by Bob Freyer
This is the second installment of Bob Freyer’s column, ARTIST BLOCK.
Along came social media. I used to think that being an artist was just drawing and painting. Those days are long gone. Being an artist can be a tough job to have or pursue. It’s no longer just going in the studio to work on your craft, there’s more to it now. Along with the times the tasks of an art have changed too. I can remember many years ago viewing and posting to DeviantArt and other forgettable sites and forums. Since those days it has become part of the job requirement for an artist to manage social media and their artistic skills.
Being any level of an artist today has its frustrating moments. I personally think that we are our biggest critics and see every flaw that we make in our own art. Now, we’re supposed to take a picture of our art and post it online for everyone to see it. I get that might not be an issue for some, but for others that’s a different feeling. It opens you up being judged where you might not be expecting to. It’s allowing people to be able to tell us what they really think, or if they’re having a bad day they can take it out on your post. I’m a firm believer in hearing the good and bad about my work. Over the years, my skin has grown thicker and I have learned to brush off negativity, while taking in the actual criticism of my art—meaning the internet opens the doors for keyboard warriors.
It’s not just about posting to one social media platform and waiting for likes and comments. There’s more to it that adds to the frustrations of being an artist. We now have to be social media expects. Just to name the most popular social media sites: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads, X, YouTube and the others that exist. Each platform has their own algorithm and bullshit to deal with. This means you have to have a separate account for each platform, and the app on your phone. The worst part is if you have an alias name or moniker you have to hope they’re not taken. When they are, look at those numbers on the keyboard and pick some, or spell your name a little different and hope people can find you.
Now that you have signed up with all the platforms, it’s time to build a following. This means you are going to post and post to figure out what works for you. Keep in mind there’s more to posting than just hitting “post”. We have to learn and understand the art of social media. Knowing when to post, and this is different for each platform. Just because one time works for Facebook doesn’t mean that it works for Instagram. Each platform’s algorithm is different, which means gaining a following on each is harder.
There are different types of followers too. Not every follower will have accounts on every social media. This just makes it more annoying to keep posting, and post the same thing with different wording or pics. Anyone can just post and leave the app, but if you’re trying to get noticed you have to do something different with your posts. It all starts with your picture. So, that means you now have to be a photographer too, which is ok for the photographers, but for painters, writers, sculptures, and anyone else who doesn’t know a single thing about taking a photo aside from hitting a button.
Now those of us who aren’t photographers are forced to know some basics of taking a photo. Which is important since the picture is first recognized on a post. We now have to be writers and explain what the picture is, or something that adds to the viewer’s experience. When writing a post it helps if you add keywords to your description. Doing this helps with engagement with viewers. Engagement is everything. The more likes and comments puts this in front of viewers that may like your art. Posts are suggested based on what the viewer has liked or commented on.
Getting your posts seen can be hard if you’re just starting out, or if you’re not too tech-savvy. If that’s the case, you have some research to do. It takes reading, researching, trial and error, and knowing your audience. Looking at the insights for each app and adjusting accordingly. Now that you spent hours and hours on your art, you now have to know when to post on each platform.
This is just for the platforms that want pictures. Oh, wait they all want reels too. Once you found out about the reels on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and shorts on YouTube it’s another step at setting up a camera and video yourself doing your art. Then you have to edit the video and get it ready for each platform. All these time consuming tasks just to get your art noticed. Each post is different, and each post format is different. This brings me back to knowing each of your insights for each social media platform. Look into when the best times to post, what to post where, and how often to post where.
Right before you hit post there’s one more thing to do to help get noticed on each platform. Hashtags are a key part of gaining followers and views of your work. This is more work for you to do. Look for what hashtags help with each platform. They all don’t have the same value on each. The same hashtags can easily be less useful when you go to a different social media app.
Let’s just count the job titles that today’s artists have to juggle while doing their art and trying to make some money. Starting off with social media manager (1), photographer (2), videographer (3), video editor (4), writer (5), IT department (6), media researcher (7), salesman (8), business manager (9), promoter (10), and I’m sure there’s more.
If you don’t have a team of people or even someone helping you this is a task, and time management is everything. I find it hard at times, but that’s something I love about being an artist in a technological world. I personally spend as much time as I can learning each platform so I can use it fully to my benefit. When I started posting back in 2012, I didn’t know any of this, and to be fair, much of this wasn’t available back then.
Being an artist now is forcing us to change with the times. It’s making us more aware and more versatile and adding new skill sets to make us smarter, and more adaptive for the future. I don’t see social media going anywhere, in fact I can see it getting bigger with more apps to add to the list of platforms.-
— B
Bob Freyer will be teaching a workshop on social media at Ketchup City Creative on 11/19. He also has a show opening at .5 Gallery in Etna this Saturday, 11/11.
PETRICHOR 
Leave a comment