The Least Possible Effort.

Why Independent Artists Need More Than Likes and Shares.

I came late to the internet.

While many of you have been at this stuff for more than a decade now, I didn’t become a daily internet user until 2009. I didn’t start a Facebook page and making comic books until the summer of 2011. In the nearly 5 years since then, I’ve produced 7 comic books combining for a little over 200 pages, not to mention 200+ pieces of individual art and commissions.

I’ve been quite busy.

I started like most, with very few knowing of me and what I can do. Today, I have 16k+ followers across Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram, and still very few know of me and what I can do.

When I tell this to people, their first instinct is to point me in the direction of social media “gurus” who have strategies that are supposed to increase web presence and connectivity with audiences. Personally, I find all that stuff to be hit or miss. If that kind of stuff works for you great, but I think the issue has less to do with strategy and more to do with the substance of support the average person affords the independent artist.

Like. Share. Forget.

I started out with virtually no one supporting me but close friends, to whom I am deeply grateful. Over time I began to meet more people and engage with other artists and build a somewhat modest presence on social media.

How? Mostly by word of mouth. People liking and sharing my work, getting more eyes on my stuff, It was greatly beneficial.

But of course, things were much different back then. Facebook, Twitter and all the rest have steadily changed or introduced algorithms to better monetize their businesses. I have no qualms against them, they have to make money somehow.

The issue is that, while at one time, simply spreading the word was enough, social media sites have made moves to bury self promotion in efforts to push paid promotion on everyone; both creator’s and their audiences. Again that is their decision and I don’t see the point or the merit in fighting against it.

I think, instead, we have to move away from believing in and or promoting the least possible effort from supporters of the arts; i.e. “please like and share.”

People have become reliant on just liking posts, sharing them, and going about their day. No words of endorsement, no glowing reviews about how much they enjoy the work of an artist. Just a naked link or photo shared.

You might as well take a flyer from your local band, fold it into a paper airplane and toss it out your window.

While speaking in broad terms, 38% of people recommend a brand they “like” on social media and a very disappointing 0.5% actually engage with brands they like on Facebook (source)

I’m sure that if you zeroed in on the section of social media where only independent artists are concerned, those numbers drop dramatically (not that there’s much of a drop to be had).

I believe that this is because supporters of the arts haven’t adjusted to the reality of the control Facebook, Twitter, et al. have over their networks.

Things used to be much more free and open but now you have B/C-list celebs who run (or have run for them) social media accounts where they’re paid to tweet or post, combined with websites that can no longer sustain themselves on ad revenue and are forced to spend money or promote through social media. Which brings us back to the algorithms that push down posts of self promotion/user to user promotion in favor of people who have the money to promote for extended periods of time on much larger scales.

Not to mention that we do ourselves no favors, as many people and or sites wish to ride on the coattails of the bigger multimedia machines by sharing the posts they know are already getting attention due to paid promotion.

So the average independent artist is competing (in terms of social media reach) with B and C list celebrities with established fan bases, multi-million/billion dollar media companies with the capital to outspend them, and smaller media outlets and personalities exploiting the attention garnered by the aforementioned.

Anyway you look at it, the days of just telling a friend by way of liking and or sharing are dead and gone.

So What Can Be Done?

As loose and rhetorical as it sounds, I think we all just need to do more.

I have been witness to 100+ comment threads and heated debates about characters and properties owned by multimedia giants on my very own page. I have seen people spout encyclopedic knowledge of volumes of comics and manga like a pastor citing the bible. I have seen people passionately defend an artist’s right to draw women with their asses in the air on the cover of comic books. But in all these heated “debates” not once does anyone mention the independent artist or project that they must surely know of.

We have got to start investing more in the artists we know because the ones we don’t have already made it and don’t need as much help.

I’m not calling for anyone to boycott the established artists, I’m calling on people to stop boycotting the non-established ones.

The geek/nerd crowd doesn’t go a day without talking about the culture. So why not go the extra mile?

Instead of liking and sharing, buy what the artist is selling.
Instead of just buying, read it, listen to it, wear it or enjoy it the way it was meant to be enjoyed.
Tell people about what you like and or didn’t like about an artist’s work. — Once done, if at all possible, pass it along to someone who might just like it.

Whatever your level of support may be, I suggest taking it one step further, if not more.We, myself included, must do much more to support the artists that we support. Indie artists are vital, they make the stories free of corporate influence or agendas. They design clothes, and make music from their hearts and souls.

Imagine how disheartening it is to feel you have the support of your friends families and followers, only to find that very few of them support you beyond a like and or a share.

The least possible effort is no longer sufficient.