Social Media. Word of the Mouth. Discord.

[Brian Hermelijn]

This is a discussion that originally started on Discord, and I think it deserves its own thread as suggested by another discord member. For privacy reasons, I am changing the names, to made-up names. ( Do not know how everyone stands on privacy) so I shall respects everyone privacy.


And this might be a better way to organize all the information that has been on Discord. I am not here to take any sides, rather here to see all the possibilities that exists out there


Reading time, 4 to 5 minutes.


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Persona Albi Says : 

Ideally artists have their own site to bring traffic to but in order to make those roads you should have a presence on every platform. Build a site, post your main work and updates, but use Facebook, dA, Tumblr, Twitter to post previews or ads. Programs like Hootsuite are a way to link social media accounts and you can schedule posts for all of them at once.

Persona Boris Says :

This is probably a different example, but there is a guy called Seth Godin, whom still uses Typepad (a platform that has been around since 2000) and his blog is well recognized. He kept using one platform. His way of advertising was networking in person.

Persona Albi Says :

It's been 16 years since the year 2000 and the internet is becoming more and more saturated. Might have worked for him on a meet and greet basis but for new artists that's like setting up a nightclub in the middle of nowhere and no advertising.

Persona Cumba Says :

I don't have much of an interest in using social medias in that manner. There's enough noise on the existing sites that the return on the investment of time is rather poor. People can have different preferences but I prefer to take the road less traveled. Want a site that functions for what I want it to do.

Persona Albi Says :

You've got to work to get yourself seen, but there's less work when you're smart about it. Don't do it at all, then you're cordoning yourself off from a lot of potential

Persona Cumba Says :

Social media is a tool, you need to go all out because everyone else is competing for the same attention. Great if it cuts down the time but it still requires its own approach.

Persona Boris Says :

You don't have to post on 20 different platforms to get seen, from my perspective.

Persona Albi Says :

So if you had a business - you wouldn't advertise, you wouldn't have soft opens, you wouldn't do even the basic forms of networking just because it's competing with other businesses? If you're an artist, you're a business.

Persona Cumba Says : 

If you were a business, would you use the channels that are the most saturated or would you find other ways of doing things? If you want to use the main channels, you better have a lot of money to invest.

Persona Albi Says :

How many of you were referred to daggers or you found daggers because of previous users referencing it

General Answers : 

Dave Rapoza , from other forums, twitch stream, word of the mouth

Persona Albi Says :

Because artists live Dave link it in their stream, on their page, on their social media. Networking is word of mouth's bigger more successful cousin.

Persona Cumba Says : 

Dave was a social media whore and he invested a lot of time into that. Now think like this, YOU have to compete with that, and you choose to compete on the exact same platform?

Persona Daro Says : 

Well to be a successful artists i think the most important thing is to stand out and have your own voice

Persona Edd Says : 

Think about how hard it is to get good at art. That amount of effort that you put into studying your craft is the same intensity you should be distilling into the business side. Some artists understand that. Those artists are successful.

Persona Albi Says :

Look, long and short of it - if you do nothing, expect nothing. It's not hard to figure out a way to bring yourself
more traffic. Don't want to, that's your prerogative.

Persona Boris Says :

Do it in a matter that you feel marketing/showing your work works best for you. At the end of the game, the result you wanted is what matters. Experiment marketing in your own way. Some stick to one platform, while others uses many platform, or personal platform + word of the mouth. And of course going to workshops/expos etc.

Persona Edd Says : 

Social media doesn't mean facebook, twitter, and only tumblr. Social media as A THING is a necessity. No if ands or buts about it. 

Persona Daro Says : 

Here are some direct Craig Mullins quotes circa 2015

-"You're going into an extremely crowded market" -- he complains that the industry is very incestuous, and you should stand out from all the competition by getting other influences

"You need to find your own voice to get money"

Persona Cumba Says : 

An example of what something different can be.

Ghost became a very very very popular band by making great stage shows and allowing themselves to be presentable. They did not advertise themselves, rather they let others do it for them. They are a great example of a band that did something differently and got rewarded for it because they stood out in that way.

Persona Albi Says :

I don't know them. Because they obviously thought very small of their niche

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Summary of the discussion


From what I read there is different perspectives been offered. All has their own rights, in their own way.


1. Option A:
Post on multiple popular platforms, use programs that allows you to do that more efficiently and link your personal website with it.


2. Option B:
Post only on platforms that allows you to do what you want to do + real world events.  


3. Option C :
Road less traveled. Word of the mouth mainly. Real world events.



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Last and not least, we all have knowledge we gathered from other peoples on the internet (myself included), books we read, videos we watched etc. But lets change the perspective from others knowledge to our own experience thus far. 



From your own experience, what is working for you in this current point of time? And from the knowledge you read, what are you applying/have already applied?



Trying to make the discussion that originally started on discord as concise as possible.

[Brian Hermelijn]

One thing I have to say is, I am by no means a working artist. I am currently just pursuing art as a side hobby, while doing mainly design stuff. So sharing a little of my experience from the past 6 months now. Since in the past 6 months is when I started to dedicate more time into connecting with other individuals.


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From my own experience at this current point in time, the platforms I am using is Twitter, Behance, Dribbble, Instagram, Artstation, Facebook.

Twitter :
General things. Life. Art. Design. Announcements. Chatting.

Behance :
Concise portfolio pieces, but not sure if I will continue with it yet. Mainly started with it for design. And I am not as active on it anymore.

Dribbble :
Work in progress design stuff. But seeing myself stopping with this platform in foreseeable future maybe. To focus attention on other platforms (Instagram/Instagram stories or snapchat)

Instagram :
Still is a WIP. Started with it not too long ago. Mainly design/photography things on it. But seeing myself using the platform more due of the instagram story future (connecting with others/small concise videos)

Artsation :
Working on my skills currently. But using it to document my progress, on a weekly manner. (Working on the posting part)

Facebook :
Connecting with other peoples, artist, designers etc.

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Which one I am most active on in this current time?
Facebook, Twitter, Dribbble

Which one I am least active on in this current time?
Behance

What am I aiming for?
To connect and foster relationships with other artists/designers/creatives/fans etc. and start possibly, meaningful collaboration projects.

EDIT :

Forgot to mention other platforms I am currently using is Google Hangout. Been having a blast with it. Other that I might see myself in the foreseeable future is Youtube/Twitch. Already started experimenting with them, but not sure yet.

[Eyliana]

I would like to start out with defining what you want to achieve as an artist/producer of content and tailer your needs to that.

And for doing so there are different categories. Traditional art sells different than digital concept art, which again is different from more graphic design stuff.

And how do you want to sell your product/earn money. If you want to work for an in-house studio your needs will be different than if you work freelance, or if you just want to make your own stuff and sell prints of that.

In any case on each social media platform it takes time (as in, it isn't instant) to build up a following. Posting once half a year, won't do the trick. If your skills are good it goes faster, but it still takes time and effort.

What do I use?
Instagram, Twitch, DeviantArt to post stuff. Although DeviantArt is a pain and I spend less and less time on it.
I use Twitter to say when I'm gonna stream on Twitch (... or at least try to).
Stream on Twitch mostly because it keeps me focussed and sometimes you get nice company.

Oh.. and in all cases a personal website doesn't hurt. :) But as said before, people need to find it somehow.

[Amit Dutta]

Whatever you do, do it consistently. That's what I would say is how to get the best out of social media, streams, websites in general if you really want to grow an audience.
Also tags. Learn how to use them on every platform that allows it. They are vital to targeting a tailored audience and clamber out of the noise onto people's screens.
Everything else is pretty much up to your goals and preferences.


The fact is, the internet allows us to get a lot of our stuff out there, even with the growing saturation for what amounts to pretty minimal effort. Sure do other things as well, and try use it in novel ways, but it's definitely bloody useful. I don't think I would even be able to work as a freelance artist without the internet, not as an absolute principle, but because it offers so much opportunity to connect.

Also don't discount dA! I don't interact with people on it anymore, but I do still post. It is the largest online art community in the world, or at least it was for a long time, and probably is still in the top few if it isn't. If you want followers, you would be silly not to post with some consistency on there, in my opinon. Guess where sakimichan got her followers?
ArtStation is less useful in that respect. It's mostly artists following other artists in a much much smaller incestuous niche of "entertainment art".

That's all i got.

[Prabu]

You can set fire at many different places or start a huge fire at one area & wait for people to notice it.
Whatever is convenient. Upto you.

Since I'm not famous, take what i say with a bag of salt.

I remember long back an artist by the name of Saejinoh used to post awesome drawings on DA.
Then he just deleted the account & moved on. (he took the second approach)

I think he's abducted by aliens since he dosen't post art anymore.