Why NOBODY FOLLOWS YOUR ART on INSTAGRAM

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Making quantity art over quality art is one of the biggest reason why I'm debating on just quitting Instagram completely.. I'd like to post just for my portfolio because I've been posting since the beginning of my art journey.. but when it comes to engagement I feel like it's just a waste of time nowadays.. and if you post reels you get random audiences who only like that real or are not even into art.. so it's hard to grow a community.

I personally think that it’s not about the amount of followers you have, but the amount of engagement and support they are willing to give you. If you have 200 followers but each of them comment on your post, purchase your work, and continuously support you, then that has more value than 10k followers and only 50 of them actively support you.

timestamps because this video is quite helpful 2:57 reasons out of our control 9:57 why she wants to change: to promote her book 11:15 how growth happened for her again 11:44 post 1 "main" post and 1 "supplemental" post per week 12:58 focusing on what people originally followed your art for 16:18 diversify your posts and your overall feed 18:45 make your comics as shareable as possible 20:07 after sharing your post, do this 21:18 cross promote it on any secondary social media platform you have 22:23 mixing up your hashtags OR squeezing yourself in "non-art" hashtags

I personally love sketchbook tours and if people have a lot of satisfying sketchbook posts I’m more likely to follow them. I like the combo of more complete illustrations and process work on social media

I turned 39 2 months ago, and I'm at a point in my life where i finally have enough faith in myself to do what i love, to draw and although i never fulfilled my dream to be an animator, i feel like i can still find my way into that world. I love telling stories and I'm reworking an old story i abandoned years ago. I'm doing it mostly for me but i do have the hope others will like it too. Thank you for this video.

Y'all, I can confirm that your likes don't AT ALL tie into your skill level. I used to have a large following and it got hard separating my self-worth from my audience. My socials grew WITH me (4 first years of my journey!). But that account got deleted, and seeing the disconnect where my much more polished skills were less appreciated made it easy to stop that thought process. I think it's a blessing cuz now I have the confidence to explore my art, and my progress has been explosive.

Losing followers can be really rough when you’re still posting regularly 😢

I mainly post on insta and do artist alley shows and I realized I shouldn't just make prints of my highest liked posts because in person I'd get asked about some of my lowest liked work the most. Social media is NOT a gauge of the worth and value of your art, put out and create what you love despite the dumb algorithms and analytics <3

The biggest issue, however, is instagrams constantly changing algorithm, artists can’t have a break

I've been stuck with literally the same number of followers for at least 2 years now (gain a follower, lose two, maybe gain one again a month later, ...). It's very discouraging, but I still keep drawing what I like to draw because if I tried to do what others want I'd just lose all interest in drawing again :p

It’s great to hear that variety in content engages followers. I work in marketing as my day job, and the advice is always to post “just one thing.” But it always felt off!! Glad to have that read confirmed.

Losing followers or not getting much growth pretty much hurts for some. It doesn’t if you’re mainly doing it as a hobby or don’t rely on social media as much. But for those who rely on praise and positive reinforcement tend to latch on that. I deal with it more on Twitter then IG (as I’ve been gaining followers there), where I was at 1k but lost 100 over the course of 2 years despite actively posting. I’ve been slowly regaining them as of recently and almost at 1k there again. But also try not to tie it with my skill, as some who even draw better than me have less followers. Also subconsciously used social media as proof that I had potential to be in the art field. But nonetheless, follower count doesn’t equate to getting an art job, people have different tastes and there are those who’ll stay regardless of how often you post or what you draw.

Ah, followers... I wish it wasn't such a necessity. It definitely isn't for some jobs but there are certain art jobs which depend on it.

I used to watch a lot of advice videos like this, and I found that they never actually had helpful or concrete advice. Or specific enough. Your advice was actually specific and helpful! I feel like I actually learned things I never thought of. Thank you!!!

Social media are mess. It's like second or third job. You have your IRL full time (or freelance job with nda and you have to squeeze art for sm regularly to please algorithm. It's total gambling. You'll never know whether it worked or not. Putting your time, work and mental health into something you can't control is insane. Good thing about modern art field that you actually can not have sm but still be hired.

I've been stuck in the stagnant point. I gain followers but lose just as many, so it stays in the same 2-3 person range. :-/

So tired of this social media “follower” value. I simply love creating art. Some actual people enjoy my work, but in the stream of social media … don’t care how many “likes” I get.

Finally, real suggestions!! 😆 Not to put you on a pedestal or anything, but it is so refreshing to hear suggestions that go beyond "just make better content," and "be consistent," while still being able to stay true to our art and direction (rather than abandon ourselves to chase the trend dragon). Big 'preesh, thanks!

posting relatable work/photos/reels can def help grow followers, its that relatable element that some people do like, others dont care at all. and of course dogs/cats helps a lot i find lol