Social media and webcomics?

[Corgan_dane]

As someone who's been "out of the game" for a while, I've pulled my site back together and looking to get those pageviews back up over time, to help my puny, whimpering comic-related ego. I have twitter and facebook and have linked them both on my site. I'm also on google+, but haven't really set things up there much.

I guess what I'm wondering is if anyone has had much of a response or seen a positive impact on their comics through using social media?

Back when myspace was the awesomesauce, I picked up a few readers from there, but it was basically THE social media site back then. Now there are so many varied sites, with such a wide range of crap to do on them (Farmville...oh god, Farmville) that I'm curious as to whether it's even worth the time to announce updates and try to build a presence in that medium.

Also, if you have a presence on facebook, etc. I'd say post it here so I can follow/like/friend you all.

[McDuffies]

Facebook is still pretty much teh social network. All others except Twitter are still mostly for the network-savvy, those in the know of new trends. Facebook is populated by everyone from toddlers to grandmothers.
I've heard from people that you can get a lot of publicity by promoting on facebook and the likes. Haven't tried personally, and I'm not sure how I'd do it without annoying all friends.

Here I am on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/srdjan.achimovich
Here's a CG group on the same: http://www.facebook.com/groups/2213918762/

[MixedMyth]

Yeah, actually. I do twitter, facebook, tumbler, and stumbleupon. so far facebook and stumbleupon have been the most useful for reaching new readers as things get shared between friends, but twitter is nice for meeting other people doing comics and hearing about things. tumbler...ehhh. I had some success, but not as much as with the others.

Anyhow, I'm rlfcomic on twitter and http://www.facebook.com/pages/Real-Life ... 6686376855 is the comic's facebook page.

[robotthepirate]

I'm a heavy presence on Facebook. I made an "Event" for the release of Chapter 1 which got me a fair few page views. I always post updates and random stuff on my page to keep my friends that have liked it informed and I get a few responses, not many. Mainly from the one friend that also always read my old comic.

Anyway, I'm here:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Robot- ... 4211371112

[VeryCuddlyCornpone]

I made a page for my Band Geeks comic, but despite suggesting the page to many of my friends, it has only 4 fans. I think that's because facebook has changed the way it presents page suggestions to others, making it extremely unlikely that anyone will ever look at or see them and I think most of my friends would add the page since they really enjoyed the comic back in high school.

I don't know whether TVTropes counts as social media, but I listed my comic on one of the indices there and have gotten a handful of hits, which I imagine would be more profound if I made an actual trope page for my comic... but I don't think I know enough to do that.

[McDuffies]

I have just found out that someone who's not me made LWK pages on some wikis, so I'm pleased.

[Spaceprincess]

I've hadsomee success with them. I found that you have to do more than just promote your comic with them though. I post a lot of fan art that sucks people in then slip in that I draw comics. Plus being friendly with other users really helps. People I talk to have featured my comics on their pages and that's brought in several new readers. I also think if your going to use one of those sites to promote you work you should keep it some what professional. Be polite and respond to peoples comments. Nothing worse than people posting hate filled blogs or conpletely ignoring people. There's a few comics I've stopping reading because the creator acted like an asshole on their page.

[robotthepirate]

I have just found out that someone who's not me made LWK pages on some wikis, so I'm pleased.

That's pretty awesome.

[VinnieD]

I don't have a facebook account. There's the initial privacy concerns, and the type of interaction it offers just doesn't appeal to me. I do however enjoy twitter. it's much simpler, less consuming, and if you get yourself a twitter ap (I like echofon in Firefox myself), then you don't even need to dedicate any time to it, it's just there, and non-intrusive.

I did experiment with Google+ but quickly got bored with it. Like facebook it's just not my thing. I think Deviantart is where I maintain the biggest social presence, and I do seem to get a fair bit of my traffic from there. The addition of groups has been a huge boost for me in terms of exposure.

[Dutch!]

Good question, Corgan. I have no idea.

Just about nothing much has worked for me in regards to social networking, but then, I don't spend a lot of time delving into it all to spread out my fingers of influence, eh?

School Spirit's on Facebook, and I have a twitter account for it too, but that's about it. Not a lot of response to anything I post there though.

[IVstudios]

I post updates and doodles to Facebook. It's never seemed to generate any new traffic but it keeps the people who already follow me up to date.

As for my Facebook pages, here are my personal and business links.

[Warren]

Every so often someone puts something of mine on StumbleUpon. My traffic goes through the roof for a week or so and then everybody forgets about Warren again.

Which is fine, because I often forget about everybody.

[Terotrous]

I'm totally social media illiterate, I don't even have a cell phone. But I do definitely suspect there is some potential for comic promotion there and in a few years we'll wonder how we ever did without it.

[Corgan_dane]

Anyone else on Instagram? I'm corgandane, add me!

I've thought about starting a comic (rough, just doodles on a piece of paper that I take a picture of, so it would take no time to do) only on Instagram just to see if I could work in that limited kind of media.

Any thoughts?

[Dutch!]

I tried putting a page up on Stumbleupon just the other day, and a separate page up through Reddit... and for some reason it never got there. I could never find them on the social media site lists, and when I checked them through my profile page thingies they each still only had the one view each, which would have been from me actually posting them.

I failed!

[robotthepirate]

StumleUpon! Dutch you have stolen my life! I may never escape its clutches. Will have to work out how to put stuff up on it.

[Dutch!]

Good luck. Whatever I tried putting up never actually got to a page anyone else could see.

[McDuffies]

I think you meant to say

[IVstudios]

No, remember he's in Australia so everything is upside down to them. Summer is winter, smiles are frowns and the toilets all flush backwards. That's how that whole Southern Hemisphere thing works, right?

[McDuffies]

Wow so I should look his smilies upside down? That explains a lot! Not eyes on the chin, though.