The Accidental Content Creator
Social Media and Me
Those of you who have been following my blogs will know that I have a complicated relationship with social media. Particularly in the way it measures the view count.
Although it may say a reel has had 1,000 views, that doesn't necessarily mean 1,000 people actually watched it. Someone can swipe past almost immediately and it will still contribute to that view count. The number of people who genuinely stopped to watch your work could be considerably lower.
This is hugely frustrating when you are creating reels for the purpose of spreading awareness of your art.
Part of the problem is the subject matter, of course. Not everyone will be interested in seeing yet another reel about someone making art when the next reel might be about kittens being cute. Which is fine, and entirely understandable. Kittens are cute.
Time + Boredom = Creativity
It was a Friday afternoon and, to be honest, I was a little bored. I had just finished the Trevi Fountain illustration after 50 hours of work and needed a break from drawing, so I decided to use the time to develop some more reel ideas.
I already had a fairly established series of reels; 20 Hours in 20 Seconds, Take a Closer Look, The Best Gift Ever, etc. But I’m always looking to do bigger and better, hence the new reel series of Screen Wipe and Watery Melt which use my ever-expanding animation skills (something that has fascinated me ever since I did animation at school 50 years ago).
I also had an idea floating about which wasn’t about art and drawing. I wasn’t exactly sure how I would achieve the effect I wanted and finding out how something is done is one of the things I like best. I shot a short video using my phone, created an image of a cracked screen, and then combined the two, adding a sound effect. I called it ‘The Poke – Is there anyone out there?’ and posted it across my social media.
https://www.tiktok.com/@kevhardyart/video/7679107611907656982?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
What happened next was a complete surprise.
The Poke Effect
My art reels usually get around 1,000 views, some a bit less, some a bit more. My most successful reel up to that point had been the ‘I’m Not AI’ reel with an unusual 2,500 views on Instagram and 3,800 views on Facebook.
The Poke hit 1,500 views within 12 hours and, being only 5 seconds long, had an almost 100% view rate. As of today, it has had more than 15,000 views.
A week later I posted ‘The Poke – The Rebound’. A slightly longer reel (7 seconds) on a similar subject which has had more than 13,000 views.
https://www.tiktok.com/@kevhardyart/video/7681926214461771030?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7682726999565157891
Content Creation
If I was just concerned with how many views I got, this would be fantastic, and I am pleased with the reception. But that isn’t why I started making reels. However, the side-effect of all this new attention has been that people who have viewed the silly reels have looked at my profile and watched my other reels, and some of them have liked what they saw and started following me, doubling my followers in the process.
So, in a roundabout way I am achieving what I had set out to do, just not in the way I originally intended. Perhaps I need to change the way I think about using social media.
I will still make and post reels about my artwork as there is an established audience for these. But adding a few comic reels to attract a different audience, some of whom might become art lovers, or at least discover my work and start following it, has to be a valuable addition to the campaign.
Although my motivation may be different, and that may make it easier to accept, the upshot of all this is that I am becoming the very thing I didn’t want – a content creator.
