Social building observation
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During inktober I know loads of us are using social media to post our work, to get more eyeballs at the very least.
I mess with social stuff a lot, and have friends that do, so I’ve been running a few tests to see what’s happening....I’ve been publishing at the prime time for me, which is so that people can read my stuff over breakfast. I’ve tested different times, and for me that’s best. If you’re new to this, do the same thing I suggest.
Page or personal. Personal gets more organic sharing and likes on fb. More on that in a mo.
Pages....well you may not get many views. Fb wants you to pay. If you want to out a bit of money behind it, and it’s not a huge amount, then you will se results and be able to see what people like. I suggest though as use the personal profile method first, and then republish to your page and pay for only the successful images. Paying gives you data as to what is the best time of day, and as you build y9our following you’ll see who likes what. And the gender and age of your following.
So personal timelines. You will need to make them as public as possible. Big risk of course but i find it the best way of building my following.
Make sure you are interactive and comment and like posts of people who follow you. The more you interact with them and they with you the higher fb will push your posts on their timelines. So don’t just post your pictures, put other things that will interest them.Post native. That means, when you do out pictures up do so within the app OR use Instagram and auto-post to fb. I’ve tried putting links to art work elsewhere (Patreon) and it seems that it just doesn’t get the views. I guess that fb don’t want you to move away from fb land...so they devolve your posts.
I’ve also put videos on YouTube and linked, same thing. Upload natively whenever possible.
I’ve also tried a native upload and putting a link to the full size images on Patreon or my website....again, same thing! I know this because close friends have told me that they haven’t seen my posts for some reason when I put expternal links on.
The other thing I’ve found, which I am not convinced of but I’ve noticed patterns, is when I request a like and share again it doesn’t go up people’s timelines.
What we do need of course is likes and shares...because this will push the picture up in timelines, even of those people who don’t follow you all that closely. And I’ve had people who don’t know me discover me that way too because someone else liked my post. So just produce good art.
I’ve also experimented loosely with a street team, as they call it. I say that of people leave a comment, not just a like, then I will tag them each time I post so they can follow along. A few people have left comments, and so I’ve got a building group of people who will be notified I have tagged them, and then automatically share to their timeline.
Of course all this is just fb. Hope that helps....it’s all by observation, and things are changing all the time. Do leave your own observations belowof things that have worked for you, or what you are currently doing. And of course, disagree with me!
Helping writers tell their stories
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You should be aware that tagging people myself included often puts them off unless they were actually involved in the event or issues they are tagged in. The first thing I do is untag myself
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@andyg Thanks for sharing! I noticed the same thing on our FB business page - native posts seem to get more traction than shared posts. Also, it really seemed to help when we got our business page verified - this is where FB makes sure you are a legit business or public person
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@rcartwright you have to ASK if it’s ok to tag. Sorry if that wasn’t clear
