Is Instagram A Lost Cause in 2020?

[Anonymous No.4955583]

>Be a struggling starving artist who tries for years on and off to get anywhere fast on IG
>Try various tricks, tips, and tactics none of which work long term
>Try advice I see here on /ic/ figuring there may be some golden nuggets normies don't know about and still no tangible long term results no matter what I try.
>Algorithm is a fucking bitch and a half that constantly seems to fluctuate with every notable update to IG
>Hashtags are all but impossible to figure out no matter what combination of them I use or however many.
>Stories don't seem to get me far either
>That artfol app seems promising if and when it ever becomes available to the general public considering how often IG artists who aren't already super mega popular get shafted by the algorithm.
>Still can't get paid commissions no matter what despite how much my art has improved in the past few years. This pisses me off greatly no thanks to IG's aforementioned algorithm.

Is Instagram honestly a lost cause /ic/?

2020 has already been a less than stellar year, but IG really seems to be taking the piss out of a lot of starving artists like myself who can and probably will never come out on top of an impossible system designed to keep artists who aren't super mega popular down.

Also, any ways to cheat the system without getting banned would be highly appreciated.

[Anonymous No.4955593]

Quit social media.

[Anonymous No.4955599]

The social media ship has sailed years ago.
Sorry.

[Sage No.4955612]

Keep it in the social media general tardlet

[Anonymous No.4955704]

>>4955583
Avoid social media. Paying jobs will be found on sites for finding artists for hire.
Also, artfol is in beta now. Come join it. With enough ic/ artists there we'll make them as miserable as we are here.

[Anonymous No.4955750]

>>4955583

social media only works if your art is already good and you already have at least 200 followers. the algorithm is made to push up actual good content, for instagram, the primary tell of whether a post is good is if people save it. if your content isn't good, then people don't save it and it get's buried.

another symptom might be you're an 'artists' artist, and you're only making technique based pieces with no universal appeal and nothing that non-artists can appreciate.

there are also tricks that work to get you a lot of legitimate engaged followers. If you do have some decent posts on your page already, you can go through hashtags and spam like 170 posts every hour (max 1,300 a day, though the limits may be different depending on how long your account has existed, and best to slowly work up to that amount) with that method you can get around 500 followers a month bonus on top of what you get from posts (and they are real followers) i've gotten 10,000+ followers from this method alone over the last 2 years

some tips for that method: i only spam-like posts that are still under 5 likes, they're much more likely to notice and follow you. also if you get any followers that seem fake (usually if they're selling something or are following a crazy high amount of people) remove them from your followers because it will hurt your account engagement.

[Anonymous No.4955772]

>>4955750
>If you do have some decent posts on your page already, you can go through hashtags and spam like 170 posts every hour (max 1,300 a day, though the limits may be different depending on how long your account has existed, and best to slowly work up to that amount) with that method you can get around 500 followers a month bonus on top of what you get from posts (and they are real followers) i've gotten 10,000+ followers from this method alone over the last 2 years

>some tips for that method: i only spam-like posts that are still under 5 likes, they're much more likely to notice and follow you. also if you get any followers that seem fake (usually if they're selling something or are following a crazy high amount of people) remove them from your followers because it will hurt your account engagement.

Sounds like too much effort for too little reward in my experience. I used to do the trick where you like-spam new followers of super popular art accounts and saw middling results at best.

Plus iirc, the algorithm shadow banned me for a time.

I mean, I am pretty much at my wit's end with IG as an artist don't get me wrong, but honestly, I don't have the time and energy to like spam new posts for various hashtags and only see mediocre results at most and possibly have to deal with getting shadow banned as a result.

Please tell me there's a no bullshit method that isn't time consuming that guarantees huge results for little effort.

[Anonymous No.4955778]

>>4955750
>you can go through hashtags and spam like 170 posts every hour
I don't understand

[Anonymous No.4955796]

>>4955778
When your post gets a like you're notified of it. Smaller accounts will probably notice you specifically much easier and decide to look at your account. It's actually kinda smart

[Anonymous No.4955829]

>>4955583
It's not s lost cause, it works if your work is good.

[Anonymous No.4955840]

>>4955772
i do 170 likes every 2 hours, it only takes 5 minutes and i've never been shadow banned. Art is my career, i get all of my clients through instagram and this is how i get a huge chunk of exposure. it's definitely not a waste of time if it's your livelihood.

1 year from today you can have a pretty much guaranteed 6k+ followers for taking a 5 minute break every couple of hours, 7 times a day. That time is going to pass whether you do that method or no. you don't have to do it for the rest of your life, but for a kick start to actual success on social media, it's absolutely worth it.

[Anonymous No.4955844]

>>4955583
You know, you can use all the cheats and tricks you like, you can spam or use a hundred hashtags but the reality is if people likes your work they will like and follow. This is something you can't force people to do. If your work is shit you don't expect me to follow you. People are not obliged to give you attention.Just suck it up.

[Anonymous No.4955859]

>>4955772
Not OP, and I'm gonna fucking try this as soon as I start updating my account again.

Actually, this is work asking - is it in my best interest to wipe my account of previous posts and start clean if I've had a spotty record before? I've got under 20 posts so it wouldn't be difficult at all.

[Anonymous No.4955861]

>>4955859
*worth, fuck work being on my mind all the damn time

[Anonymous No.4955880]

>>4955859
after your first latest 9 posts it doesn't matter what the quality is, make sure the 6 posts at the top are your strongest pieces because that's what people will see when they go onto your account. the higher quality those pieces are, the more effective this method will be. if you've got really strong pieces from the past on your account, delete and re-post them so they are at the top, it's not a bad thing to have worse pieces down below because people will just see that as improvement over time

[Anonymous No.4955894]

>>4955880
Thank you, based anon!

[Anonymous No.4955975]

>>4955796
It's smart but also a fucking waste of time. Imagine all the hours you spent brainlessly scrolling through pictures and clicking on them.

[Anonymous No.4955986]

>>4955975
This.
>>4955840
Since you seem to be so knowledgeable

1. Post a link to your IG account

2. Post every single tip and trick you've personally used to great effect to grow your IG.

3. I will post a link to my IG as a show of good faith. Don't let me down anon.

https://www.instagram.com/aspi3gam3r/

[Anonymous No.4956004]

i dont get instagram. why is it mobile only? why does it force cropping? who decided this shit was good for art?

[Anonymous No.4956018]

>>4955583
Instagram is the worst website to post your art. Stop barking up this tree.

[Anonymous No.4956041]

>>4955986
Interesting account...

My advice is work a bit more on fundamentals, you seem to be jumping a few steps ahead. The faces are very /beg/ for having a comic with this many issues. Maybe I'm wrong though, you're getting some views and likes or whatever.

Good work ethnic though I guess.

[Anonymous No.4956063]

>>4955986
>https://www.instagram.com/aspi3gam3r/

sorry but even the anons like spam method won't work for you, you've got to have decent art as a pre-requisite

[Anonymous No.4956163]

>>4955986
1) My impression of your username is that you sound like an insensitive /pol/fag who makes fun of disabled people whether or not that's actually true
2) Your art quality still isn't good enough
Both factors that are probably directly contributing to your lack of audience

[Anonymous No.4956176]

>>4955599
There is some truth to this.

People used to simply buy bots, proxies, and servers and run follow/unfollow campaigns to gain followers. That died last year with insta's advanced bot detection. All firms and celebrity hot shots used it for years to drive up their numbers. If they didn't know how to do it themselves, then they'd pay a service to run it for them. One could spend $15 a month and get 2,000 real new followers each month. Compare that to paying Instagram for their actual advertising, you might get 10 followers for $15. The ship definitely sailed on this one.

[Anonymous No.4956184]

https://businessesgrow.com/2014/01/06/content-shock/
content saturation is real, especially for art. tl;dr you're fucked

[Anonymous No.4956224]

>>4955986
>https://www.instagram.com/aspi3gam3r/
Dude you have to at least draw decently before worrying about social media. Your fundamentals are weak. You're supposed to worry about them. Social media posts are a consequence.

[Anonymous No.4956225]

>>4955986
I really want to make fun of you, but I can't help but respect that you even had the audacity to share that shit here. gg i guess

[Anonymous No.4956268]

followers aren't hard to come by if your skills are there, literally anyone who is complaining about any social media being dead, the reason is and always will be that your art isn't good enough yet, and technical masturbation in your art does not equal good.

[Anonymous No.4956432]

>>4956268
>t. draws only anime fan "art"

[Anonymous No.4956484]

>>4956432
never done fan art in my life, i'm recognised for my original concepts :-)

[Anonymous No.4956492]

>>4956484
OrIgInAl CoNcEpTs

[Anonymous No.4956497]

>>4956492

sour grapes

[Anonymous No.4956500]

>>4956484
>i'm recognised
I see you're famousse eh?

[Anonymous No.4956505]

>>4956500
>>4956492

samefag

[Anonymous No.4956506]

>>4955583
have you tried getting better at art

[Anonymous No.4956508]

>>4956505
of course, it's me alone

[Anonymous No.4956512]

I don’t get the fuss over artfol. It’s a site for artists. But how does it translate into getting art business?

You mean fellow starving anime oc artists are gonna suddenly start paying each other? What about traffic? Instagram is garbage with alogrithm, but it still kinda has a few million people more than some little site that is gonna be deviantart-ed.

Like don’t we have artstation, deviantart, fiverr...? What is the demand for another artist-centered site?

[Anonymous No.4956539]

>>4956512
>artfol

never heard of it before now. and there's always going to be wanna-be up and coming social medias, so nothing special.

[Sage No.4956767]

>>4955986

[Anonymous No.4956768]

>>4956512
>Instagram's algorithm is garbage

That's exactly the problem.

Its next to motherfucking impossible to grow organically over there thanks to the ever changing algorithm which has inarguably shafted artists more and more as time has gone on.

I've gotten better reach and feedback over on Pixiv and I'm a weeb artist for crying out loud!

Hell, I recently made a DeviantArt account as a last resort and will be testing the waters there soon enough.

Anyway, on the subject of artfol, I don't think getting paying clients is going to be much of a problem let alone growing your account once the app leaves beta.

Wanna know why?

No. Stupid. Algorithm!

[Anonymous No.4956773]

>>4955583
give up instagram, try using twitter , ive been on instagram for 4+ years and couldnt do shit but i made twitter this year and got shit ton of commissions too

twitter is better imo

[Anonymous No.4956875]

>>4956004
afaik instagram was never meant for art
it's for uploading selfies

[Anonymous No.4956897]

people who post in these social media threads should specify what they draw, coom, anime, fanart, landscapes, concept art, abstract, etc.
it matters a lot and people don't realize

[Anonymous No.4956930]

Install app ''unfollow'', go to insta and follow tons of related accounts until you get bored, wait 2 days, with the app automaticly stop following all accounts that doesn't follow you yet, repeat ad infinitum, around a couple hundred followers random people start following you. The more followers you have the more people will follow, like a snowball

[Anonymous No.4956988]

>>4956768
You have to go back

[Anonymous No.4957025]

>>4955583
1.) ads you can pay for
2.) literally draw everyday until your a good artist and get traction by copying studies, tagging bigger account and etc.

>>4956930
3.) also this

[Anonymous No.4957056]

>>4956768
i didn’t know paying clients gave a shit about algorithm. i get you wanna flex your new site, dev, but that shit ain’t gonna fly lmao

[Anonymous No.4957063]

People that use ig for art are mouthbreathers

>forced square crop
>shit resolution, can’t zoom in
>forced to put a hundred cringey hashtags with every post just for a drop of attention, and even then it will be buried within an hour

If you stick with it for a long time it can work out for you, but I honestly don’t see why you wouldn’t just use twitter instead.

[Anonymous No.4957067]

>>4956768
>No. Stupid. Algorithm!
What is that supposed to mean?
You have to display things in _some_ order.
The way you derive that order, no matter how you slice it, is equivalent to what is usually called "the algorithm"

[Anonymous No.4957096]

>>4955986
Quit wasting your time on social media. Focus on improving your art. As it is, you are wasting your time.

[Anonymous No.4957105]

>>4956930
>>4957025
This is a terrible idea for multiple reasons and no one should do this. You are either an inexperienced moron, or intentionally trying to sabotage peoples accounts.

[Anonymous No.4957116]

>>4957063
>then it will be buried within an hour
That's because Instagram is disproportionately filled with bots auto posting. Real "humans" don't stand a chance. It'll only get worst.

[Anonymous No.4957330]

>>4957105
How is it sabotage? You dont stop following people who follow you. Is the classic follow x follow until you are visible enough for people to see you. Also u are the moron and also gay

[Anonymous No.4957510]

>>4956163
Shut the fuck up, baboon nigger, people with Asperger's call themselves "Aspies", it's almost a badge of honor for autismo kids. Assburger or maybe sperg are the ones used derogatorily and even then my autistic friend calls himself those cause he's not a woman like you.
Kill self.

[Anonymous No.4957664]

>>4955750
>>4955772
what you describe is not the <current> recommended way to get exposure on ig.
spamming hashtags with comments apparently does you no favours.*
ig wants to build 'networks' of engaged people, so the method that gets you shown to other people is to follow people who are similar to you (i.e. have the crowd you want to get shown to). when they post, you comment asap with what will be recognised as a valuable comment (a couple of sentences, not just "wow" or "nice work"). you can switch on notifications so you get a notification when X has posted and you can go to comment. if you keep doing this, you'll become an engaged user and your profile will get shown to other users, IF:
you post content regularly and frequently and also interact with commenters on your posts. regularly doesn't need to mean every day but it should be often.
IG is always changing though, so all methods are worth a go to see what the results are.

*i can see that for small accounts, the users might look at who is liking them, but it's not great for established accounts.

[Anonymous No.4957671]

>>4955986
>2. Post every single tip and trick you've personally used to great effect to grow your IG.
not him, but you can find social media/IG courses online which tell you the methods and show you the plan to build your followers. find the top rated udemy "instagram followers success" course and spend $10 in a sale to take it. i have used it but it is for a company account so i won't post the account.

i posted this >>4957664 , which is a bona fide method and works

[Anonymous No.4958145]

>>4956768
get good :^)

[Anonymous No.4958907]

>>4957330
I'm done explaining this shit to meathead retards like you. I shouldn't have even replied, as I'm content to let you waste your time. Have fun with your super original and totally sneaky F4F scheme. Instagram will never know what hit 'em.

[Anonymous No.4958911]

>>4957664
This. Insta is weird.

[Anonymous No.4959003]

This shit gets 50k likes btw. Quality doesn't matter a lot, but engagement does.

[Anonymous No.4960175]

>>4958907
>that tasteful Brood War reference.

[Anonymous No.4960275]

>>4959003
it's because it has soul

[Anonymous No.4960472]

>>4956004
I also don`t get this. How come the most inconvenient platform that only allows for shit resolution images (you can't even zoom in) is the one people choose to post art

[Anonymous No.4960608]

>>4960472
you can zoom in, just pinch the image. the reason it's popular is because it established itself when everything was straight forward and arguably had the best UI out of the rest, before they tried to shoehorn in reels, instagram live and the explore page. The most fucked up thing that instagram has implemented recently is hiding posts that you've already seen from your own homepage and shoving more 'explore' bullshit down your throat. Sad to say, but twitter seems to be the logical choice of platform lately if you've not already got momentum on instagram that is.

also platforms dedicated only to art like artstation and deviantart are echo chambers for artists, you end up creating art that only appeals to other artists and not the masses. Also you don't reach the general public on art specific sites, which is where a lot of art job opportunities come from.

[Anonymous No.4961373]

Something has changed on Insta. I don't have many followers, but with choosing decent hashtags and posting artwork I got at least 3-5 followers per post. Sounds pathetic to some, but at least I got the feeling that there was some growth. Putting time into Insta didn't feel pointless. My last 10 posts or so I gained 0 followers.

[Anonymous No.4961558]

>>4961373
I've lost about 3 followers every time I post now. I haven't changed anything in my style wtf

[Anonymous No.4961602]

>>4961373
>>4961558
44 posts
13 followers

[Anonymous No.4961658]

>>4961373
py account

[Anonymous No.4961666]

Fuck instagram. Imagine using any service owned by Facebook.

[Anonymous No.4962126]

>>4961373
>>4961658
Well, why not, here is my Insta:

https://www.instagram.com/volkan.erbay/

[Anonymous No.4962164]

>>4962126
>posting real name on 4ch
It's not like you'll get real answers, someone will just say "ur art is boring thats why u dont get fallowers!!!1!" because it's not anime coom.
If you were 1000 times better you'd get the same retarded shit answers to justify why you deserve to be in your spot, people calling you a fruit basket painter, etc.
these people run on bullshit fumes sold to them by a bunch of gurus who live in upper class America, their delusion of social mobility and opportunity will always be more important than just admitting that it's shit
the only chance you have is to act like an opportunistic shit and cling like a barnacle to something that is trending, be it cheap politics, the new product made by one of the 3 media companies, or other stupid inconsequential shit. If you are not a manipulative social climber you will never make it.

[Anonymous No.4962180]

>>4962164
I am OK with not having thousands of followers, but I was just bummed out that I stopped gaining my usual 3-5 followers per new post. I think Instagram changed something or I just hit the peak lol

[Anonymous No.4962278]

>>4962126
>https://www.instagram.com/volkan.erbay/
Seriously awesome work my guy
You could try 'staging' your photos more? Make sure you're either getting straight on photos and cropping them well, or making them part of a photo like the attached pic. You can see how he's framed the painting a long with the subject in the bg, obvs that's less feasible with portraits but you can arrange your brushes/paints around the painting to kind of make it into a new still life for the post.
Don't forget you can do both and just give some good distance between the two and it'll allow you to have a more consistent posting schedule even when you don't have something ready at least every week. IG tends to bury you if you don't post often enough and it's not like most users are really going through your entire gallery as an archive, its okay to repost.
I would absolutely add an avatar, just one of your paintings is great.
Also I see you don't have any active IG stories, sharing your posts to stories is a great way to make sure you're getting seen even by people whos feeds you'd get lost in. Give it like, 30/60 min before sharing to stories, that seems to work best for me.
Hopefully that's helpful man, you really deserve to have ur work seen by more people, it's seriously great.

[Anonymous No.4962313]

>>4962278
this answer only exists because someone needed to subvert this post >>4962164

[Anonymous No.4962373]

>>4962278
Hey thanks man! That's a cool idea, I will post the next still life (almost finished) framed like that. I will put more effort into framing and see where it leads. If I can get get back to 2-5 followers per post I am happy.

[Anonymous No.4962489]

>>4962126
Holy fuck I love your rendering ~

[Anonymous No.4962571]

>>4959003
>https://www.instagram.com/aspi3gam3r/
I know there's already a thread for hating the girl, but you can't blame them really.
Kids have NO responsibilities and ALL the time in the world to craft a perfectly beautiful piece.
Kids can afford to be as passionate as they want on their safety net
It's no different to having a garage band

[Anonymous No.4962629]

>>4962373
2-5 followers per post
wow thats a lot

[Anonymous No.4962639]

>>4955583
>>feed the algorithm or feed your soul

I don't see a problem, only choices.

[Anonymous No.4962810]

>>4962639
>lol artists 500 years ago could took it easy while artists today have to churn out consoom to stay afloat
>this is the fault of the artists
>I shall encapsulate this witty irony in a shitty rushed comic
>I will paint an Apple logo on the artist's phone because that's my phone and I need to add a touch of self-deprecation so I don't look judgemental
>Time to sign it :^)
Cancer. This person incarnates everything I hate about people today.

[Anonymous No.4962838]

>>4957063
most of the known living artists that are endlessly praised here are popular on instagram

[Anonymous No.4962911]

>>4962810
>>4962639
That feel when... you post on insta without a phone, because you don't have money to buy it

[Anonymous No.4963109]

>>4962313
Pretty accurate, I read >>4962164 and thought 'he's probably right, but that's kinda fucked, I should do something'

[Anonymous No.4963206]

>>4956041

[Anonymous No.4963395]

>>4963109
>>4963109
I wrote both those posts. I knew someone would write something positive after I said that.
This kind of thinking is egotistical and irresponsible: you just put your need to contradict the unpleasant narrative before anon's need to hear the truth about this fucked and broken system. You've used him. Without that post condemning the confirmation bias and triggering the knee-jerk reaction, what he'd have gotten would be exactly what I said: "your art doesn't go anywhere because it's boring fruit basket painting, you should do what everyone else does to get followers."
Sure maybe he'll get more followers by framing his paintings more dramatically, or posting something about his life, or putting his palette next to the painting, or some other shit. Maybe he won't.
This is why people are unwittingly fed bullshit and agendas over and over.

[Anonymous No.4963403]

>>4963395
Literally the definition of a bitter crab.

>just because I’m a failure, you shouldn’t try either!

[Anonymous No.4963436]

>>4963403
>just because it's not my life I'm throwing away, I tell others to never stop wasting their time on pointless things!
I didn't even say he should quit painting, just that social media is fucking shit. There are other ways to promote yourself.

[Anonymous No.4963465]

>>4962164
Based

[Anonymous No.4963482]

>>4963436
That actually is a very reasonable mindset and approach. Instagram itself was enough to get a following in the past, but things have changed and you have to find other ways to get people see your art instead of trying to play the system.

[Anonymous No.4963534]

>>4956224
I agree with this. I remember this aspie account being posted a lot on Tapas a few years ago and there hasn't really been that much growth on your comics since then, either
There's nothing wrong with taking step back and working on improving your art. IG is really driven by how much you engage with others too, not just posting into the void with 5 hashtags and seeing what happens
There's really only so much that one can keep blaming IG or other third-parties for your lack of growth. Gotta be a point where you think "Maybe the issue is me."

[Anonymous No.4963541]

cada quien habla como le va en la feria

[Anonymous No.4963543]

>>4963436
>social media is fucking shit

Some of the best artists on this board have went from /beg/ to 10k+ followers and constant commission requests

[Anonymous No.4963823]

>>4955840
Sooo you mean keep changing the hashtags? Even they don't relate to your post?

[Anonymous No.4963857]

>>4959003
What's wrong with it? It's pretty simple and dumb looking but not /beg/ quality

[Anonymous No.4963905]

>>4962126
22 posts in 2 years? Step it up faget

[Anonymous No.4964233]

>>4963395
lmaoo anon what is this angst.

>everybody here is an asshole, asking for help is pointless
>yeah ur right, what if we tried to not be assholes tho
>no fuck you that's selfish

[Anonymous No.4964378]

>>4963543
porn is not art

[Anonymous No.4967268]

>>4955583
Je

[Anonymous No.4967289]

>>4964233
It's not angst. People do things exclusively as a reaction to something else instead of taking initiative and using their own brain. If I didn't make that salty post in the beginning the chain would have been completely different, even if it involved the same people. Same when someone competent posts his art and attaches a self-deprecating comment or anything that looks like bragging. Completely different comments because of a narrative instead of objectivity. I'm tired of seeing this limp wristed drone behavior.

[Anonymous No.4967893]

>>4955583
Shit like this is easily the most popular kind of art on instagram. Abandon ship dude, it's been a lost cause.

[Anonymous No.4970663]

>>4962629

post i made last night

git gud

[Anonymous No.4970699]

>>4967893
what you experience as successful on any social media platform is entirely dependent on what niches you're following, retarded shit like what you posted isn't representative for success on instagram at all if you took a look at actual big and skilled artists on there, and not just what's on the explore tab when you just installed the app

[Anonymous No.4970804]

>>4970699
Are you implying it's all relative and someone's 10 follows by Pakistani bots are equivalent in any way to >>4967893's 400 trillion followers?
Almost everything above "I don't exist" tier following fits cleanly within one of maybe 5 broad teenager demographics and looks exactly the same.

[Anonymous No.4971461]

>>4970804
stop being autistic

[Anonymous No.4971477]

>>4971461
the irony

[Anonymous No.4971530]

>>4971477
tHe irOnY

[Anonymous No.4971865]

>>4962810
>>this is the fault of the artists

that's not what the comic is trying to stay. Things have changed.