Resource ThuRsday: Twitter and Artists

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How to grow your Twitter following[/caption]

So, now that we have talked about some of the rising stars in the social media world, we are now going to turn our attention to one of the traditional, yet still very popular, platforms: Twitter.

Featured to the left is a fun infographic from Enfuzed. If you already have a Twitter account (and if you don’t, go ahead and create one — it is very simple!) and want/need to gain a greater following, then here are some tips from the featured image:

1. Share and retweet about new knowledge that your followers (probably one’s from your industry) will find interesting.

2. Provide links to videos and fun images (perhaps your latest performance or painting), not just text articles. For videos, you will need to upload your video to YouTube (or another service) first, then provide a link to it in your tweet.

3. Link your blog/website and other social media platforms to your Twitter account, and blog about your tweets.

4. Add a Twitter widget to your blog/website (also, follow this link to embed a timeline of tweets on your website).

5. Use hashtags (#) often to highlight popular topics in your tweets. For more information about hashtags, see SocialMediaExaminer.

6. Use @mention to recognize another organization for their article, video, image, etc… that you are tweeting about.

7. Reply to other tweets.

As an artist, there are additional ways you can increase your following as well. Here are some recommendations:

1. Choose an account name, profile image, and background image that represents what you do as an artist and that is similar to what you have on your other social media profiles.

2. Include some of your personality in your bio statement.

3. Make sure you include a link in your profile to your website or other platform that you use to promote and/or sell your work.

4. Follow some people (but not too many at first). Follow your clients, competitors, and organizations relevant to your business.

5. Use Twitter’s “advanced search” function to find potential customers in your area.

6. Have an upcoming performance, gallery event, etc…? Make sure you tweet about it — and multiple times — before the event.

7. Overall, tweet at least twice a day.

One other thing: Use bitly to shorten links you include in your tweets.

Next week: One last platform before we move on to dashboards.

Thanks everyone, and please provide your comments and suggestions below!