Tag Archives: facebook advertising

Social media – not what it once was!

Some sold paintings with water. East coast, West coast.

A timely post after discovering this article online. People should know what’s going on and
spread the word about it! I hope you all re-post this!

When I first signed up for Facebook in 2009 (and reluctantly too) I quickly realized that it
could be a great tool as an artist to get my name and work out there. Several of my peers where already on before me and it did good things for them. That was when all of your posts were actually seen by all of your ‘friends’ and their ‘friends’ as well. With time, you could build an ever-growing audience.

That changed a while ago, around the time when the ‘fan pages’ became ‘business pages’
and the advent of paid ads. Facebook made insidious changes to the way posts are seen
on the feed. They switched to an algorithm-based feed, where certain posts are prioritized. In a nutshell: if you pay them money, you’ll have better reach.

It is the same on Instagram now which is, unfortunately, owned by the same people!
You can very well see what this creates: it becomes a numbers game. A world of fake ‘likes’
and ‘followers’ where quality will be sacrificed for quantity. People and companies will do anything to bring their numbers up. It is no longer about the art! People are looking at your social media numbers before they even look at your art!

Another interesting site is here: This page lets you check Facebook pages to find out, by country, where the ‘likes’ / ‘followers’ are based. If a page has a high percentage of likes from India, those are usually bought and most likely not ‘real’ followers.

Interesting times! I am not saying it’s all bad. As artists we absolutely have to be on there and maintain a certain presence. But it is now a far cry from what an app like Instagram was initially created for: A place for art and artists to support each other.

One thing is for sure: they’re not getting any of my money! I’d rather connect to people in the real art world. When it comes to advertising, I think there are better avenues to spend your money than on social media.

New website live!

My website is all new and updated! It’s also responsive, that means it works on smart phones as well. I can now upload pictures myself and finally keep it current. Web design by Indus3ous.com. Have a look, if you like: http://www.frankeber.com

I will continue to post paintings and painting tips here on my blog and, reluctantly, on facebook also. I generally detest anything social media and I think it’s insidious how they exploit this thing that was once good!
Just to give you an idea: An art page that doesn’t pay them money (like mine) won’t get the posts seen by many people. Even if the number of page followers is high, the algorithms they’re using make it sure that posts are not distributed widely. Same goes for posting itself: if you spend less time on there it works against you! The less you post, the less traffic will be directed to your page.
All the pages, the ‘suggestions’ you see popping up on the right side of your stream are basically paid advertisements.

As artists we have no choice but to be on there for the obvious exposure. Although it is debatable what inherent value there is in connecting to all these other artists who basically do the same thing as me. Same goes for this or any other blog, of course. In the end it might be good for filling workshops and that’s about it!
Thanks for reading my general rant!