I just got banned from Instagram and I don't know how to feel about it

[baileyvidler]

Hiya friends. I'm at a total loss for words. Instagram just permanently disabled my account. I have no idea why; there was no warning or explanation. I submitted the appeal and it got rejected.

It's not like I enjoyed Instagram. I felt like it was a soul-draining experience with very little reward. So, I'm not sure if I should take this as some divine intervention and move on or actually make a new account and try again.

I know this question gets asked a lot, but do you guys think that social media is actually necessary to be a professional artist? Has something like this ever happened to you before?

[NessIllustration]

@baileyvidler I'm so sorry this happened to you This is so weird!

In my opinion, Instagram is NOT necessary to be a professional artist. I just posted a couple things there yesterday after not posting anything since last Easter! And I've still be thriving in the meantime.

Instagram CAN help with your marketing, but it's not the only way and I wouldn't even say it's the best way. It's one of the most time consuming, compared to the return you get. If you enjoyed Instagram it's one thing - but if you hate it, then you can focus your marketing efforts elsewhere.

I think it can be beneficial to have a profile just because it can look weird when we don't have one. But you don't have to post regularly. My own Instagram has become more of a showcase landing page with my contact info, and I add 2-5 new things twice a year. I focus my efforts on sending queries and onboarding potential clients to my mailing list.

[ArtistErin]

Weird! Keep us posted if you hear anything further.. I am posting alot now with Inktober and am hyper-aware of the "likes" and I wonder if my art is garnering any significant traction, it's strange. It's sort of like the feeling in high school, maybe big popularity game. I dunno. Just my warped imagination run amok.

[Griffin McPherson]

@baileyvidler I’ve known a few people who have been shadow banned but not completely banned. That’s very odd and extremely frustrating. If you didn’t really enjoy Instagram I say don’t worry about making another account.

[Melissa_Bailey]

@baileyvidler wow ... even if it turns out to be a blessing in disguise, right now this must be so stressful! (I know I'd probably be stressing out, even with my kinda-like/kinda-hate relationship with IG.)

Agreeing with @NessIllustration -- it's totally possible to be a professional artist without social media. Actually, what I've been hearing is that social media can be helpful but what is really essential for a working artist, if they want a presence on the web, is to have their own website and build a mailing list. Your website can't get blocked or banned. It won't be unavailable if any social media sites shut down, for hours or permanently. And people will know how to find you for jobs.

That's actually what I'm working towards right now: building my own email list. Which for me means starting a newsletter/blog. I'm slowly gathering info and ideas, hopefully to approach it mindfully with a solid plan in place. You might even beat me to it! If you do, please share any tips or tricks you learn along the way!

[baileyvidler]

@NessIllustration Okay, your advice makes me feel a lot better. I'll make a profile as a landing page, like your suggestion, and focus on querying ADs. Plus, I've been enjoying your Youtube videos, so I might do some more research in that direction!

@ArtistErin I was having similar feelings towards it - that's it all one big inflated popularity game. That's why I think I'm going to focus on more meaningful online conversations like here in the forums!

@Griffin-McPherson Oh, man, that's really the direction I'm leaning in right now.

@Melissa_Bailey Thank you for the reminder! I think this was the kick in the butt that I finally needed to get my newsletter list ready to go. (My plan, as with most things, is to dive in without a plan, and figure it out as I go. )

Here's the link to subscribe to my mailing list: baileyvidler.com/newsletter. I would super duper appreciate anyone who subscribes.

Also, if anyone else has a newsletter, please drop the link so we can subscribe as well! (@Melissa_Bailey when you get yours up and running!)

Jake's advocacy for newsletters suddenly makes so much more sense, haha.

[xin li]

I am so sorry @baileyvidler. So weird, and ridiculous.
I agree with what others have said that IG is not a "must-have" thing for an artist. I have not posted often ever since I started working full-time. It was not a conscious decision in the beginning, as I did not have time to maintain a constant presence on social media. But I would still check IG daily, serval times a day.

Recently, I decided to take a long break from IG, not posting, and not even checking. Suddenly, I found myself having time to play on my sketchbook regardless my schedule and be at peace with less productive days. IG has had a more negative contribution to my well-being as an artist, compared to what I gain from it.

A social platform is only powerful for a group (in our case, artists) if the majority of the group agrees it is powerful. I guess it is up to us to decide if IG is important for our career/business. For long term, I really do not know what I will do with social media or stay in touch with clients, and the network. I am looking for alternatives to IG as well. This thread gave me some good ideas. Thanks!

[Melissa_Bailey]

@baileyvidler you're welcome! (I signed up for your newsletter. Looking forward to seeing it in my inbox!)

[Kristen Lango]

I feel your frustrations. I have been posting a lot in October because I draw a lot of Halloween-type stories and I just had Instagram refuse to post one of my scheduled images because I "violated their terms"

It's like they flagged me as a bot because I've been posting a lot and because I use the Meta scheduling feature. I've noticed such an increase in bots on the platform so it seems to me they are taking extra precaution to limit this and making mistakes in the process by flagging real people.

I've also had at least 4 scammers in past 3 months reach out to me there in direct message, so all in all it's feeling like it's not worth the headache.

If I were you I'd just move on, focus on your site and making great art and querying. Sorry to hear you're going through this!

[kirsten-mcg]

@baileyvidler You're not the first person I've heard of this happening to! I think your plan sounds like a good idea. And thank you for sharing your experience! You've reminded me again of why I really need to start an art blog on my website and start building a mailing list. I personally really like Instagram, so I wish this wasn't something we have to worry about. I like finding inspiration on it, and interacting with other artists. But what I really like most is that it serves as a back log of my art. I made a commitment when I first opened my account not to delete old art. I want to be able to look back and see how I've grown and (hopefully!) improved, and for other people to be able to do the same. But an art blog would do the same thing, and be much more secure!

[baileyvidler]

@xin-li Oh, man, play time in a sketchbook sounds amazing! You make such a good point about how much social media tries to dominate your mental state, even if you're not frequently posting.

@Melissa_Bailey Aaah, thank you so much! Let me know when you've got yours ready for sign-ups!

@Kristen-Lango Hm... That's my best guess as to what happened - somehow I managed to flag myself as a bot. (Also, I just checked out your site and I love how colorful your art is!!)

@kirsten-mcg Yeah! The timeline of art improvement is really easy to see on Instagram. Alas, let us all know when you've got your blog/newsletter ready!

[Kristen Lango]

@baileyvidler Aw thank you so much! I'm glad you like it! Yes these bots are really ruining it for us regular people

[Heather Boyd]

@baileyvidler Hey there, I got banned on IG through my laptop but then discovered I was fine on my cell. It's screwball fore sure. I use IG mainly for people who already follow me and I don't use tags. Take that you silly algorithm! lols.

Though, I am sorry this happened to you for no solid reason. It should have come down to whether you want or don't want to use it, and how you wanted to use it.

[Heather Boyd]

@Melissa_Bailey I'd like to get in on that, the mailing list/blog etc...

[Coreyartus]

@baileyvidler If it's any condolence, I've heard that Art Directors, Agents, and other professionals aren't using Instagram anymore to find artists, or even to go visit their page... It's just not convenient to use anymore now that there are so many ads, videos, and "suggested follows". They'd rather go directly to your website they learned about through word of mouth or an agent or a postcard than wade through endless irrelevant posts trying to randomly find potential illustrators that might work... I'm personally slowly weaning myself off of it and replacing it with platforms where I know people are actually seeing my stuff. (Artfol and Mastodon.art, for example, don't have algorithms that determine what gets seen--they're both strictly chronological.)

I signed up for your newsletter. I look forward to seeing what you do with it! I use the free version of MailerLite for mine. https://preview.mailerlite.com/q2b0a4g9y9

A word of advice: Try not to get discouraged at slow growth. Newsletter subscriptions/mailing lists take a long while to develop. And it may feel as if you're not reaching anyone like you used to using some social media platforms. But in reality, those who do signup are much more interested and higher quality followers than a quick "like" someone might give you as they speed-browse... Newsletters are not a magic bullet to solving one's "reach" issues, but they don't have the stigma they used to back in the day when everyone had just a single email address--they aren't the "spam" people felt they were in the past. And you have a lot more freedom to make them about what you want and send them out however regularly (or irregularly) you want.

I personally enjoy putting together my own newsletter, and I find that it prompts me to be "ready" when I want to put one out. Right now I do mine once every two weeks (roughly), but I haven't lost a single person because I missed a deadline by a day or two. And unlike social media, it's helping me think broader and more clearly about the value I bring to the lives of my subscribers.

I do think newsletters are the way to go in today's art/illustration landscape. And I think in the long run you'll be much happier doing one instead of Instagram.

[LauraA]

@baileyvidler Ugh! I'm so sorry to hear that your account got disabled. Like we needed one more way to feel futile about our marketing efforts, right?

I liked reading all your replies, because frankly, since IG went reels, I feel like it's the beginning of the end for artists there. I feel like everything social media is becoming flashing and noise competing for our attention until no one sees anything anymore. I get sensory overload and click out. I mean, ostensibly we're book people, right? Not entirely as a result of reels, but more because I am slow and because I actually traveled again this year, I haven't posted since spring either. Then again, I'm not working professionally and want to. And I am geographically isolated.

And it's not just IG. All my social media feeds have become a jumbled, overloaded, irrelevant mess and as a result I look at them less and less. I used to enjoy them before everything got so desperate-looking.

Newsletters seem interesting, though frankly I get too much mail and don't read most of it. I do like Jake's newsletter, because it's nicely curated. Here, by the way, is a recent NY Times article on "peak newsletter," thought I don't think it should discourage anyone. Just putting it out there for info. I put it in a "gift" link, which means you shouldn't need a subscription to read it.

This could be a good moment to have a serious discussion amongst ourselves, "With social media algorithms running amok, newsletters and art samples flooding inboxes, paper postcards dead, podcasts proliferating, and not everyone cut out for YouTube, what is the best way to actually get work these days?" Because as much as we feel frustrated for you, Bailey, the real thing you need is a solution that works.

My main criterion for promotion is simply that it not take up more time than the art!

[Melissa_Bailey]

@LauraA thanks for linking that interesting article! The difference between the newsletters the article is talking about and most artists' newsletters is payment. The article was talking about paid newsletter subscriptions. The purpose for most artist newsletters is to build a following, not to gain additional income.

I think that newsletters or blogs are still recommended for artists because it increases traffic to their website, their "home" on the web. That way, they don't rely on followers from social media, which could disappear in an instant (like with what happened to Bailey). And blog/newsletter followers are more likely to engage more; it's a better barometer of organic growth.

All this being said, what a great discussion we're having! This is lighting a fire under me to get my newsletter going instead of letting other things on the to-do list take precedence.

[crispalomino]

@baileyvidler just signed up for your newsletter. Hate this happened to you. Not sure if this will help you.

https://help.instagram.com/366993040048856

https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-know-instagram-account-banned/

[LauraA]

@Melissa_Bailey What you say makes total sense. I agree.

I did notice that the article was talking about writing professionals, but I didn't know whether the two matters might be related because they talk about the same general media. Anyway, I know that trends change; for instance podcasts grew hugely in 2020 because people were stuck at home. Now maybe the market is growing saturated. Likewise, constant changes to algorithms (not to mention random account blocking!) are making social media less reliable, and increasingly generate scammy followers. Most art directors say not to send postcards now. And for me, word of mouth isn't going to work yet.

So the question is, what do we have left as a reliable way to get our names and work out there? I need to answer this question as much for myself as for anyone else, because I am pretty sure my marketing efforts are deficient.

[Melissa_Bailey]

@LauraA it's tough, definitely!

One ray of light, perhaps, though is that postcards aren't dead, from what I hear. In recent podcasts and webinars I've listened to/attended, a few times the professionals there have said that they look forward to getting postcards, and that now that offices are opening back up, it's possible to get postcards again. They did say that artists might think that their postcards aren't effective, because ADs, agents, & editors rarely respond to postcards, but they do still work.

So I guess that, if we're okay with the cost, postcards might still be a good promotional avenue for illustrators. But we probably shouldn't expect any response from the postcards, either. It's more a long game.