Do not compromise your art for exposure on social media

If you are reading this blog, you probably already know the problems social media cause artists and why it is important to solve them. But if you do not, make sure to read – Instagram and social media in general are not good for artists.

We discussed this topic with Jason Yap on his podcast: The Background Dancer.

While designing Artunio, we took a deeper look at why and how social media push you to downgrade your artistic content and found a way how to avoid it.

Why does this problem exist in the first place?

Instagram and other platforms are based around their algorithms. The algorithm decides, what you and everybody else sees, it does it every day. The algorithm takes into account many things, but mostly the engagement and therefore how many likes, comments, shares you receive, how much time users spend on your content.

This becomes an issue overtime since art and artistic content take much more time to create. The rule of Instagram is to create content fast. It downgrades its quality. Great things need time, and you know it, so do not fall into the trap of creating fast low-quality content.

Your art an experience are not seen by the algorithm

It does not matter, what field of arts you are in and how much experience you have. You may be in the field for ten or more years, have a degree and have a voice within your network. But when you create a new Instagram account you are on level zero.

Nobody knows you and your relevance and voice is counted in followers. People mostly judge you by the number of followers. A classic example of  social approval.

What can you do to have more followers?

You can start posting something valuable and deep, with the restricting formats of course, and only your network will see it. The algorithm does not recognize that this content is valuable for certain niche of users and does not show it to them.

Around the world, there are tons of people interested in this topic that would love your content. But the content never reaches them. It does not have likes, comments and shares to be spread further and it is hard to be found. Instagram is not Google where you can search effectively.

After a few months you realize that it is simply not working and you are not receiving enough exposure and that it is not worth it. So what’s next?

It is simple! Follow the rules and create content that fits the “Instagram culture” or, you know, give up.

Artists are unhappy. Instagram owners are happy. 

There are many ways to make your content more Instagram friendly. You can start making funny reels or create content around more popular topics to receive more exposure and later, when your follower count will be big enough, you can come back and create what you truly want. And in the end, you could find out that it will not work and tons of hours were wasted on creating content you are not proud of.

The concequences of this problem are that a lot of artists around the world feel that they are not good enough, that they have chosen a wrong career path or even feel depressed and worthless.

However, Instagram owners are happy. You created hours of content and people spent hours consuming it. Hours of attention turned into advertisement money.

What do artists really need?

The only thing the artists really need is to be found by people who are interested in what they want to share.

Just think about it. Instagram is not a search engine where you can easily type, for example – ‘dancers’ – choose style of dancing, and you get a list of 100 000 dancers around the world which you can filter out to find exactly what you want.

The same thing applies to people who might be interested in working with you or hiring you. A simple search engine would make a difference. You can read more about how your education and years of experience would be visible and easily reachable with Artunio here – Job Finder.

There could be a healthy alternative

Artunio, on the other hand, wants to reward its users by putting the artistic value on top of the priorities, education or inspirational content (in the artistic field) as well. The system will work in a way to motivate you to create better art next time instead of motivating you to get more likes and followers.

The artistic value and quality would be the center of the platform and it would push you to be a better artist and professional. Likes and followers would not be the most relevant “currency” on the Artunio platform as it is on other platforms and you would not need to post constantly every day. We want quality over quantity and so should you. Create what you and your audience love without compromising your art. Authenticity over algorithms!

Conclusion

Social media have a lot of pros and cons. However, after years of use, it starts to be obvious that the cons may overweight the pros. You can see it also in the artistic community.

The way they are designed affects the way artists see themselves, how they create art and how their art is seen in general. Moreover, it kills creativity and makes many artists become content creators instead of artists.

We cannot expect those platforms to become more artist-friendly. Year by year, we can see how it becomes even worse – with all the new features and adjustments.

We need to create a new platform where the wellbeing of artist is the main focus, in hands of artists and not big corporations and shareholders.

We need our own space – Artunio. Become a part of the change and help us create the best network for artists. Support us, choose a perk and be among the first to try Artunio.

Help us create a social network for you by supporting the project!

Who is Artunio created for?

Artunio is created for artists, audiences and everyone working in the cultural and creative industry. The platform serves anyone ranging from performers, creators, managers to even patrons either as individuals or organizations.

Social media downgrade your creativity

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” (Albert Einstein)
Same as: “If you judge artists by their ability to beat the algorithm and by the numbers of their followers, they will live their whole life believing they are worthless.” (me)

Future Artunio features

Promote and manage events easily with our Event Manager

Pin your event on the Artunio map and let people in the vicinity of that location be notified that there is an event they might be interested in and directly buy tickets. Reach people interested in this type of events from greater distances.

Present and sell your art easily through Artunio Gallery

While galleries are still one of the best options, their vulnerability was shown during the pandemic with artists looking for alternative ways to show their art to collectors. Artunio Gallery is meant to connect artists, galleries, and collectors around the world.