CoPromote is a lot of busywork

The promise:

"CoPromote is a network of creators dedicated to helping each other reach new and larger audiences. Join us today!"

Hold on, not so fast.

On the surface, the idea is great, but while the hard numbers do support the promise (theory) of reaching a larger audience on the platform, that audience is superfluous. There is no promise that your reach via other users of CoPromote will somehow translate into a maturation of your brand or by serendipitous mass extension and reach, you will somehow gain results that should translate into click-throughs or even more sales.

Did I say "sales"? Crickets.

It's interesting and quite entertaining to see the activity on the CoPromote channel, the "feeling" you get when your CP boost/post has reached 250,000 new potential customers or fans over the span of 7 days. Its almost intoxicating! After the buzz and self-congratulatory high-fives we give ourselves, the reality settles in, the sun rises, and maybe that buzz is overrated. It's more like a fly on a window screen, it's usually dead after a short time.

There's a lot of promise to CoPromote, but not a lot of real world results. At least not the sort of results that justify an increase of focus or effort. I'm not going to inundate you with numbers, that's a sure way to cause people to nod-off quickly. Just trust me, them numbers ain't impressive.

In marketing your artwork, "feelings" are not a metric to rely upon when real world numbers supplant that tingle you get.

Part of the problem may be that the artwork we offer is too niche for a broadcast spectrum such as CoPromote, or what we are trying to sell has not reached a level of marketable value (yet). In theory, (I keep going back to that "theory" word) it should be that if you toss out enough artwork over a large enough crowd, someone would find interest in your offerings. A click should happen, a sale might even occur. (Hmm, sounds good, doesn't it?)

CoPromote is a great platform to test posts. I have turned my use of the free service into a testing service for my Twitter posts. One particular post I boosted received a pitiful 7 CP-boosts over the week it was offered. That was a helpful test, I now know never to do that again! Other posts have shown much greater promise.

The problem with CP may be that the participants all have the same agenda, purely self-interest and absolutely no interest in you. It's a tit-for-tat thing, I boost you, and you boost me, similar to a lot of strategies on most social media channels.

As an example, one particular CoPromoter is selling bargain sewing machines. That's fine, it's a real product, and finding customers is what business is about. However, when "sewing machine selling guy" shares my artwork with his followers, my handsomely crafted post flatlines, his followers don't give a fig about my artwork, and they never will. No way in hell am I sharing his bargain sewing machines with my followers. That's only one example, there are many more I could bore you with.

There is no true fan base to be found or reach with the CoPromote app/service. You can't make people like your artwork just by tossing it out in front of them, any sooner than your can find new customers by dropping your business cards on busy sidewalks. I've walked on a lot of business cards in my day.

All of the CoPromote activity seems like it should work, but the results are not very encouraging. It does however increase our click addictions and screen time.

Like we need more of that?

-YoPedro