Establishing Online Presence?

Bletzkarn

How important do you guys think it is to have a strong online presence,as far as sharing work on social media and linking to your website / services whatever. Obviously it doesn't hurt, but time management is something we all probably wrestle with, so if it is important what tends to generate more leads?

Is one better off polishing their portfolio and linkedin or getting a large social media following?

JordanN

Important for trying to push a personal brand in order to stand out among the the several thousands(???) of artists who all upload art on Polycount and other websites everyday.

I don't find it as important for actually making art/better portfolio. Especially as I feel like when you develop a presence, you attract certain audiences. Like say you got popular because you posted a half naked female knight. To some people, they might be only looking for art in that category, and might not be interested in something vastly different. Of course, there's nothing wrong with specializing and catering to people's tastes, but I personally wouldn't want the pressure of doing one type of art. I just want to make art that I think is cool first, and then leave it to the free market to decide whether they'll want to take an interest in it or not.

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root

post your art to twitter with popular hashtags like #screenshotsaturday and #gameart and you'll start to accrue a following if you post regularly.  Social media is effective but only if you're using it effectively - be human and honest and accessible, talk about your process and inspirations and try to avoid treating it like sales bullhorn, post your work regularly and the snowball will start to roll.

you don't really need to worry about being a marketer or optimizing your hustle techniques or anything, your work is always gonna be your best advertisement for yourself.  just post it and be real and people will show up.

garcellano

Just post your art more, it'll get around here eventually. Doesn't hurt to post it around everywhere else like FB, IG, Twitter, etc. If some folks think your showing off, @#$% it, show it off. Probably don't repeatedly show the same exact thing all the time like it's the greatest thing ever. There's a "pin tweet" on Twitter where you can have some recent art post or portfolio piece you can hang on your Twitter wall thing. I think that's ok, compared to making some new post/tweet all the time of an old thing you've posted before. Might just be a pet-peeve of mine.
Have your website link available, probably on your signature or in your bio description. Make it easier to have people find it.

I guess having an online presence helps. I'm going to assume that whatever you post online shows the kind of personality or interests you're into. So, if it's a bunch of political posts, memes, a bunch of retweets, rants, all that stuff, it's what you like. For artists, just have your work available online for people to easily find. On the social media side, yeah, add in # whatever relates to your work or topic. It sounds goofy, but it makes it quicker to search. ex. #RainbowSixSeigeFanArt #OverwatchFanArt or #ZBrush #Substance Designer.

I've seen a few personalities from artists online, over the years, where they can post a storm of topics, and have no portfolio, or website's in construction. In this day and age, I can't believe how useful social media can be for artists or job hunting, but it does seem to help. I wouldn't recommend being some sort of character like a YouTube personality. Just be you, with your artwork. It might break a barrier with personal life and professional, which hits a gray area. If you have to, filter the @#$% out of what comes out of your mind.

Aside from your art, if it fits at a studio, you're putting yourself out there, which I would assume, people from studios will see if your personality might fit with their company culture. I hope my two cents on this was helpful. I'm throwing my own self out there lol, but some of this stuff are things I wasn't told about, and at the same time, it's not like there's a golden rule book on this sort of thing.

Jonas Ronnegard

Really depends on what kind of artist you want to be, but it will always give you an edge to have a good online presence. and it's more or less a must if you plan to go freelance, for me getting a lot of views on artstation/facebook changed everything for me, and the last 2 years all the freelance work I got were all from companies that found me on artstation or through other websites.

This does of course not matter if your art doesn't hit a certain level, but once it does I think it's very important to have a good online presence, I see art a lot better then mine and others that doesn't get up high on the trending lists every day, and it's only because people don't get a chance to see it. there are too much good art to just simply post something and expect it to be shared and liked, you need to put in some more effort, but of course the art itself should always be the priority.

Bletzkarn

Jonas Ronnegard said:

Really depends on what kind of artist you want to be, but it will always give you an edge to have a good online presence. and it's more or less a must if you plan to go freelance, for me getting a lot of views on artstation/facebook changed everything for me, and the last 2 years all the freelance work I got were all from companies that found me on artstation or through other websites.

This does of course not matter if your art doesn't hit a certain level, but once it does I think it's very important to have a good online presence, I see art a lot better then mine and others that doesn't get up high on the trending lists every day, and it's only because people don't get a chance to see it. there are too much good art to just simply post something and expect it to be shared and liked, you need to put in some more effort, but of course the art itself should always be the priority.

Thanks for the response this is exactly what I wanted to hear. My art isn't there yet - slowly getting it though.

Spoon

@Jonas Ronnegard

 for me getting a lot of views on artstation/facebook changed everything for me, 

How did you actually make that step up? Anything in particular that boosted you?
When I met you, I don't think you were that known. But over a relatively short amount of time, you were everywhere.
What happened?

Jonas Ronnegard

I guess most of it had to do with my gumroad store, and since I do all of my marketing through arstation it boosts it a lot, as well as I have 16k followers on my facebook page, everything helps everything kinda. also since I try to do new art for each product I release I also get a lot of new material to post.

Bletzkarn

Jonas Ronnegard said:

I guess most of it had to do with my gumroad store, and since I do all of my marketing through arstation it boosts it a lot, as well as I have 16k followers on my facebook page, everything helps everything kinda. also since I try to do new art for each product I release I also get a lot of new material to post.

I see that you've just gone with your name as your brand. Did that have any effect at all on your success? Juggling whether or not just to be [Real Name] Design, or to go with something more broad like "Envision 3D".

Thinking more for the freelance / small business route of working with clients.

Jonas Ronnegard

Well I will probably transit over to a company name in the long run, depends on what direction and how big I go. But yeah I would think that in the beginning it helps to use your name rather then starting with a company name. I think it's easier to remember if you have a face and name to put to the art and products.

But that is more for fan base and customers, if it's to look for clients and you want to promote yourself more like an outsourcing company/team then a company/team name will probably look more professional.