Market Yourself: Make the most of Twitter
Twitter is the home of conversations – where people connect by exchanging quick, frequent messages. Unlike most other platforms, Twitter’s main purpose is to connect people with similar thoughts, feelings and interests. It’s a great place to boost your business!
Getting started
First things first, you’ll want to create a profile for your business. Choose your display name, username and profile picture. If you have other social media accounts for your brand, it’s best to use the same profile picture for consistency so followers will easily be able to recognise you. The next step is to fill in your bio, in which you need to be clear and concise about who you are and what you offer. Finally, add a link to your Artfinder profile.
Start the conversation
In order for people to find you on Twitter, you need to start some conversations. Talk as though you’re speaking to your customers in person, share thoughts about what inspires you or who you admire, and update your followers on the new artwork on your Artfinder profile.
Where other social media platforms have posts, on Twitter these are known as tweets. These are limited to only 280 characters (including links, emojis and hashtags), so be succinct. You can share multiple tweets around the same topic but they may not always be displayed together, so make sure that each tweet works individually too.
You can also add the following to your tweets:
Images and videos
Make your tweets stand out by sharing an image or video with everyone. Adding a striking visual is a great way of catching someone's attention - which is especially valuable when posting alone amongst millions of others.
You can also use free tools to enhance your photos and videos, such as Canva, which is available on desktop and mobile. You may also have a free editor included in your photos app if you use a smartphone. Play with vibrancy, contrast and cropping to get the best photo for your social account. Remember, when representing your art business, visuals are everything!
GIFs
GIFS are a fun way to express how you feel, engage with the zeitgeist and be playful on your account. A hybrid between image and video, the movement of GIFS can encourage people to stop scrolling without having to commit to watching an entire video. You can share them by searching a library of free, animated GIFs directly when composing your tweet.
Polls
Your followers can engage with you in multiple ways, such as liking and commenting on your content. However, you can also encourage them to share their opinion with you by adding a poll to your tweet. Try asking questions that you want answers to, covering topics such as commissions, shop updates and the form of social content your followers want to see. This way you can get to know your audience better and can make informed decisions about your business.
Retweets
If you see a tweet that someone else has written that you’d like to share, you can retweet it. You can do this as a standalone act or can add a comment to the retweet, enabling you to add your own thoughts alongside theirs. These will appear with your other tweets for your followers to enjoy.
Not only will you appear active and engaged with your peers, but the accounts whose posts you are retweeting will be notified and might choose to check out your account. You could find yourself with more followers and more customers!
Post frequently
It’s estimated that 500 million tweets are posted every day, so it’s crucial to post frequently to ensure your tweets are seen. You may find that users tend to post on Twitter more frequently than on any other social media platform, so try posting once a day to begin with.
You can increase the chances of your tweets being seen by using hashtags, as many users will actively look for new content by searching for or clicking on them. You might see Artfinder include #Artfinder at the end of their tweet, so why not try this to begin with? You can also join conversations within the Artfinder community by tagging us in your tweets – just type @artfinder.
As well as people finding your Twitter account, you can also find likeminded people yourself! Twitter is all about conversations, so build new relationships with fellow artists, find content that will inspire you, and learn more about your customers. Let people know when you’ve appreciated their tweet by ‘liking’ it, or comment with your thoughts to join the conversation.
Use ads to increase reach
If you’d like to increase your chances of your tweets being seen, you can ‘promote’ them. This means turning your tweet into an ad in order to reach more people. You will need to choose an advertising goal, such as followers, videos views or website clicks.
When it comes to ads, the options are very flexible. You can choose exactly how many and which tweets you want to promote, and how much you want to promote them by. You may choose to promote only a few stand-out tweets, such as your new artwork reveals, for as little as £5. The results you get will depend on how much money you invest into the campaign.
Learn more
We have many more resources to help you make the most out of Twitter, such as our article on Social Media Tips.
Don't forget to follow Artfinder and give us a @mention. See you there!
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