First off, you need to evaluate what you are trying to do. Are you trying to make some money off of cosplay or is it purely for hobby? If it is just a hobby then you don’t really need a dedicated Facebook page, website, or Instagram, just for it. You can just throw it onto your personal pages to show your friends and call it a day.

Now for you, you are an artist, cosplayer, prop maker, photographer, digital editor, digital illustrator etc. You are your own boss and are trying to make a living off of your craft. An effective social media presence will help you with spreading your message. As well as build recognizability and a character presence within the community.

Over the past couple years Cosplay pages and creators have become abundant. In turn it has become more difficult to become noticed. Facebook started artificially limiting people’s reach and now in 2018 Instagram has followed suit in pursuit of ad money. If your poison is Twitch, or sexy cosplay then twitter is still a viable place for you. Don’t let that discourage you though. The market is still huge and a lot of people are doing the same things. What this means for you is to take the challenge and start paving your own way with something new that can capture the audience.

Which social media Platform?

So I can go in and talk about each platform individually all-day. That probably won’t help any of you become successful though. But we can talk about the things I see most cosplayers doing on social media. That is basically mimicking other trending cosplayers, let’s call it the Nigri effect. While mimicking is great, it gets super repetitive from a viewers standpoint. Your viewers don’t want to see the same thing over and over and I don’t want to see the same exact thing from 5 different cosplayers in my feed. We love Nigir, she is considered a pioneer, but I follow her for her content. The key is to differentiate yourself from the crowd. How do you stand out in a crowd?

Well that is the hard part, and if it was easy everyone would be super popular right now. Here, so let us analyze two styles of cosplayers who are killing it in different ways from Lewd creative to Straight skill building.

Amouranth – Popular IRL Twitch streamer and cosplayer

Love her or hate her she is fucking killing it right now on all platforms. We can jump the gun and say that she only gets likes because of her tits, she shows ass, offers lewds. I can guarantee you that there are 50+ other girls that I could name off the top of my head who are showing off the goods who are not as popular right now. Now when I found Amouranth it was in a local Anime conventions hashtag. She had maybe 10k followers and I first re-shared one of her photos in 2015 as I was trying to hype up some of the local cosplayers at the time (being that Geektak is a share page of sorts). Flash forward to 2018 her page has out grown mine exponentially and I have seen her growth from a far.

In my opinion to what makes her stand out (besides the boobs)

Personality – I don’t know if Amouranth is how she appears on stream or if it is a character that is made for the internet. Frankly it doesn’t matter. She has a recognizable personality which is a high energy cringe machine who crafts cosplay and entertains a live stream.

– I don’t know if Amouranth is how she appears on stream or if it is a character that is made for the internet. She has a recognizable personality which is a high energy cringe machine who crafts cosplay and entertains a live stream. Consistency – I’ve talked to her a few times on Instagram and she says this is her full time job. She is dedicated to this it isn’t a hobby it’s a job and a lifestyle.

– I’ve talked to her a few times on Instagram and she says this is her full time job. She is dedicated to this it isn’t a hobby it’s a job and a lifestyle. Networking – I know for a fact that this girl networks. She still slides into my DMs and asks for a post on my page. Now why would someone keep doing this if their page is doing better than the other persons? Because it is great to be everywhere and new people are always coming into my page and that can lead them to her. It is simple marketing. Market yourself don’t be lazy, you are never to big to ask for a post.

– I know for a fact that this girl networks. She still slides into my DMs and asks for a post on my page. Now why would someone keep doing this if their page is doing better than the other persons? Because it is great to be everywhere and new people are always coming into my page and that can lead them to her. It is simple marketing. Market yourself don’t be lazy, you are never to big to ask for a post. Cringe – This is one of my most notable things about her. She caters to cringe content, embraces it and has made it her own thing. You can witness it on all her platforms.

– This is one of my most notable things about her. She caters to cringe content, embraces it and has made it her own thing. You can witness it on all her platforms. Talent – Yes, she banks on boobs, but if you watch closely you can see that she has talents. She can do art pretty well, her dancing has progressed from her earlier streams, and she can craft her own cosplay and I think it’s pretty darn good. I’m sure she has more talents, but those are the ones I know are being utilized and can see from an outside prespective.

Amouranth’s content is more on the edgy and provocative side. She is still creative but selling her content more on the lewd Patreon thing. She has around 1000-1500 concurrent twitch viewers at the time of making this post. That is for a reason, she is capturing her audience she has won their attention and it is significantly paying off. Agree or disagree with her methods you need to dissect what she is doing here and see that she is currently winning. I have no idea how long the cringe train will last but it is currently going.

KamuiCosplay – Cosplayer with amazing LED armor builds

I know less about Kamui, as I never interacted with her. She has never messaged me for an IG post. Although I have posted her in the past because her LED armor is always damn good. I learned about Kamuicosplay maybe a year ago. Before that she was unkown to me, but when I started looking at all her social media she was straight killing it. She did this without the lewd aspect and you can scroll through her feed for a while before even seeing a picture of herself. Kaumi is killing the LED armor cosplay game and I haven’t really seen anyone do much better (comment below if someone is I could totally be missing out on other cosplays!).

What makes KamuiCosplay standout from the crowd?

Creativity: I honestly have not seen LED’s used this way in the cosplay world and she is very good I coming up with neat ways to use the LED lights in her costumes. Her armo is always on point as well.

I honestly have not seen LED’s used this way in the cosplay world and she is very good I coming up with neat ways to use the LED lights in her costumes. Her armo is always on point as well. No lewds: In an Instagram world of sexy cosplays she can get 10k+ likes on photos on a picture of molded foam that isn’t even finished yet.

In an Instagram world of sexy cosplays she can get 10k+ likes on photos on a picture of molded foam that isn’t even finished yet. Marketing : I can’t say much for that, but her content alone is asking to be shared around social media because it looks super cool. So I know for sure that she is getting shared even if she isn’t asking for it.

: I can’t say much for that, but her content alone is asking to be shared around social media because it looks super cool. So I know for sure that she is getting shared even if she isn’t asking for it. Entrepreneur aspect: Her website has all the standard cosplayer stuff such as prints and signed prints. But she has also created her own series of books on cosplaying. Her books cover armor making, prop making, LED stuff, and sewing and you can check it out more here. I don’t know how well it sales, but I am sure she is doing a fine job.

KamuiCosplay is more focused on the art of cosplay. She creates she teaches and she is doing a fine job at it. So she is a great example of just being good at what you love. Being able to translate that into the popular world that she has immersed herself into. Now in my opinion I think her path is more sustainable and evergreen. Meaning that her content is here to stay and be sold she won’t fall off if her looks were taken away from her. She has essentially paved a path as a go to person in cosplay LED and armor work.

What can we learn from Amouranth and KamuiCosplay?

We learn that they are both dedicated and working their asses off doing what they want and what I can only assume they enjoy. They are both deep into the cosplay nerd/geek world in one way or another. Who cares if one does lewds and one does LED’s, we should be measuring them off of their social media success. So you need to stop worrying about other people, you need to start working harder. Success will not just fall into your lap over night, work will have to be put in to achieve that success.

Social media is a tool that will help spread all the hard work you have been putting into your business and your craft and nobody will care about you until they do care about you. So grind it out be the next innovator, or take something that is currently popular and make that yours. You will be the deciding factor when it comes to your success.

Instagram will not decide your success just because they decided to change the algorithm. It is now your job to figure out what it takes to get around that little brick wall that is in your path. Instagram has always been free, they are a money hungry Facebook entity whether you like it or not. Fuck the Instagram Algorithm. Take your journey back into your own hands. Keep grinding out cosplay, videos, artwork because you are the only one responsible for you.

Conclusion

Work hard, use all media outlets as they are free but only cost your time. You need to perfect your craft and become marketable. Standing out from the crowd is something that you want to do, different is good. Cosplay is saturated, but it is only saturated with a bunch of people doing the same ol’ things. Dare to be different, use others success as a roadmap, but map out your own journey. Whatever you do don’t stop hustling. Nobody is going to hold your hand. Nobody will tell you what is going to work, you will have to figure that out on your own.