Instagram/Twitter tips for growing

[Anonymous No.4064714]

Thought I'd would be nice to have a thread dedicated to sharing and discussing ways to grow your follower base on Instagram and Twitter since so many people seem to want to grow but struggle with it.

I can't share much about twitter because fuck if I know how to grow on there, but I'll start with what I know about Instagram (for reference, I have about 6.2k followers there, not a crazy amount but enough to have learnt a few things).

- post consistently. I posted daily for a month, after a while my posts started getting a ton more attention and my my daily new followers went from 3-5 to 30-50

- a consistent style/subject matter also helps. I started getting a lot more likes and followers once I started focusing on environments rather than trying to paint everything and anything. People want to follow accounts that they know what to expect from, don't try to please everyone, just focus on one thing and stick with it, people will instantly know what kind of content you post and will be more likely to follow because of that.

- use hashtags, but do your research. If you're a small account, tagging your post with #art won't do shit because your post will be drowned by hundreds more within minutes. Your goal is to get in the "Top Posts" section of as many hashtags as possible, but how do you do that? You target smaller, less popular hashtags that don't require as many likes to get in those top spots. Look at your average like count, then look at the like count for the top 9-15 posts of any given hashtag. If there's at least a couple with as many likes as your average post gets, use that hashtag. As you grow you can target bigger and bigger hashtags.

[Anonymous No.4064717]

[continued]

- posting content in a consistent style/medium/subject allows you to target the same hashtags day after day. Do it long enough, and suddenly the top 9-15 top posts will regularly include 3-5 of your own posts. Multiply that by however many hashtags you're using, and you can see how you can start getting a ton of impressions on your work.

- use stories. I know, it's hard because wtf are you gonna post about if your life isn't that interesting? But find content to share and post at least 5-8 stories a day, and ideally one every hour or so. Every time you share a story, yours will get shown at the top of your followers' feed. I have no real evidence that this actually boosts your posts in any way, but it seems to help. One thing that's for sure though, is that it helps reminding your followers that you exist, it helps reminding them that you're a real person and not just a nameless account, and it helps them getting to know you of you share things like polls, questions, or more personal stuff. Anything goes, you can share memes, selfies if you're into that, WIPs, random pictures, whatever.

[Anonymous No.4064718]

>>4064714
Thank you for this, anon

[Anonymous No.4064719]

[continued]

- I used to do this early on and it's stupid effective for gaining new followers. Go to a the profile of some big name artist (who ideally has a similar style/content as you, though it's not necessary). Then tap on their followers list and, starting from the top, click on each user and like 3-5 of their photos (you can comment too, but it's not necessary). This is basically a way to make them aware of your existence, and many of them will return the likes or even follow you. I think I gained close to 150 followers in one day doing this off and on through the day. Don't overdo it though, as Instagram will temporarily block you from liking if you like too many posts at once. The downside to this is that many of those followers are often new users who followed those big accounts because they were recommended to them by Instagram, so many of them will stop using the app or follow a ton more people and become ghost followers.

- not entirely related to Instagram, but share your content on as many places as you can, and mention your Instagram when you get a chance. I post on Reddit pretty often because I like how many subreddits there are for each specific subject/medium. I've gotten some decent attention from there, and I've even had bursts of 150+ followers just for mentioning my Instagram username in relevant threads (example, I once made a comment and mentioned I was an artist, someone was curious and asked for my IG, gained 180 followers because of that)

That's all that comes to mind right now, hope others have some tips to share too.

[Anonymous No.4064722]

>>4064718
You're welcome! I made a post like this about Tumblr a year or so ago and it was well received, since Tumblr is now dead in the water I figured it would be a good idea to do one about the other more popular platforms

[Anonymous No.4064728]

useful.

"post consistently. I posted daily for a month"
Do you think the trick here is daily or consistently?

I dont think I could churn out a post daily.

[Anonymous No.4064740]

>>4064728
Both. If you can post daily it will help a ton, but it's a fact that many people just can't do it (it was fucking hard when I was doing it for that month). The next best thing is just posting as often as you can, consistency in the sense of "every tuesday" doesn't really matter, but do try to post at a time when your followers are most active.

That depends on where your followers live, but a rule of thumb if you live in the US or Europe is that posting around 9am-12pm EST is a good bet, as that's when the entirety of the US is likely up and doing stuff, and the two most populated areas are either waking up, commuting to work, or on a lunch break, so more likely to be checking their instagram.

If you can, try and stock up on a bunch of simpler drawings/paintings and build a backlog that you can use to post daily.

[Anonymous No.4064763]

Why is social media like a second job?

[Anonymous No.4064765]

>>4064763
It's only like that in the beginning, once things start to snowball you won't have to do much besides sharing your work whenever you have new content and adding some hashtags. Problem is it takes time and effort to get to that point.

[Anonymous No.4064767]

>>4064714
>Draw anime.
>Not that half western toon style you want to call anime.
>Profit.

[Anonymous No.4064797]

Just for the sake of clarity, people who post in these threads should state their subject matter so one can relate.

>>4064714
> Your goal is to get in the "Top Posts" section of as many hashtags as possible, but how do you do that? You target smaller, less popular hashtags that don't require as many likes to get in those top spots. Look at your average like count, then look at the like count for the top 9-15 posts of any given hashtag. If there's at least a couple with as many likes as your average post gets, use that hashtag. As you grow you can target bigger and bigger hashtags.
This is solid advice. Thanks OP.

>>4064717
>>4064719
Giving random likes and comments to people works for sure because I always get likes from people who clearly don't care about what I draw, but I can't bring myself to do it. It's so fake, I didn't sign up to this marketing crap.

>>4064740
Can you even schedule posts on Instagram? I know you can on Twitter. I don't have my phone nearby.

[Anonymous No.4064821]

>>4064797
I know, I agree that it feels kinda shitty, but think of it as simply a way to make people aware that you exist.

Out of all the annoying things people do to gain followers (leaving comments begging for follows, automating "nice work!" type comments, etc), I think this is one of the least frustrating ones, since you're just giving other smaller accounts some attention and it's entirely up to them whether to return it or not.

You can't schedule posts through instagram, but there's apps that can do it. I use Planoly, it's free, well made, and you don't need to pay extra for that feature. You can save sets of hashtags too, so you can simply add them in bulk to any of your posts. The one thing it can't do is post multiple pictures as one post, or at least I haven't been able to figure out how to do it

[Anonymous No.4064821,1]

what if my artworks are this "realistically rendered" kind of art style? i can't post everyday because making an artwork that i like or i think it's worth sharing takes time. OP, did you post only finished artworks? or skeches/lineart also work?

[Anonymous No.4064947]

Posting the same style or the same stuff all the time is boring as fuck. If this is what it takes I don't think I'll ever have a large following.

[Anonymous No.4064951]

>>4064714
get your shit shared by one of those "art gallery/curator" type accounts

[Anonymous No.4064956]

>>4064951
>gets reposted instead

[Anonymous No.4064959]

>tfw constantly posting in different styles because I can’t decide on one and the subject matter always changes because I like a lot of different shit
>managed 8k followers in less than 2 years somehow
Would I be some 30k follower popular artist by now if I maintained some level of consistency? I try to but it’s hard to resist trying a bunch of different things.

[Anonymous No.4064968]

>>4064959
I've been on my account for 2 years now and I'm at about 6200 followers. At least 1500 of those I gained in the last 2 months once I stopped posting different shit all the time and started focusing on one thing (environments in my case).

You can absolutely grow your account with an inconsistent style or choice of subjects, but consistency can make that happen much faster.

For me, the reason I started focusing on environments was because I realized that's what I wanted to do and that's what I wanted people to know I do, and knowing that specializing in something makes it easier to get more of that type of work I decided to just make the switch.

[Anonymous No.4064976]

>>4064947
It's not 100% necessary, you can grow your account even if you post different stuff all the time, but it will be a hell of a lot harder and take a lot longer. I think the best way for a smaller account to grow is to be as consistent as possible: post daily, around the same time, similar subject matter, similar mediums, and even similar photos for your posts (like all pictures of your sketchbook at the same angle for example).

Once you've grown enough you can start vary your stuff more, since at that point you'll get enough likes regardless of what you post and those likes will be enough to bring in more followers and keep the growth going.

I'm definitely a supporter of "paint for yourself, not for your audience", you shouldn't *not* paint something you want to paint just because your followers may not like it. But be aware that your followers will generally have a preference for a certain type of artwork of yours, and they'll often ignore everything else (most of my digital pieces get between 400-800 likes, but my traditional paintings average closer to 250-400)

[Anonymous No.4065008]

>>4064959
>>4064968
>tw account for half a year
>can't reach 100fw
DAMN

[Anonymous No.4065016]

>>4065008
Don't feel bad, anon. I've had an account for 4 years now and can't break 200 followers

[Anonymous No.4065026]

>>4064767
>draw anime
ew

[Anonymous No.4065032]

>>4065008
There's still hope, I'm the anon who got 8k and for the first half of last year I was stuck with 10 followers until an artist followed me back and then retweeted my art. I got 100 followers from it which was enough to really kickstart my account's growth.

[Anonymous No.4065055]

I can't post consistently but I noticed that making actual good drawings also works.

Sounds like a joke but I mean it.

[Anonymous No.4065059]

>>4065055
Having good content definitely helps, but sadly it's one of the least important things when it comes to growth. I see dozens of accounts with amazing work and less than 5k followers, and just as many accounts with barely above average content and tens of thousands of heavily engaged followers.

[Anonymous No.4065060]

>>4064714
I’ve been doing follow/unfollow and I’ve gained a couple hundred followers this way. Don’t hate the player hate the game

[Anonymous No.4065067]

Thanks for the helpful advice, OP! Is there a way to do this on Twitter as well, or is it completely hopeless if you don't have a following there already?

[Anonymous No.4065071]

>>4065060
That's just cheap game that won't take you anywhere dude
That's just padding.

[Anonymous No.4065076]

>>4064714
>>4064717
>>4064719
>>4064740
>>4064968
GOOD MAN. THANK YOU.

A few months before I'd suggest sketchy stuff like Gramblr, but now that it's dead (& other stuff are dying too), this is very welcomed.

Hmpf! Even Instagram should be wisely used while it's still active, until the next big thing!!
Not joking guys : all the stuff that can get you good recognition like these social media, use them well N O W, in a few years it might evaporate in front of you...

[Anonymous No.4065084]

>>4065059
It's true. That's where the "social" part of social media comes out - if you don't actually engage with anyone, no one is going to bother following your content. I think a lot of artists don't see that and treat it followers like a testament of how good your art actually is.

[Anonymous No.4065102]

>>4065071
I need the ego boost, no matter how artificial it may be, for my suffering ngmi soul

[Anonymous No.4065130]

>>4065102
Don't do it just for the ego boost man, or just for the money.
I, for instance, make myself known because I have a project I'd like to share to tons of people (and making a living doing what I love is a very welcomed bonus)
If you're not driven you will burn out fast when you get no like/retweet or it doesn't pay...

[Anonymous No.4065199]

>>4065059
This
I've seen pros like award winning illustrators or concept designers who have worked on a ton of projects have less than 5k or sometimes less than 1k. Yet there are accounts who post nothing but badly drawn capeshit with 10k followers.

Thats when I realized the numbers don't mean shit at all when it comes to skill or experience. It just boils down to who can pander the best.

[Anonymous No.4065208]

A tablet company wants me to review a tablet they have. Should I do it? It's a free tablet.

[Anonymous No.4065220]

>>4065208
Yeah sure why not? Please send the tablet to me afterwards if you don’t need it

[Anonymous No.4065242]

>>4065208
Are you confident about your reviewing skills or do you even know what to look out for when reviewing tablets?
If yes, do it.
If no, then better not risk it.

[Anonymous No.4065253]

>>4065067
You're welcome, happy people are finding this useful! The "like to get noticed" thing def does work on Twitter too, everything else may or may not, but a lot of it doesn't exactly apply as well.

For one thing hashtags on Twitter aren't nearly as common as on Instagram, in the sense that not as many people use them and not as many people check the content posted under a certain hashtag (with the exception of trending ones I guess).

I think the biggest thing when it comes to twitter is genuine interaction and sharing highly reetweeteable stuff. Reply to people's tweets, interact with other users in the threads you see, and keep on doing it. Also tweeting regularly every day, multiple times a day seems very important. Twitter more than Instagram rewards people who tweet a lot. Retweets are good too, just something to show you're active.

I suck at doing all of that, I managed to get to 490 something followers with a mix of the above, some popular reddit posts where I snuck in my Twitter account, and joining a recent art challenge, buy how to grown on twitter without requiring a huge account to retweet you still remains a mystery to me. Hopefully someone else can chime in with some more helpful tips!

[Anonymous No.4065422]

>>4065026
>draw
ew

[Anonymous No.4065483]

not sure if this belongs here, but at what follower count/engagement on your posts should you start shilling commissions?

[Anonymous No.4065496]

>>4064714
But I want to paint a wide range of things :/

[Anonymous No.4065502]

social media cancer has nothing to do with art

fuck off

[Anonymous No.4065605]

>>4065067
On Twitter it's entirely dependent on getting retweeted by people with a large crowd. It doesn't matter what you do.

[Anonymous No.4065611]

>>4065032
do you draw porn? I've never seen this happen

[Anonymous No.4065617]

>>4064719
what art related subreddits can you recommend?

[Anonymous No.4065618]

I used gramblr with the bot for automatic likes and it worked decently now I think the bot option it has been removed from gramblr and my instagram is finished.

what to do?

[Anonymous No.4065712]

>>4065502
It does with getting work or commissions

[Anonymous No.4065721]

>>4065611
No, just your typical ocs and fanart content on artist twitter, nothing nsfw. Like op said there are other factors like posting consistently that help too.

[Anonymous No.4065747]

>>4065422
based

[Anonymous No.4065882]

>>4065617
Here's some to start with, check the sidebars of each one of them and you'll find many more.

[Anonymous No.4065929]

>>4065882
thank you for the list. very nice of you.

[Anonymous No.4066204]

>>4065242
Risk what? he doesn't have to give the tablet back.

[Anonymous No.4066283]

>>4064719
What is your opinion on buying shoutouts?

[Anonymous No.4066348]

>>4066283
Never done it before, I DM'd some art feature type accounts to ask about it but all they offered were features in their stories, which I doubt would be worth anything.

If the account is legit and the price isn't too steep, I don't think it would be a bad thing, but be careful and check the list of people who like their photos to make sure they're legit, active accounts (if they have less than 5 posts and follow thousands of people, chances are they're fake or will never see your posts). Also try to get a shout-out from accounts that post art similar to yours, if they're jack of all trades and post everything from sculpture, to traditional landscapes, to hentai, to fucking gifs of food recipes (like so many "art" accounts do for whatever reason) you probably won't get as good of a return on your investment.

[Anonymous No.4066363]

>>4064714
any trends that I can follow op? I know that bad omens became pretty popular or any off the summer animes are somewhat trendy right now

[Anonymous No.4066368]

>>4066348
>>4066283
this is a whole another level of depressing

[Anonymous No.4066374]

>>4065502
It you're trying to make money with your art, that makes you a self employed small business owner, and as such you'd be insane to turn down the power of social media.

Before I started focusing on art I was (still am, gotta make a living somehow until I can do that with just art) a wedding photographer. I started from nothing and got up to making a decent living exclusively thanks to my use of social media. I tried ads with yelp and bridal websites but got nothing out of it, and bridal expos weren't my thing so I never did them. I just posted on Instagram, a little on Facebook, and SEO'd the fuck out of my website. After a while I was getting an average of 3 inquiries a week from my Instagram alone, plus a few coming from people finding me on Google or Facebook, which allowed me to do that full time.

It can be shitty, and fake, and frustrating, but it can also be invaluable and single handedly start someone's career. On top of that, so many people use it, you'd be leaving money on the table for no reason by not using social media platforms.

People can find you and commission you, you can push your prints/videos/classes through it, hell even art galleries will be more inclined to work with artists who have a larger following or who are at least active online. I'm just saying, it's simply part of the game these days.

[Anonymous No.4066380]

>>4066374
not him but I just don't want to play this game
if I'll never make it because of this, so be it
I'm willing to destroy my health to become the best artist I can be, I refuse to do this petty shit to earn "likes"

[Anonymous No.4066396]

>>4066363
If you draw people in any way, do draw this in your style challenges. Holy fuck can those things help.

I can't do them myself since I can't paint a cute girl as a damn landscape, but I follow at least 4 people that I've seen blow up thanks in large part to #dtiys posts.

One of them started her account at the beginning of last inktober, she's now sitting at 140k very engaged followers. Another started earlier this year and is now at 11k. Similar story for the other ones.

I think the reason they work so well is that there's tons of them and they're coming from different artists, so you can get story or feed shoutouts from each one of those artists, the hashtags won't have THAT many posts under them, which means there's a higher chance your posts will be seen by quite a few people, and the people who engage with these type of artists/challenges tend to be very engaged and comment/like on these posts a lot, and they'll likely follow you since you're drawing something they're into. It's also a little community in of itself, so people tend to support others who join in. If you do it consistently I think you could get a lot of growth out of it.

Other "seasonal" trends are good too, like meet the artist, before/after, #inktober, those kind of things that go around from time to time.

And if you can, do process videos too, people love those as does Instagram since not too many artists actually make them.

[Anonymous No.4066405]

>>4064714
more in the vein of social media hacking/optimization, all major platforms optimize for engagement, it's why you see every e-girl posting selfies with captions like "tell me something I don't know". The more people respond to the post in the comments the more it gets recommended to others. It's a strong enough effect that artists on twitter are telling people to comment on their art instead of just reblogging it. Same thing happens on instagram, but instagram also rewards using filters and bumps them in the feed, even if they're at 0% or 1%.

[Anonymous No.4066408]

>>4066380
Well those are just things you can do if you really want to put in the effort to grow an account, but you don't need to do any of the petty shit at all, just posting your stuff and using some hashtags can still help a lot.

Obviously you do you, I'm not trying to force anyone to post on Instagram or anywhere else, and I don't mean to imply that you *can't* make a living without it, many artists do. I just think it's something that can help the process, that's all.

[Anonymous No.4066416]

>>4066405
Never heard about the filters thing, but I'll be damned if I don't try that next time lol

And you're spot on with the engagement thing, it fucking sucks but that's how it is. I'm still trying to figure out how to get my damn followers to actually comment on my posts though, I talk to a bunch of them (mutuals and non) with DMs, but no matter what I get virtually no comments on most of my posts. I tried asking questions, making jokes, giving tips and writing long form captions, showing my personality in stories, still nothing.

[Anonymous No.4066441]

>>4066396
I see people do this all the time and they gain nothing. It depends a lot on your art style. Most of the time it just looks like you're making free content for the person's feed and people will look for the OC not your profile.

[Anonymous No.4066633]

>>4065618
Yeah I had tons of points & poof,gone. If anybody got good alternatives where you can like other users & other users can see your stuff,that'd be cool.

[Anonymous No.4066660]

>>4066416
If you're already comfortable enough talking to them and do it regularly via DMs I don't think it would be too imposing to ask them to drop a comment next time you upload something they like.

[Anonymous No.4066724]

>>4066660
This never even occured to me lol I'm "close" enough with some that I could definitely ask them to, may have to do give it a shot