From small enterprises to big companies, most are using social networking sites as major tools in their marketing strategies. Why?..because they work.
The use of social media is usually related to getting information, services or product awareness to global audiences and consumers. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest are some of the leading online social networking sites being used by international businesses (and comic artists) to get their audience, followers, or fans updated with their latest works, products and services. Though social media sites can be categorized differently (like forums, microblogs, social networking sites, vlogs, etc), they all may be used to increase your art’s awareness.
Some of the social media sites have options for you to either create a personal account or a business account. This works well as you can have an account for personal social connections and at the same time have a business account for strictly business marketing and professional associates.
Now, for the comic artist, concept artist or any other artist who works more on visual arts, there are specific image based platforms where you can showcase your artwork. Websites like DeviantArt and Pinterest are great platforms that work well for art and illustrations. The reasons why social networking sites like these two work so well is because it is image based and focuses more on that aspect instead of text posts.
Here are the top three social networking media that we think you should use to gain better exposure for your online artwork.
DeviantArt
Hands down one of the best place for comic artists, concept artists, animators, art enthusiasts and the like. DeviantArt is a great comic art resource as there are tons of tutorials as well as references and artwork from accomplished artist, comic artist, graphic designers, and even animators .It is also a place where you get to view the profiles of amateur as well as professional comic artist and their comic works. If you plan on using Deviantart, you must first create an account. Once you do that, you will get your very own DeviantArt page which can be used as a strong platform for you to introduce your comic artwork and comic scripts by uploading them to your own gallery.
DeviantArt also includes an advertisement service within its site called AdCast. The contextual advertising service that DeviantArt offers are similar to Google AdWords but instead of ad placements in search engines or websites, the ads are shown ONLY on the DeviantArt website to its users. The site also allows you to browse the artwork of other artists and “favorite” them if you like. DeviantArt community includes a forum and tons of group pages dedicated to a variety of themes, genre, archetypes, characters, series and loads more.
Most are no stranger to Facebook and many are proficient in using it for image based works.The usage is pretty straightforward. You can easily upload your comic works to your photo album and set to be viewed publicly or privately.Post updates with every upload to let your friends and family know about it and ask them to share it around.Create an account with a valid personal email address and you are set to start your very own Facebook profile.These are pretty basic stuff when it comes to Facebook usage and we are pretty sure most are capable of creating their own profile in Facebook, so we are not going to go through the whole process and details of doing that.What we want you to take note as a comic artist is Facebook’s custom page.
When you are done creating and editing your Facebook profile , you are now able to create your very own Facebook page. A Facebook page is similar to Facebook profile but is made for business, brand, artist, organizations, celebrities or in our case, comic artist. You can customize the page just as you would edit your profile in Facebook like posting updates, uploading images. Instead of friend request, the Facebook page have the “like” button where people who are interest in the stuff you do in the page is informed (through their Facebook profile) of any new update that you make in the page just by pressing the “like” button. This is like having your very own mini website where you can easily communicate with fans of your works.Facebook also provides an advertisement service called Facebook Ads which allows you to place your advertisement and shows it within Facebook, similar to DeviantArt’s AdCast.By creating a Facebook page, you can have all your comic work and any art related stuff in your page and at the same time, do all your personal usage with your Facebook profile and not have it cluttered with all your comic works.
Pinterest is another great site for you to showcase your artwork. Pinterest utilizes its “Pin It” button to pin images from anywhere on the internet to a board that you own within the site. Pinterest includes two types of accounts. The first is a personal account for your own use so that you can pin any image you find online to share with your family, friends or anyone interested in what you pin. The second is a business account.
Why should you pin your comic artwork and tutorial to your Pinterest board?
Pinterest gets millions of visitors on a daily basis. The great thing is that most of the visitors are interested in topics or subject based on the images they see and this is going to benefit you.By pinning images from your site to your Pinterest board, you are showcasing your work to millions of visitors going through Pinterest each day and some of them might end up in you website. Just be sure to add the relevant keywords to your image so that when visitor do a simple search in Pinterest, they are presented with your comic artwork.
Arts and crafts are one of the top trends in Pinterest and comic art, illustrations, and art tutorials can be grouped in these two categories. Millions of people go through Pinterest and search within these categories everyday. Therefore, it is best to take the advantage and let people know your art skills and comic works.
Click here to know more on using social media for comics.
There are reasons to why we rank the three as our top favorites. One of the main reasons is because these three social networking platforms are easy to work with and versatile in a lot of ways. Also take note that there are dozens more social networking sites out there that you can use to reach out and showcase your comic works to people. We have created a special page explaining ways to benefit the most by using all three plus other social media to get your comic works the exposure it deserves.
Now, by now you maybe asking yourself “why should i invest for a website or blog when i can just sign up for any of the social media site (like the ones mentioned above) for free and get busy with my art stuff?”
Like we mentioned before, having a personal website or blog creates a certain sense of professionalism to your name and what you do. When you have a website/blog, it does not only show that you are passionate about the things you do but also shows that you are ready for business. Owning a website also shows the very thing that customers or visitors will look out for most in business: Trust.
Earning trust is one of the most important aspects of doing business. Most customers or clients do not trust businesses or marketers easily. Having a website provides a stronger platform and any transaction is usually done within the website. This gives the added confidence to a customer when they shop in your website and to clients who may do business with you.
By owning a website or blog ,you can promote other relevant services or product in your site (which you may be limited to doing if in social media site). In one way, a website or a blog can give you more freedom especially to monetization when compared to social media (which can be quite restrictive). For example: you can publish advertisements on your site and get paid for it from ads service provides like Google AdSense or Project Wonderful. Ads placement contractors or services could contact you about ads placement in you site which they will pay for depending on their terms.
This is of course, should you really consider doing business with your comic and artworks and making money from it. We will cover more about this in Social Media for Comics Art. Though some may argue that one could achieves the same result in some ways with social media, we would still recommend having a website or blog of your own (But only when you are ready) because it is more than just a virtual space in the internet. It acts as a very solid foundation for you and adds character that complements your approach to your comic works. This can increase the value to your work and reputation.
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