Supporting Creators and Artists on Social Media
Using Social Media as a Tool of Support
The days of poking the “like” reaction are long since gone as a means of supporting your friends, loved ones, artists, and small businesses on social media platforms.
Many people are using social media simply to stay in touch with friends, family, and colleagues. Those folks don’t want to pay much attention to (or all-out despise) ads on these platforms. The dreaded “sponsored” tagline on a normal-looking post is a surefire deterrent to the daily scroll through one’s feed. But there are people, like me, using these platforms to fuel visibility for our art and our wares and that doesn’t always mean through group posts, business pages, or websites. In all actuality, generating engagement on one’s own is a lot of work.
So, how can the “average user” effectively use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, etc. to support the endeavors of our cherished next of kin, neighbor, small business, or local artist to increase their success?
Let me share a few ideas with you as we come into the holiday season (especially, but these suggestions are good all year)!
You’re scrolling through your feed over breakfast or while you’re having a smoke break at work.
There’s Marc, again, posting images of his newest painting. You love his work and always leave a reaction (poking '“like”) on his stuff.
While the reaction counters are nice, - and honestly feel pretty good when you get up into double and triple digits - that interaction doesn’t do much for generating visibility on social media. The algorithm reads that as you wanting to see more content of that type, in a very general sort of way. So, you might start seeing more art, or more paintings, or even ads for hardware and supplies posts because you “liked” that post.
What clicking “like” doesn’t do is encourage other people, or the original poster, to engage with content provided by that specific account or their specific items.
The best thing you can do at this moment - and this moment is yours - is leave a comment that will encourage the OP to respond in kind e.g. “What an incredible work of art!”, “Thanks so much for your comment, Mary! I really appreciate the support.”
You’re probably wondering what kind of comment would encourage engaging responses like the example above.
Let me help you.
Hey, man, I really love the use of color, here. Wow! (observing details)
Dude, this surpasses your last work. Incredible, keep it up! (props for progress)
This piece really tugs at my heartstrings. (emotion)
Amazing! How can I get one? (interested in buying)
Please tell me more about what inspired this piece! (conversation)
Trust me, the person you are supporting is going to be very grateful for these very small, simple efforts.
What is the next best thing you can do to help visibility?
SHARE THEIR POST with a caption that states all the things you love about the art or the person making it, why you frequent their business, or the benefits of having their products in your life.
“Why does this matter?” you’re probably asking.
Most social media platform algorithms aren’t in place to support the users. Why do you think it is so hard for people to share GoFundMe and Kickstarter campaigns and get any traction? A better question is, why do we see so many ads in our feeds? Algorithms mainly function to service the platform in its efforts to generate a profit for the platform. Facebook, for example, gains nothing from a fundraiser from an external platform. That’s why Facebook started offering its own fundraising campaigns; it keeps users ON FACEBOOK, generating engagement on Facebook, and ultimately generating tax write-offs for Facebook (hello, donations!). Meta as a whole entity (Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) function the same way across all its platforms.
These same reasons are also why sharing external links to, say, YouTube, news articles, or other websites often never see the light of day. They’re HIDDEN because the platform doesn’t want you navigating somewhere else. This is the same reason that certain language will make sales posts invisible (buy, sell, comment, share, prices, etc.). The best possible assistance for artists and creators comes from you, dear users.
