WIP 184 - SSSocial media (Patreon)

When it comes to posting the comic, it often feels I am going through the motions when I'm posting them on social media. Mostly because with one exception (see below) it SEEMS like there is not much traction. That doesn't necessarily mean that is the case.

I never had many people interacting with my posts on the artist formerly known as Twitter. I probably also set it up wrong to begin with, but it's hard to find readers when your posts are not shown to an audience (which covers about 90 % of what I will say in this post). By now I am VERY tempted to just drop the platform from my list of "clicks to do".

Facebook has gotten a -bit- more traction lately, but in numbers it is not huge. I do have regular comments on FB though. (Thanks, Frank!) That alone kinda stops me from leaving from there. :P Though in general I have the feeling that more people are able to see my posts.

Threads is fairly new to the mix and I've had one or two good results over there, but mostly it feels like it's "ramping up". I do gain followers there regularly, but it's more of a slow trickle.

Instagram is the exception - I have a bigger following there and also more people that interact with my posts, which, for any artist, is a great thing. While it is of no monetary consequence, one still appreciates a comment or a like on a post. I regularly have hundreds to thousands of views and two to three hudnred likes on my posts.

And then there is Reddit. I have posted my comics there from day one, but the comic itself does NOT gain much traction, simply because Reddit is not "set up" for consumption of an ongoing comic. You like something, you upvote it. You really dislike something? You downvote it. Get enough upvotes and your post will reach more people. On Reddit that is true more than on any other platform - and it punishes longform comics more than any other platform.That said, the comic still gets between 3k and 5k views, which is by no means shabby - and if a person likes what they see, they might just hit up our webpage and read the comic there!

The Shorts, however, that is where Reddit shines. Last week's Short on r/comics, for instance, had about 350k views. Now granted, most people will just breeze past the post, but on a day like that, I do notice a spike on webpage activity! That is why the shorts are very important in the SSS arsenal. :)

I currently do NOT do any other social medias. I probably should try Blue Sky, but have the feeling it'll be just another experience like with Twitter and Threads. There might even be other options (like Substack), but checking these options out feels more like work to me at the moment and I have just enough time for SSS as is for the moment, so I'm not actively chasing it, even though I always would like more people to read the comic, of course!