimum. Honestly 5 is ideal.

[Anonymous No.6871965]

>>6866443
I have a lot of followers but I post AI. All I did was spam the popular AI art hashtags and make cool art.
The people who have more followers than me talked a lot so I think that's really important with getting yourself out there. People like people so if they like the artist the content doesn't matter so much. I barely talked but I think my stuff is a bit more interesting than most.

Hope that helps.

[Anonymous No.6872250]

Stay focused on working and keep sharing across platforms. The wait is a test of your patience and productivity. Growth gets easier after the first thousand follows.
But you really do have to be posting work that is worth following. Most of accounts floating around a few hundred follows are where they deserve to be until they develop more.

[Anonymous No.6872271]

>>6871872
My honest advice is that you start a Patreon sooner than later so you can get a reality check.

[Anonymous No.6872289]

>>6872271
Don't start a patreon until you at least have 20k followers
Ideally 50k

[Anonymous No.6872505]

>>6872289
The stronger your "hook" the less followers you need to start a patreon IMO. Something viral that can prove what you are capable of. A single art image wont do it so you need to either animate something or produce something more substantial like a sequential comic. Either way you need to wow ppl.

[Anonymous No.6873479]

>>6872289
My point is that his head is in the clouds and he needs to see that he will get zero subscribers where he's at. Experience is the best teacher.

[Anonymous No.6873505]

>>6870588
>Anyhow; is 1K enough to make money off of art?
No following is inherently worth anything. The only thing that matters is how many people 1. with money and 2. willing to buy art you can convince to buy from you. A billion people regularly scrolling through your pictures won't do anything for your income until they start paying, and if you had only fifty followers, all of which were paying customers, you would already be miles ahead, if not financially stable.

>>6866443
The latest information about the algorithm is available on Twitter's GitHub repo:
https://github.com/twitter/the-algorithm-ml/blob/main/projects/home/recap/README.md
With an overview on their blog:
https://blog.twitter.com/engineering/en_us/topics/open-source/2023/twitter-recommendation-algorithm
Basically, every tweet is scored by their machine learning algorithm, then the score is weighted. Different aspects of the tweet contribute differently, but the leading positive contributors are likelihood that a user will reply and the reply will be engaged with by the original author, and the leading negative is probability that the tweet will be reported. See table.
Twitter also sorts users into separate clusters based on interests.
In short, you're most likely to be recommended if your tweets invite replies that lead to a conversation and profile engagement.

[Anonymous No.6873605]

How exactly do we monetize this shit after all the followers? I never really seen commissions as sustainable but they do sound nice except AI kinda took a chunk out of that.

Is the endgame inevitably patreon?

Im starting to wonder what the average successful online digital artist actually makes.

[Anonymous No.6874606]

>>6871866
>>6871033
what the fuck does minimum wage even mean here? wage is hourly, you can “make minimum wage” with 1 commission
are you referring to an income equivalent to full time employment at minimum wage ie $15k a year? working what hours?

[Anonymous No.6874625]

>>6873605
I never understood how the typical double digit commission scheme worked, at $100 a pop I’d need to do 10 commissions a month to get around $10k a year after fees.
That’s 3 days a piece, assuming no off days, including back and forth communication, people wasting your time, reworks, etc.
In those 3 days I also need to fit noncommissioned work since I doubt the commissions will do much to draw in more audience.
So now I’m producing 120 commissions a year + let’s say 100 of my own images a year for ten thousand dollars.
At 10 hours an image on average, that’s more than full time, which if you’re doing comics or developed rendering, it will be. For ten thousand bucks.
And $100 is well over the typical commission price from what I’ve seen, what am I missing?

[Anonymous No.6874675]

>>6873505
>In short, you're most likely to be recommended if your tweets invite replies that lead to a conversation and profile engagement.

Shit.. does that mean I actually have to respond to my comments?

[Anonymous No.6877091]

>>6874606
Full time equivalent minimum wage, yearly earnings based on a 40 hours work week.
Mostly from passive income like Patreon, most artists hit that kind of earnings at around 100k followers. Obviously I can't go into how many commissions they do, but it doesn't make much sense unless they can charge over $500 a pop to be worthwhile, as this anon puts it >>6874625

[Anonymous No.6877957]

>>6877091
I just had my first comission with a company. Only had 2 commissions with people before that. A single motif that goes on a flyer and it made me 800 dollars.

Apparently, all it takes is going to places where boomers with their own companies gather and you'll end up with outrageous commissions naturally.

[Anonymous No.6877978]

>>6866444
>this
It's always surprising when a certain piece gets reposted and liked

[Anonymous No.6878129]

>>6874625
It depends on the complexity of the piece and working speed. If it's a character without background and the rendering is simple you can churn them out much faster
Or you can take higher paying but more complex commissions plus patreon and shit

[Anonymous No.6878221]

>>6874625
I agree, commissions are short sighted and a very bad idea for longevity when you actually do the math