The reblogging effect
Why you need to master your craft, tell the world about it, and give it time.
I got into talking about Tumblr yesterday and I don’t think people realize how powerful and especially long-lasting reblogging is.
For context, I run a pixel art blog called Retronator and 3 weeks ago I posted a news item about David Moyano’s map of the USA.
It’s been 3 weeks since I posted it and I just woke up to 800 new likes+reblogs, some of them from 23 levels deep.
The chart is an insightful visual representation of word-of-mouth spread. It teaches you to be grateful for everyone who likes/reblogs/retweets your work, no matter how many followers they have. You should already do this because everyone is a person, not a number, and relationships matters, individually. But as a creator, if you’re trying to get your work seen and don’t have a lot of followers, it tells you to not give up. All it takes is one follower to start a chain reaction. A big influencer in the end will be an (internet) friend of a friend of a friend of someone who already follows you.
My art (and blog) grew this way too. I had 100 followers from 2010–2012, until I posted my Tribute artwork. After some time, it got picked up by it8bit (a big retro gaming tumblr), and then someone from Kotaku — who follows it8bit — got me in front of an even bigger gaming crowd overnight. If I got discouraged during the first two years, none of this would have happened.
Unfortunately you don’t know when these moments will come, so you have to keep going. The healthiest is to not give a crap about followers and likes at all, because they are NOT representative of the quality of your work on its own.
followers = quality of work × outreach × time
So don’t base your happiness on the numbers. Instead, master your craft for the enjoyment of the process itself. Make friends because human relationships matter more than anything. And give it time. The rest will follow on its own.
When I’m not trying to reflect on how to be an artist in the social media era, I’m creating a video game for learning how to draw called Pixel Art Academy. In this Medium publication I share things I learn during its development (subscribe!), and for day-to-day updates, follow me on Patreon.
Happy posting!
—Retro
This article was brought to you by my patrons, including Reuben Thiessen, qinapses, Jeff Chang, … (dot dot dot), Robert ‘Pande’ Kapfenberger, Lou Bagel, and Artisan. Thank you everyone!
