Social Media

[musket]

None except here (and the occasional drop in to WC). I detest Mark Zuckerberg and all his works. I wouldn't be caught dead on Facebook and have no use for the other platforms.

 

[stlukesguild]

I have accounts here, on WC, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Talk Classical (a classical music forum), Pinterest, Lit Net (literature forum), and Tumblr. I'm here as much or more than anywhere else. I'm waiting to see if WC gets their shit together. I use Facebook for feeds from various news sources as well as communicating with family and friends. I have a second Facebook account that I use exclusively for keeping in contact with friends from high-school and other teachers. I avoid political posts and discussions here as well as any posts of nudes (my art or that of other artists). A lot of my family and high-school friends never left the small town I grew up in and can be very very conservative. Instagram I use mostly as a source for references (figures, art, fashion, flowers, etc...) and follow literally thousands of feeds... although I post as well. If I get around to using it as a means of marketing, I'll set up a second account under another email. I rarely even check into Twitter, Talk Classical, Lit Net or Tumblr. Tumblr used to be my main social media platform until they suddenly banned all "adult imagery". They were blocked by Apple due to the pornography and even incidents of child porn and they found it easier to ban all nudity... even old master paintings... than to actually hire moderators to properly block the inappropriate crap. Suddenly, my posts on Rubens, Degas, William Blake, etc... were deemed inappropriate. I had a huge collection of images saved on Pinterest. Anything that might be deemed the slightest bit
risqué I placed into a "private" account where theorhetically only I could see it. But this didn't work that way. I kept being reported by some ultra-Puritan for inappropriate content. I would appeal these reports because none of the images reported were the least bit suggestive or involved nudity... but no one answers the appeals and they wiped out my entire account of 60,000 images or "pins". I rarely look at the site now because I don't like the way it functions now... much more difficult to use... and I'm still pissed off at them. If I do find an image I like, I don't "pin" it but rather, save it to my hard drive or on the cloud on my iPad.

 

[stlukesguild]

Hmmm... it looks like I DO have an ello account... but have never used it. I'll need to play around with it a bit and see if I like it.

 

[snoball]

Yes Lyn, Arty's right you can do a lot of editing of your account by going to Privacy settings. Click the little drop down arrow at the top and then on settings and then privacy and look that over.

 

[Artyczar]

I've been on ello.co for a long time and you can sell on there if you want to. They also do giveaways at times and there are opportunities every few weeks to get published and win a bit of money. My name there is just ello.co/carol_es and on Instagram, which I am not great about is carol_es_art I've only sold a couple on Instagram. I've also been lazy about ello lately.

 

[Katie]

I sometimes post a painting on my regular FB site, not to try to sell anything - just to remind myself that I can paint stuff that people like when I need a boost. I am not on Instagram and Twitter but still have a site on Fine Art America.

 

[xie-kitchin]

I signed on to Ello years ago, when they were a start-up social network and hadn't yet refocused on becoming a network for artists. But I've never really used it.

 

[HaroldRoth]

Almost all the art I've sold has been through my FB personal page, where I have 1750+ "friends" due to running a shop for 20 years. I post every finished painting on that page and give a link to my art site on shopify. I do post some political stuff on there, but mostly I post anecdotes about my life and cat pics.

My art business page on FB is pretty much dead in the water. I use that to post nerdy stuff about my art, like pigments or techniques. That's more for me than for visitors, a way to keep track of what I'm doing.

I have an Instagram business page where I post all my wips. I usually post a couple times/week, but lately I haven't been posting because I was moving. Just started posting again last night. I've never sold anything through IG, but I've still not set up the links to do so either. I get some clicks on my art site from there, but nothing that seems to make for sales. I get a lot of inspiration from IG, though. And I have to say that the "rule" about not following more pages than followers you have yourself is bogus. My followers went up when I began following a lot of other people. Still, IG is something I want to work on more.

I'm thinking of going back to posting wips on Pinterest because stuff turns up a lot in image search. I will not post finished paintings there because I know people use it a source to steal from for designs on mass produced goods.

I don't post on the other platforms. I have my hands full with FB, IG, my art site, and a couple of orphaned blogs.

 

[Artyczar]

Thanks for that info Harold. It's nice to hear about the thing on IG--about following more people than follow you. I always thought it didn't "look" good, or something, but I guess it's really the only way to get followers. And I'd hate to "unfollow" anyone after I chose to follow them.

 

[Bongo]

.... I detest Mark Zuckerberg and all his works..........

Yikes! He said the same thing about you

 

[musket]

If he didn't say that, there would be something wrong with me.

 

[Maybenartist]

This is as close as I get to social media. I use WhatsApp mostly for communication between friends and family.

I've tried them all and I have nothing against any of them. For me, they've all become platforms for retail and celebrities and I'm just not that fond of that kind of culture.

 

[laf.art]

I've been on ello.co for a long time and you can sell on there if you want to. They also do giveaways at times and there are opportunities every few weeks to get published and win a bit of money. My name there is just ello.co/carol_es and on Instagram, which I am not great about is carol_es_art I've only sold a couple on Instagram. I've also been lazy about ello lately.

Arty just been over to your insta - the banner that you have for this site I'm happy to have on mine as well but don't know how to ( just for a change ha ha) anyway let me know.

 

[Artyczar]

Maybe you can grab it from here? Let me know if you can save it.

 

[laf.art]

Arty just been over to your insta - the banner that you have for this site I'm happy to have on mine as well but don't know how to ( just for a change ha ha) anyway let me know.

No luck, it's prob because I'm using a tablet, will try again later when its cooler then maybe my brain will be working again

 

[laf.art]

Ok after much faffing it is now on my page

 

[RobinZ]

Harold, you and I have the same experience on FB. I sell from my personal page, but rarely from my business page...if ever, I can't recall any off hand.

I never post political stuff because my extended family is quite diverse politically and I just can't get sucked into the drama. I wouldn't mind a discussion, but the level of argument from both sides is at the "if you vote for X, you watch too much Y t.v." And the memes!

I have some extended family on both sides unfollowed for awhile.

 

[HaroldRoth]

I hear ya about discussion vs. drama when it comes to politics. I have been doing a ton of unfollowing, unfriending, and blocking on FB lately. Outside of that, I do usually have good interactions with people on FB. I've met a bunch of them in real life, too, which I love. People bitch a lot about Facebook, but I like it for various reasons. I sometimes see people on other sites demanding that FB be shut down for fake news or something, but IMO, that's throwing out the baby with the bathwater. People need to take some responsibility for what they consumer and learn to think critically.

Besides art sales, it has also been a source for signups for classes I teach online, a place to sell plants I grow and to talk about the book I am working on, none of which have to do with art.

 

[JohnEmmett]

https://www.pinterest.com/jwremmett/boards/

 

[snoball]

Ok after much faffing it is now on my page

I put it on my FB page, of course they may take it off. FB is getting kind of prissy.