Gargoyle rental

Posted on May 8, 2018 by Brad Guigar

Webcomics.com

As many of you know, I've written a tutorial-and-advice blog for independent cartoonists since 2009. It's a subscription site ($5 per month or $30 for 12 months). At the end of every month, I publish a "Best Of" post that recaps some of the stand-out posts from the preceding month. All of the posts are still exclusive to subscribers, of course, but it gives interested people a good idea of the types of issues the site addresses. April was an incredible month. Besides tutorials that covered issues like how to properly launch a Patreon and how to use add-ons to drive Kickstarter pledges, there were several posts on how to use social media effectively for marketing and promotion. But one of the very best of the best was this post on the much-maligned social-media algorithm:

What if I told you the algorithm is your friend?

We all hate the Facebook algorithm. Why? Because it keeps our messages from going out to all of our followers. What if I told you that the Facebook algorithm — in fact, most social-media algorithms — was your friend. What if I told you it was an ally? What if I told you it was even more than that? Would you think I was crazy? Pull up a chair.

Your followers don’t want every message you send

Here’s the dirty little secret that you may not want to accept: Your readers aren’t interested in reading every message you send. I know that you tell yourself otherwise. After all, why else would they have “liked” your page? Why else are they following you — if not to receive a steady stream of your dedicated messaging? But they don’t. And — truly — that’s not what they signed up for. What they want is to hear from you sometimes — and preferably when it’s important to them. Stop. Read that sentence again. It's crucial. Think I'm wrong? I'll prove it to you... Subscribe to Webcomics.com and read the entire post.