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| I find your lack of engagement disturbing Photo: Butrix production |
Disclaimer:
This will not be a lecture for advanced social sites management or marketing. This is just a small tutorial for cosplayer showing them what behavior is welcome and how to work on your social sites portfolio to gain followers.
And I repeat - it is not a marketing guide, I won't show any advanced marketing tools for social sites management, or give advices, that can profit companies selling merchandise.
1) Senpai companies are (mostly) on twitter
Try to work on your twitter page - I know it is hard to orient in and that the tweet length is sometimes very limitative, BUT:
Most of the companies, especially american companies, are using Twitter, so if you have cosplay from certain game developers, they are more likely to retweet you (twitter) than share you (facebook). If you tag a celebrity in your post, the celebrity will react to it with a tweet (tw) more likely than with a comment (fb,ig). The same goes for all bigger companies, just look at screens, even I have very little following on twitter, the companies and celebrities still react on twitter much more likely.
For example: Payday 2, Overkill studio, Heroes of the Storm official, 3M, Valkia, Carolina Ravassa, Jen Cohn, Might and Magic official, ...
And from a simple comment, you can extend the communication with important people further and maybe get new contacts or cooperations.
2) Your followers need you to communicate with them
This is one of the most important things! Speak with your followers, engage in discussion or conversation!
I've spoken with a cosplayer, that was really sad/pissed about her follower count, she even said it is unfair, because she is making much higher quality cosplay then cosplayers with much higher follower count. So I looked at her page.Even she was making content interesting enough for her followers to comment, she did not respond to anyone who commented, even when it was a clear question. She didn't even press the simple like to let them know she's read it.
It can be excused if you have thousands of people on your social site, but if you have one comment by each post, it can be managed pretty easily.
And guys, if you don't have time to answer everything or react to every post, just let your followers know you've noticed them by pressing a simple like or writing a general comment for everyone. Or just ask a friend if he/she can help you with management.
3) Post (not so) frequently
Finding the right time and amount of posts on each social site can be a difficult task, but I can tell you what works for me:- Post once a day/two days/regularly - posting once a day keeps people informed about what you do and it does not spam them (facebook, instagram). If you have more content to share, make instagram stories (they work!) or post more on twitter or google+.
- Do not post more than two posts a day (on facebook) - Even you post something interesting, people get spammed by you and they unlike AND you kill the reach of your posts. Save it for later or make instagram stories.
- Plan in advance - If you are working on a project you are excited about, do not post only your project. Plan in advance, make your content diverse not to bore or spam your fans too much with the same content. I dislike when cosplayers post every centimeter of progress on their cosplay everyday, it is spamming people and we do not like spam.
- Post your content in time peaks of your audience - Each community has it's time peaks - it is the time when most people are online and can see your posts. Also, post approximatelly in the same time - people love regularity and they will start to get used to see your post everyday at the same time and maybe will be excited about it.
4) Use all the channels you can
Posting on your page is normal, but what about sharing your content to discussion sites, viral sites or facebook groups? You never know what can bring you more exposition!
5) Instagram stories
I know it can be just a popular thing, but a lot of people watch ONLY instagram stories. Make them interesting, informing, exciting, enjoyable and lure poeple to know more about you on your pages. Be like-worthy!
And of course, successful IG story brings a lot of messages - answer them! People took time to write a message to you, so you can take time to at least push the heart button.
6) Widen your audience by speaking english
I am so disappointed when I see a page of a cosplayer I like, but he/she speaks in language I don't understand. By speaking english, you can reach much more people and be at once interesting for abroad companies and events.
I do not say you have to use english, but it is a possible way to widen your audience.
Don't be discouraged by naysayers looking for mistakes in your english or telling you you don't have right to use english on your page. It is your page and the language you're using is totally up to you!
7) Tagging, hashtags and post contents
There is a big difference in reach of content and it really matters HOW you present the content, so there are some tips and tricks for you:
- Short videos work
- Short decription = bigger reach
- Posts work better without links (and tags and hashtags on facebook)
- Picture makes any post better
- Important info should be inside the picture (ppl don't read description mostly)
- Tags make the reach worse
- Hashtags are good only for some sites - for example hashtags are great for IG, bad for FB, use them in limited numbers even on IG.
8) DO QUALITY CONTENT
Be careful, that by quality content can different people see different things. Some see quality content as a post that has the most likes. I see the quality content as something, that present yourself in a good light and gives back something to the people following you.
If you want to know, how the content you make influences your social media - you can always look in you engagement, likes and clicks breakdown on your pages (be careful you have to have a business profile on some social sites).
If you want to know, how the content you make influences your social media - you can always look in you engagement, likes and clicks breakdown on your pages (be careful you have to have a business profile on some social sites).
What is a quality content:
- Bringing back something to your fans:Giveaways, knowledge sharing (including WIPs, progress, materials used, ...), simple thank you posts
- Good quality presentation of your work:
professional cosplay photos, quality progress pictures with described materials, HQ videos of your cosplay, showing off your contruction of the cosplay or WIPs on good and detailed pics
- Humorous/viral stuff:
funny stuff that happened to you, memes or parodies. Be careful, since the line between funny and awkward is very thin and also it should be something not very regular.
- Your ideas or experiences:
sharing your ideas, experience or opinions can be sometimes little tricky - especially if you have controversila opinion. But still it is a high quality content since it is your original idea
- Traditional cosplay things like:
Before and after, in and out of the cosplay, makeup tests, material reviews, cooperations with companies, merchandise info, event info, ...
What is not a quality content:
- Selfies with friends & famous people:
People are not interested in who did you met if you are not writing more about that meeting - it has to have a meaning or story behind it to be more interesting. Random selfies are usually not a high quality content for a social site and they tend to have low quality (more in the blurred event pics).- Random or blurred pictures from events:
People want to see higher quality pics, not a blurred something on a grained picture made by a low quality phone camera.
- Suggestive or untasteful pics
I have to say that again - there is a traditional connection of cosplay and sexuality, that I do not like and I do not support. A lot of cosplayers go the easy way in making cosplays thinking about gaining followers through sexuality and showing off their body. We all know cosplay is very often connected to sexual themes and a lot of famous cosplayers show a lot of their body, but it does not mean you have to do the same.
And there is another thing - doing for example budoir shoots tastefully is really hard. It is hard to capture the body in a feeling or mood. And I've already seen some revealing cosplay shoots, that went wrong in different ways - cosplayer looks like she/he doesn't wanna be photographed or is ashamed of herself (I've seen a christmas casual photoshoot, where the model had only panties and sweater on and the poses were so awkward it seemed like she didn't even wanted to be photographed like this - if you are not comfortable doing it, do not do it), or the mood of the shoot went completely wrong because the cosplay was too suggestive, or the posing was bad (pic)... There are so many things, that can go bad. To make that simple - a lot of cosplayers think they can show exposed body and get likes, but they end up disappointed, because they have shown everything with only a little outcome. Think only about Christmas lingerie photoshoots - how many cosplayers have you seen doing it, taht looked really well thinked through, prepared and well photographed?
Suggestive or untasteful content can be something that keeps away the people interested in your work and lures people interested to see more of your body naked. When I've seen a cosplayer showing off her cosplay by sitting with her legs opened and her tiny underpants showing, I was already not interested in more of her work and closed her page - and I do not even remember who it was, since I've seen it on some kind of cosplay repost page.
- Bitching, crybabying, being rude:
I'm sorry I had to say that like this, but this is just a reminder, that if you share your ideas or opinions, you can always do it tastefully and respectfully to others. You don't have to mention anyone doing something negative, you can always tell the sentence unoffensively.
I do not want you to not speak about your opinions, but find the way how to do it without hurting anyone in process.
- Be careful about doing awkward stuff when aspiring to make viral content:
You never know what goes viral, but do not do something you would never find funny just because you are dreaming about doing viral stuff.
- Repetitive posts
Repetitive posts (showing the same stuff from different angles, showing progress pictures, where you made only 5 cm of embroidery on each, showing pics of your behind body saying you'vve just made pants too often, giving away one thing every day - prolonged giveaway) can be viewed as spamming and annoying. Keep away from them.
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| Go the right way Photo: Milos Mlady photography |
I hope this article helped you realizing what you are doing wrong/well on your social sites or helped you maybe think about the content you do and what do you want to achieve on your page. :)
And just a last disclaimer - Opinions in this article are just my opinions, I do not want to hurt anyone and I didn't even try to make an article about boosting the followers on your page. It is just an article about tips and tricks and my opinions about what is right to do ;)
I hope this article will be useful for someone and if yes, you can follow my work on cosplay (and other stuff) on my FACEBOOK PAGE or TWITTER or INSTAGRAM.
And if you like this stuff I do, you can support my work by donating on my PATREON.
Yours
Germia
Thank you, kind dude, for this useful informations. I honestly find it very helpful 😉
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