Hey, so.
I understand that this is anecdotal and not research, but.
It is WILD how useless social media has become for promo. It's a fucking disgrace, really.
Kids just getting started trying to be independent artists will never experience or understand what a real "grass roots" support network on Twitter or whatever can be like.
I've mentioned this before but early Kickstarters I ran? 1/3rd of the funding was from Twitter.
When Twitter was useful and humming along, I used to say (re: being an independent creative online) "It's never gonna be easy, but it's never been easier."
And it fucking kills me to consider that THAT may have been the high water mark. That we've SEEN as good as it gets for us.
When you run a store or a BackerKit, you can see all the analytics. Where people come from. It can get really granular.
We launched the Lackadaisy store rebuild a few hours ago, and sales are humming along, and.
Twitter isn't even in the top 5 referrers.
Unthinkable, 5 years ago.
In a purely bloodless, bottom-line sense, nuking the Iron Circus Twitter of +20k followers would make no appreciable difference to our results. Zero!
How the fuck did it all rot away this quickly?
...I mean, I know the partial answer, we all do. But still.
I mean, the way I see it, when one story ends, another begins. Twitter may be gone, however, we have other sites like this, Cara, Pixiv, Newgrounds, & others. It’s not the end. Y’all remember MySpace?
the problem is that no one uses these platforms. the general public has not flocked to better pastures, they've just stopped using social media. only the most online of people looked for new places for posts as the old socmed giants began to crumble
maybe, maybe. but Twitter connected artists and nerds to the general population. now all the artists and nerds have jumped ship, and the general population hasn't followed
While I understand this, it doesn't change the fact that me and many other indie businesses don't *have* years to wait on. we have bills now. the future of advertising doesn't mean our lives aren't being uprooted right now
I suspect part of this is the genpop (and artists) are way more aware of digital security/privacy issues in 2024 than we were back in the early FB/Twitter days. I barely use apps anymore bc of this, and only use BlueSky for socmed funsies.
This is a good thing imo, btw. Data is too precious.
this is a good point, twitter allows for non-artists to see your work too and they are the ones with the money and algorithm "power". Twitter still works for the general population so they don't have a reason to leave
Vixen Doe, You are so informative and generous.🙏
Your info is correct.
A segment of the internet is gone, not to return for awhile? There are folks who have spent the last 2 decades online, now wondering what or who, else exists.
Offline life is bountiful
Is Online life is having trouble competing?
From the consumer side like, I don’t even know where to look at this point.
Twitter was so good to see creators promoting things I wanted to see, and not just the algorithm.
This is my situation. I followed a couple people here but I don't know where the others went (or they went to Threads and, I'm sorry, but FB can go f*** itself).
Instagram is an algorithm-driven cesspool, mastodon is low uptake, FB is just... yeah..., and I choose obsolescence over Snap and TikTok.
Yeah, it's become wildly unpredictable where to find what you want.
-Instagram- is better at recommending me musicians I'll like than YouTube?! Meanwhile I'm better off finding BOOKS and art analysis on YouTube?? None of this makes sense.
Since I live on the opposite side of the earth as most of my readers, it can be rough but I can do morning visits by staying up a little late and evening visits by getting up a little early. School visits often happen in the afternoon though, and that means setting an alarm for like 3am my time.
Jibes with the numbers I've seen with brands I work with. Twitter flat-out died hard and never recovered. It was shocking how it literally went *poof*.
So far I haven't seen a real leader in exposure for indy artists and creators outside of niches. But then, all marketing is niche.
Same. I had a high water mark over there of nearly 9k when I was verified in the old version. I'm down to 7.5k-ish now, and I'm pretty sure 90% of those are people who just kept the account to prevent impersonation. That's the only reason I kept mine. Building a business now (a bookstore) is HARD.
