FanArt Friday/Social Media showcases

[Agent Proto]

Okay, I've noticed that both these weekly showcases feature fan arts and such, with the FanArt Friday showcase focusing on them for the most part. Anyway, I'm making this thread to ask the public whether we should keep both showcases or let one of them continue, considering it's redundant to have two similar articles that showcase works of fan created art. This Week in Social Media tend to have more exposure since it's posted in General Chat, and the FanArt Fridays are posted in Relm's Studio, which don't have much traffic, so I've been considering retiring the showcases with this week's being the last, but I won't make that decision until I hear some opinions. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to continue on, but I don't know if I should if there's another similar weekly article which are posted in General Chat.

So, what do the members of EoFF and the general public think should happen regarding this issue?

[Dat Matt]

I think we should keep both.

I tend to look around for a wide variety of things when I post the Social Media showcase, but as a massive Weeb I am mostly drawn to cute anime girls in the form of Artwork. I do look for other things to vary up the showcase so it's not all artwork, but if that's what I find for the week in my frantic 20 minute search before bedtime because I'm late on a deadline again then that's what I find~

From a Social Media standpoint I promote all the work on both showcases to Facebook, and most of our big views come from art pieces rather than articles and news. Both showcases allows me to keep things like facebook and twitter populatef with content, so more potential members may work it's way back to us here helping us to grow.

In terms of views, the two article series flip flop in popularity. Fan Art Friday was viewed more last week that This week in Social Media for that period. The previous week it was reversed. They are pretty much equal despite the Social Media showcase being in general chat rather than Relm's Studio.

I'll let others pitch in though. See what they think.

[Agent Proto]

Well, if it was going to be up to me, I'll be ending it. If I don't see many responses that want to have both articles to continue, then that's how it will end. If you all want it to continue, speak up and let me know. Otherwise, this is it.

[Shorty]

This seems like an issue to address to the Social Media crew since they are the ones who put up the article in GC.

If you'd love to continue, just continue. The social media posts are different from the fan art posts. There's no reason to not continue if you would love to.

[Pumpkin]

We discussed it in staff beforehand and it was decided we would put it in GC, since we don't exclusively do fanart, sometimes we have recipes, sometimes we have clothing, sometimes we have GIFs or funny in game scenes, and we decided it would be a good spot for it!

I would also like to see both continue. I promote your showcases to Tumblr and Pinterest (and Matt promotes them to his sites) and even if they don't get the most views here, a lot of them are very popular on Tumblr. Heck one moth one of the fanarts showcased had 400+ notes, which is a lot for us. And like Matt said, they do a lot better than articles and such. So even if it seems the forum isn't the most engaged (although I'm sure there's quite a few people who look forward to them every week), they are very popular on our social media.

It's really up to you Proto and if you don't want to continue, you don't have to. But I'd like to see them keep going

[Fynn]

I'd say let both happen. It'd be a shame to see FAF go.

[Aulayna]

Continue them both. I read both but don't comment on either of them really. Plus they both show in the latest articles and the recent articles thing on the side of the forums. I doubt the forum they get posted in really contributes a notable difference to the external non-memberbase traffic they get.

EDIT: Just went back and checked, and on average FAF generally gets more comments than TWISM... sooooo...

[Colonel Angus]

Well, if it was going to be up to me, I'll be ending it. If I don't see many responses that want to have both articles to continue, then that's how it will end. If you all want it to continue, speak up and let me know. Otherwise, this is it.
We don't get many responses to most of the stuff on the front-site, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Keep both. The Art one is strictly for new art/cosplays, the social media one has some art/cosplays, but also covers other stuff as well.

[Agent Proto]

Well, my only complaints I have is that the Relm's Studio is cluttered with the FanArt showcases in the first couple pages. It would be nice if there was a forum to separate them from the other threads in Relm's Studio. Like, maybe a subforum? And I haven't really noticed any of the activity that they have been getting from the social medias and whatnot, maybe because I only see from the site/forums. No one really tells me how they really do, so I've been assuming they've been doing subpar.

[Formalhaut]

I think maybe once a month it would be great if those with the access to the numbers could relay them onto to the article series writers. One, just to give them some encouragement, and two to see what worked, what didn't work, what people liked and so on etc.

Regarding FAF, I always look forward to seeing what people with way more creative talent that I have come up with and I for one would miss it dearly. I used to be bad at commenting on articles, but now I do try to comment on something if I've read it, even if it is just a "Oh, that one looked nice!".

[Freya]

Our articles on eoff don't do well in comments here but most our view counts come from our social media. We don't publicly share our stats on articles and social media. We do have them for a reason though. If you're ever curious, proto, MM one of us and we'll be able to tell you how well things are received.

The article itself isn't shared as well but we individually post them and as the other SMMs mentioned, they do really well.

The social media articles are just things we find while interacting on that front.

The art showcase features the communities content and promotes our deviant art group.

As for it spamming up relms, well it's just not an active subforums in general. We COULD put it in its own subforums but that may further isolate it.

[Dat Matt]

I think the majority of the feedback here is that both should continue. TWISM contributes a wider range of media than art, while FAF focuses solely on... well art and both receive roughly the same reception.

The real question is, do you want to continue running FAF?

[Agent Proto]

I think maybe once a month it would be great if those with the access to the numbers could relay them onto to the article series writers. One, just to give them some encouragement, and two to see what worked, what didn't work, what people liked and so on etc.

This I would really appreciate. I feel left in the dark on how well the showcases are doing outside of the forums.



The real question is, do you want to continue running FAF?

I have no problem continuing.

[Formalhaut]

Of course, the numbers aren't publically shared, that would be bad news. :p

How I see it, if regular communication channels were set up between the social media and fan-art article writers and those in possession of the numbers, the article writers will get a sense of how they're doing, what was working and what was not.

Between article writers as well, it also helps avoid cross-contamination, so to speak. If a Social media article is going to be particularly art/visually based, then that can help Proto in perhaps sourcing some brilliant artwork in different art styles, or perhaps even include an extra cosplay person. Informing the 'other side' of roughly what you're planning this week just helps, I guess. Communication is everything!

[Shauna]

As far as I know, our SMMs were never asked for the details of how the fan art was doing on social media, and I am certain they'd be happy to provide figures if that's what you want, Proto. Just gotta ask for these things, we don't know what you want. :p

[Ayen]

I was going to say combine them if it was really a problem, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Yeah, a lot of articles on a lot of sites don't get a lot of comments, some get zero unless they're the big mainstream sites like Game Spot or something. The exceptions at the moment are anything to do with FFVII and E3 because they just promote more discussion.