Type of shots
Surprisingly, the most popular static shot (and the second most popular among all shots) was a showcase of an interface element - it got 39k views. It confirms the previous point:
The basis of your content should be techniques that designers can apply in their real projects.
And more importantly, the project essence should be clear from the preview in the general list of shots, this is especially important for animated shots. If you want to amuse the audience with incredible animation, which appears at the third second, your shot will most likely get fewer views than a usual static shot presenting an interface element.
Agree, gray text on a white background with a turquoise hover is a lousy example of Product Design. But the fact that so many users liked this shot confirms the assumptions we've outlined above. The more the shot looks like a Behance cover and contains enlarged interface elements, the better. It is important to have contrasting details so that your shot somehow stands out among the shots of other studios. Try to insert your shot into the Popular feed; just visualize your dreams, and see how it looks alongside other works. Seriously, we did it so.
How to do 👇
How not to do🙅
3D content and expertise
Initially, we thought that shots with 3D animations would attract users best. But comparing the amount of time spent to produce such shots and the number of views we finally received, it was not worth an effort. Supposedly, this is because we mixed up - our expertise and, thus, content is focused on Product Design, not Motion Design. The advice is to focus on your area of expertise and show only relevant shots, do not mix up.
Boosted Shots
There is a functionality for boosting posts on Dribbble. The more you pay, the more views you get. But, having tested different options for boosting our shots, we saw no increase in likes, buckets, or followers. So, what's the point in boosting shots if it gives only fruitless views, not juicy followers?
Alright, we’ve tried to boost static shots, but now we plan to make a different type of shots containing call-to-action “Follow”. Let's see what happens.
Likes, views, buckets
The most common advice: "Publish cool content, and it will end up in the Popular feed"
That’s fine, but there’s a big “but” - Dribbble is primarily a social network, which means that social mechanics work the same way as on any other social platform.
Look, each of our shots gets the first likes, comments, and buckets from our team. Dribbble sees that activity and shows the shot to other users. How quickly it gets to the top depends on how many likes and buckets the shot receives right after being published.
Users add shots to buckets several times less than they like them, but buckets are the thing that decides whether your shot gets in the Popular feed. Don't forget about comments; they also affect the ranking, but to a lesser extent than likes or buckets.