To help promote the publishing of my book of illustrations, Flexible, I decided to take a leap into social media. Instagram was my choice as it seemed to have more creative possibilities and I knew some people already on it who might follow me and hopefully spread the word to their followers.
I have a few followers on Flickr and some of my works gets 1000s of looks and many get at least a few hundred looks. This isn’t a lot for social media posts these days but it’s something. I have quit Flickr several times over the years as its membership has changed. At first there was a bit of feedback and opinions from other like minded artists. People discussed techniques and often had helpful critiques. I have more looks these days but pretty much zero communication. A "look" isn’t social to me or all that helpful in of itself, nice that it is to know people are seeing your work - that is all it tells you. YouTube is a place I have used for decades now and some of my videos, again get a couple thousands hits - over time - but I have something like 8 followers and occasionally an interesting comment.
This is where Instagram comes into the picture. My reluctance and distaste for social media is well known, I’ve written about here on a regular basis. Although it seems everyone and their brother is social media famous these days, the fact is very few people are and even fewer are for good reasons - like for people liking their work. Still this book meant a lot to me and things change so I am giving it a try.
Having only been on it a couple months I can say so far my opinion has not changed. I have gathered a few followers, some are people who didn’t know me before but still no copies of the book have sold from it and no one has requested prints or offered a commission. It’s work to keep it going, you have post often and take the time to write your description and format your images. Time that could be spent drawing or working on something. I do get see some posts from friends I had otherwise been unable to see and have seen some nice art from other artists. My friend Jesus has helped me with setting things up and giving me advice. He swears I need to show myself which I do not want to do, it’s a business account and I want it to stay that way. I have shown images I have drawn on my dog and other things and mention the personal connection in my description and Jesus recommended that I at least do some video reels and posts to get more attention so I did that. I added my instagram to my business card, blog sites and portfolio page hoping someone might be curious and stumble onto it. So I AM trying to reach out but so far its not worth the effort. I plan on doing it for a year at least since you never know what will happen and putting the effort in but I am not too confident that I will be still on the platform by this time next year.
I have been going down rabbit holes to see what else in on there and what gets attention… it’s pretty banal and dreadful. I have no desire to walk out in nothing but a towel, jump up and do a fast cut to me fully dressed and NO ONE wants to me to either! I don’t want to film my dog doing something innocuous and put a "funny" caption on it. There is so much boring repetition on social media masquerading as cleverness and the shrill screams for attention, no matter how cute you are or how many rows of abs you have it just make my eyes roll. It’s fine if others like the stuff and want or need to do it but feeling pushed into doing it out of desperation seems not a little pathetic of me to be honest. Needing 10 000 followers just to post links puts this basic business tool out of reach not just for me but for maybe 90% of the people I see on Instagram. The constant urging to get a Facebook account to "cross promote" is really annoying and I REALLY do not want to go there.
Maybe Gus Kenworthy will follow me and decide what’s missing from his life is an older Montreal guy who can draw. Maybe I will suddenly gets traction or go viral or whatever the kids do these days and get a following beyond my wonderful family and friends. I won’t shy away from that but I have a feeling I still won’t like doing any of this any more than I do now.
2 comments:
We're in the same boat. I've never had a lot of likes on Instagram, and have fewer and fewer all the time. That being said, I follow a lot of artists on there and it's always inspiring to see their work. And sometimes, I get someone following me from Russia, China or South America and I think, well, hey, at least someone's seeing it. That's better than it just sitting on my hard drive. I have no illusions about ever 'making money' from my art. But I can share it. And if someone likes it, that's cool too. I only show myself there when I do self portraits. What I've been told is that a lot of people just look at the 'stories,' the video things people post. They can be anything, including Procreate videos. Doesn't have to be YOU. That being said, you do you. And good luck.
Well, no one else is going to do me... wait.. what were we talking about again? I did the reels thing a couple times now and I'll try the stories thing. I think you are right more people look at those. I do get a small amount of sales every month from my videos and I don't know why my other stuff is just ignored. If I can get more steady work again I would less inclined to even try and sell stuff. A friend in Boston who is somewhat connected in the artworks is horrified at the lack of attention I get and wants to get me into exhibiting again. I will have to fly you in to pretend to be me. Feel free to use any crazy voice you wish - no one will ever know! LOL
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