Some social media advice for Artists
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the artist shares personal insights on growing a social media presence to boost an art career. Key advice includes prioritizing personal artistic growth over social media metrics, investing in one's equipment and skills, maintaining a consistent posting schedule, and setting clear goals. The speaker's journey from 15,000 to 1.2 million followers illustrates the power of focusing on quality content and self-improvement over chasing engagement. The video serves as a motivational guide for aspiring independent creators and professionals looking to leverage social media for career advancement.
Takeaways
- π¨ Prioritize personal growth as an artist over social media growth. Focus on the quality of your work rather than just engagement metrics.
- π Invest in yourself and your equipment. High-quality tools can enhance your work and make it more professional, even if it means making a significant financial commitment.
- π Maintain consistency in your posting schedule. Regularity helps in building an audience and keeping them engaged over time.
- πͺ Develop mental resilience to handle low engagement. Understand that not every post will be a success, and it's important to keep going despite setbacks.
- π― Set clear goals for your social media presence and work backward from them to create a strategic plan.
- π Use social media as a tool to launch and grow your art career, leveraging it to showcase your work and connect with the industry.
- π‘ Authenticity in your work is key. People connect more with genuine expressions of creativity rather than posts designed solely for engagement.
- π Learn from other successful artists by observing their strategies and adapting them to your own journey.
- πΌ Consider social media as a professional platform where you can market yourself and potentially open doors to new opportunities.
- π± Be prepared to adapt and evolve your social media strategy as you grow, always focusing on what serves your artistic and career goals best.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video?
-The main focus of the video is to provide tips and advice on how to grow on social media and how it can help launch an art career.
What is the speaker's experience with social media growth?
-The speaker started their Instagram account in 2018 and grew from 15,000 followers to 1.2 million over the past year and a half.
What is the first tip the speaker gives for growing on social media?
-The first tip is to prioritize personal growth as an artist over growth on social media, focusing on the quality of content rather than just engagement numbers.
Why is investing in oneself important according to the speaker?
-Investing in oneself is important because it shows commitment to one's art career and can lead to better quality work, which in turn can help with social media growth and success.
What does the speaker suggest about the frequency of posting on social media?
-The speaker suggests maintaining consistency in posting, finding a schedule that works for the individual, and holding oneself accountable to that schedule.
How does the speaker handle low engagement on their posts?
-The speaker advises to mentally prepare for low engagement, accept it as a part of the process, and not let it deter consistency in posting.
What role do goals play in the speaker's social media strategy?
-Goals play a significant role as they provide motivation and direction, allowing the speaker to work backward from their end goal to create a plan for growth.
How does the speaker feel about the opportunities social media has provided?
-The speaker feels that social media has opened many doors, allowing them to connect with other artists and industry professionals, and has been instrumental in their art career.
What advice does the speaker have for those who want to pursue a career in social media or content creation?
-The speaker advises to go for it, prioritize personal growth, invest in oneself, and stay consistent, as these actions can lead to achieving one's dream job.
What is the significance of the Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 in the speaker's journey?
-The Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 was a significant investment for the speaker, which they purchased despite being a broke university student, and it played a crucial role in their growth as a digital artist.
Outlines
π¨ Growing on Social Media as an Artist
The speaker shares their journey of growing on social media, particularly Instagram, and how it helped launch their art career. They emphasize the importance of prioritizing personal artistic growth over social media growth, focusing on the quality of content rather than just engagement metrics. The speaker recounts their own experience, shifting from creating fan art to focusing on personal expression and skill development, which ultimately led to a significant increase in followers. They stress that while social media can be distracting, it's crucial to invest in one's own growth and authenticity to gain a genuine following.
πΌ Investing in Your Artistic Journey
The speaker discusses the importance of investing in oneself and one's equipment to succeed as an artist on social media. They recount their decision as a university student to invest in a high-quality drawing tablet, which was a significant financial commitment but ultimately paid off. The speaker also mentions investing in a camera and microphone, emphasizing that while not everyone needs top-of-the-line equipment, it's important to address any shortcomings in one's setup that could hinder progress. They also express gratitude for their collaboration with Wacom, highlighting the value of using quality tools that enhance their work.
β° Consistency and Goal Setting in Social Media Growth
The speaker highlights the importance of consistency in posting and the psychological challenges of dealing with low engagement on social media. They stress the need for artists to maintain a regular posting schedule and to be disciplined in holding oneself accountable. The speaker also talks about the mental resilience required to overcome disappointments from poorly received posts and the importance of setting long-term goals to guide and motivate one's journey on social media. They share their personal goal of growing their social media presence to a point where they could support themselves, and how they used that goal to plan and work backward, setting smaller milestones along the way.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Social Media
π‘Engagement
π‘Growth
π‘Consistency
π‘Investment
π‘Quality
π‘Authenticity
π‘Mental Health
π‘Goals
π‘Accountability
Highlights
The importance of prioritizing personal artistic growth over social media growth.
The realization that quality of content is key to gaining followers and engagement.
The shift from focusing on fan art to expressing personal style and emotions in art.
The personal story of growing an Instagram account from 15,000 to 1.2 million followers.
The advice to invest in oneself and one's equipment for serious artistic pursuits.
The significance of maintaining a consistent posting schedule on social media.
The psychological aspect of dealing with low engagement and the need for mental resilience.
The strategy of setting long-term goals and working backward to achieve them.
The motivational impact of having clear goals in the face of setbacks.
The transformative power of social media for artists to reach new opportunities.
The personal journey from being an unknown artist to connecting with industry professionals.
The encouragement to pursue a dream job in content creation or leveraging social media.
The anecdote of the first day receiving a Wacom Cintiq Pro 24 and the decision to invest in it.
The closing advice to bet on oneself, invest in oneself, and believe in one's potential.
Transcripts
what's up guys in this video i'm going
to be talking to you about how to grow
on social media and how it's helped me
launch my art career i want to give you
guys some tips and pointers here and
there about things to look out for and i
think this video is going to be very
helpful for people who are looking to
pursue an independent creator kind of
career as well as for people who might
be in the professional industry who want
to leverage social media to showcase
their work a little bit about me i
started my instagram account back in
2018 and
never really gained too much traction i
posted fan art for a good while and over
the past year and a half or so
i've been able to get from 15 000
followers all the way up to 1.2 million
that you see today so all of the
learning experiences that i've had on
social media are still very fresh in my
mind and i want to share some of that
with you guys because whether you like
it or not social media is a huge part of
being an artist nowadays for most people
and it's something that we've all
thought about at one point or another so
i have a few key pieces of advice that i
think helped me out the most things that
i wish i knew about when i started on
social media tip number one you got to
prioritize your own growth as an artist
over your growth on social media this is
something that i always preach to
everybody who asked me for advice this
is the one thing that i think is really
not talked about enough especially in
the social media scene where people are
so focused on engagement it's always
engagement engagement engagement how
many likes what's the engagement ratio
what is my subscriber count what is my
follower increase there's too much of
this looking at the numbers and not
enough of looking within yourself it
sounds extremely cheesy but this is the
number one tip that i can give to
anybody who's looking to pursue a career
on social media you have to remember
that when you strip everything down when
you take out all the fluff people follow
you for the quality of your content
that's it so if the quality of your work
is not at the highest level that it
could be you're not going to get
followers and engagement
just by trying new things like for
example posting at a different time
posting at a different frequency
none of that is going to help you if you
don't have the foundation of quality
from my experience on social media you
know it's very hard to block out the
distraction of looking at the engagement
thinking what are other people gonna
like you know this is something that's
always gonna be in your subconscious is
something that you're always gonna think
about when you're drawing but you just
gotta work to make sure that you're not
letting that
take a higher priority than your own
growth as an artist so here's my
personal story okay back when i started
my account i was doing a lot of fan art
i was focusing on characters i was
trying to look for characters that i
think would be very popular i was
looking for you know do i do a white
background or do i do a colored
background do i do light or dark what
gets more likes what gets shared more
what gets more followers i was focused
on that and i was thinking okay what's
the next character i could do that's
really popular that most people are
gonna know and that's something that i
focused on for you know a couple of
years and i was pretty stagnant but what
really clicked for me was when i decided
okay you know what screw this i'm going
to focus on myself on my own learning i
know i've got a long way to go in my own
skill set so i am going to work on this
and i'm going to try to express myself
in an authentic way and that's where you
get the paintings that i have today
that's where people really are able to
connect with it you know i really pour
my heart out into these i put a lot of
feeling and emotions behind them basing
it off you know just very raw human
emotions and experiences and it's just
stuff that i care about and in the
process i'm also learning i'm trying to
build up my skill set because i know i'm
not the best artist i can be i know that
i could get better and that's something
that i want to work on and it just so
happens that people connect with that
way more than the artificial attempts at
boosting engagement long story short
don't do it for the gram do it for you
don't let nobody tell you what to do
here's a snapshot of your priorities
okay growing
as an artist
growing on social media this comes first
i think this leads perfectly into our
second point you know talking about
prioritizing yourself you have to also
invest in yourself i think if art is
something that you want to take
seriously this is something that you
want to do every single day and this is
something that you're going to make
money off of and make a living off of
you have to invest in yourself and for
me when i started doing this i was a
broke university student so it was very
hard for me but i decided to get myself
a
wacom cintiq pro 24 this is a painful
memory but it basically wiped out my
entire bank account but i told myself
this is what i wanted to do and i wanted
to do it well so i had to invest in my
equipment and my setup to make it as
comfortable for me as possible to make
me actually sit down here and want to
work now do you need top-of-the-line
equipment like this
i don't think so okay you can start off
with something very basic but the point
is if there's anything in your setup
that is holding you back
right if your computer crashes every 20
minutes using photoshop
invest in yourself this is something
that you want to do this is something
that eventually is going to pay off take
the l for now
it's going to pay off later hopefully
but this is also one of the things that
i just personally learned from this
journey it's that you really have to
invest in the things that you're going
to be doing a lot you know i bought an
expensive camera that i should not have
been able to afford i bought an
expensive microphone that i should not
have been able to afford but you know
after putting in countless hours of work
these things have all paid themselves
off and i'm so glad that my past self
decided to invest in my presence health
and i've been personally working with
wacom products for the entirety of my
digital art career so if you look at any
of my youtube videos i'm either working
on this big boy or i have them in the
background and honestly it's an absolute
honor getting to know the team at wacom
and being able to work with them it's
like a
childhood dream come true you know the
point is if there's anything in your
setup that's holding you back whether it
be your drawing tablet your table your
computer
your camera or your microphone
invest in yourself make sure that you
give yourself the opportunity to succeed
and that brings us to point number three
which is maintaining consistency i think
this is one of the hardest things to do
about being a social media artist
because you're working on your own
schedule so it's like you can
technically do whatever you want you can
technically post whenever you want
but in order to actually become
successful
you have to do it consistently i think
consistency plays a huge part in
separating the people who drop out
midway through and the people who are
successful now when i say consistency
i'm mostly referring to consistency in
your schedule you have to hold yourself
accountable to a good schedule okay you
have to find something that works for
you do you want to post every two days
do you want to post every three days do
you want to upload a video onto youtube
every single week or every other week
find something that works for you and
run with it and make sure that you are
holding yourself accountable for the
times that you set for yourself for
example when i upload a youtube video
i'm currently doing every tuesday and i
always upload at 11 45 a.m eastern time
now is there any rhyme or reason for
that time
not really
does it
give me higher engagement
not really it's just the time that i
picked for myself
that allows me to really hold myself
accountable having that 11 45 mark there
gives me a solid deadline that i could
work towards it's just something that i
use to stay disciplined and keep myself
on schedule on instagram i'm posting
every three days and i'm posting at
exactly 12 10 p.m now does that mean you
guys have to post at that time and on
the specific days not really it's just
something that i kind of fell into it's
a schedule that i just
made up for myself sometimes you forget
sometimes
life gets busy but having the schedule
here you know writing it down in your
calendar or setting an alarm for it it
just it allows you to maintain it no
room for excuses and we got no room for
laziness here but you also want to take
care of your mental health so if
something is really really stressing you
out
it's probably time to rework that
schedule you know find something a
little bit more manageable so that
you're not stressed out all the time
trying to meet a deadline to a point
where it actually has a negative effect
on the quality of your work and speaking
of consistency there is one thing that i
think really negatively impacts a lot of
people's schedules and that is low
engagement on your work this is
something that you really got to work
with yourself on you got to
play some mental gymnastics to get over
these hurdles uh because
it's tough sometimes you put up a post
uh and it does absolutely horribly it
just
completely flops okay and you thought it
was gonna do well this is gonna happen
all the time this is gonna happen over
and over and over again you just gotta
come to a point where you accept this
and move on you gotta really toughen
yourself up so that every time you
stumble you pick yourself back up you
have to understand that in the grand
scheme of things this is just one small
stumble this is not something that's
going to derail your entire art career
the fact that this one post or this one
video didn't do as well as you expected
it to it's important to pick yourself
back up get right back at it be
consistent and stay on that schedule so
that you can come back and slap that
flop in the face i'm promoting violence
but what can you do so i haven't covered
those points i think there is another
one that was really important to me
personally
that really round this whole thing out
and that is setting your goals okay you
gotta have goals
you gotta know what you're working
towards for me personally my goals were
that i eventually want this social media
thing to grow large enough that i could
support myself and that goal is
something you would call a long-term
goal or a stretch goal it's something
that is not going to happen in a very
short period of time it's going to take
a lot of work and it's something that
you can strive towards the benefit of
having a goal like this is you can kind
of work backwards so for me personally i
knew i wanted to do this so i looked at
some other artists who were already
doing what i wanted to do i took notes
on how they make money how they generate
content what kind of content do they do
how often do they make their content and
what kind of work they do in general and
i was able to kind of reverse engineer
that into a plan for myself so that i
knew okay at a certain point i would
probably want to sell some prints at a
certain point i would probably want to
teach people on patreon at a certain
point maybe i'll make an art book you
know things like that that you could
implement into your journey by working
backwards from your end goal so that you
can eventually reach that goal and the
thing is having a goal is just great for
your motivation when i was a much
smaller account i found sometimes when i
would make posts and it would get low
engagement and i'd be like okay why am i
doing this i'm not even making any money
but i'm putting so much effort into it
you know it's very discouraging it could
be very unmotivating but
you know sometimes you just gotta remind
yourself okay like this
is what i'm doing it for like at the end
of the day
that's the goal that i want to reach and
every single thing that i do right now
whether it's a success or whether it
flops
is just another stepping stone to the
eventual goal that i want to reach so
these are the main tips that i can offer
you guys for people who are trying to
get onto social media whether you are a
independent creator or a professional
artist who wants to use social media
these are some of the things that i wish
i knew when i started trying to grow on
social media
well now you guys know them so i hope
they make life a little bit easier for
you guys but honestly guys i think
social media is an amazing thing to
leverage if you're an artist you know
there's it opens so many possibilities
for me personally i didn't know anybody
in the art industry i didn't have a way
into the art industry there was no other
way for me to get my work recognized by
people
other than posting on social media and
now that i have done this i have grown a
presence on social media now people kind
of know who i am uh i've met so many
people that i otherwise would have never
been able to talk to you know like other
big creators that
back then i would have never thought i
would even speak to ever in my life and
you know here we are we're just talking
to each other you know getting to know
each other and it's actually opened so
many doors for me you know with new
opportunities to work on big projects uh
really exciting things and just getting
to know other people in the industry as
well and kind of getting the inside
scoop on a lot of these things so social
media is definitely something that is a
very viable thing to use if you are an
artist or a creative of any kind uh it's
a great platform for you to market
yourself for you to get yourself out
there for people to know you and for you
to potentially reach new opportunities
and for me personally you know
prioritizing myself investing in myself
and staying consistent with this thing
and getting to where i am today uh is
something that i'm super thankful for my
past self for doing this is the dream
job for me and if your dream job is
working as a content creator or your
dream job is working in the industry but
having a good social media presence on
the side you know like an ethan becker
aaron blase snatty ilya kuchenov all the
professionals who happen to leverage
social media on the side to do other fun
projects for themselves there's just so
many possibilities with this and if that
is something that really speaks to you
you are that person who you look at that
and you're like that's my dream job go
for it that's all i gotta say you're not
going to regret trying what you're going
to regret
is not giving it a shot that's it for
this video that i made specifically for
lightbox expo 2021 so a big thank you to
bobby chu for inviting me to lightbox
this year and a big thank you to wacom
for reaching out to me getting to know
me and just being cool people who make
really cool products that have helped me
so much on my artistic journey so with
that being said i hope this video shed
some light on social media and
everything to do with social media i
hope this
makes things a little bit less
overwhelming for you guys and i'm
looking forward to seeing all of you
guys on instagram or youtube or twitter
or whatever it is that you guys want to
use thank you for watching this video
and i'll see you guys on the next one i
still remember the first day that the
cintiq pro 24 was shipped to me
i was like
what have i done you know i'm looking at
my bank account looking at this looking
back at my bank account looking at this
i was like
this thing better work out sam otherwise
you're kind of screwed
it did work out
bet on yourself guys invest in yourself
believe in yourself you got this
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