Posts Tagged ‘twitter’

I’m not much of a tweeter. At times I want to be and this past week I’ve been hitting the Twitter pretty hard. Just now I checked out my analytics and it’s no surprise that the more active I am the more active others are with me. Seriously, a dog with a smart phone could tell you that much. However, I came across this “Audience Interests” chart and it makes me wonder how I have any followers at all.

The term “art” doesn’t show up anywhere and I would estimate that 99% of my tweets are art related. So, I have to ask myself, “Where did this dog loving audience come from? Where is my audience? Where are the art fans?”

Conclusion: If I want to build a better relationship with my Twitter audience I need to write posts about tech savvy dogs at music festivals.

Second Conclusion: Twitter probably isn’t the best place for me to sell my artwork.

Third Conclusion: I should consider painting dogs instead of sad girls that look like they got beat up.

That’s it for now.
Thanks for watching. Like and subscribe…oh wait, this isn’t a YouTube video.

Thanks for reading!
– Jeff

I love Twitter. At first I was hesitant, but tried it out despite my skepticism. Now I’m slightly addicted. As a DIY artist that is responsible for all aspects of my business (making products, selling, packing/shipping, marketing, customer service, etc.) twitter has proven to be a great tool at keeping people informed. All my followers now know what youtube videos I’m watching, what I’m eating, and the ungodly hours I choose to go on donut runs. What does this have to do with being a professional DIY’er?

For starters, it gives your fans a behind the scenes glimpse at who you are and what you’re about. Have you ever watched an episode of Behind The Music or Cribs? If you have there’s a good chance you sat transfixed watching somebody you would never normally be interested in. Leif Garrett, anyone? If people know who you are they are going to be excited to support you. And if they like what you post twitter makes it very easy for them to retweet your post to all of their followers.

One thing to keep in mind when getting started is to not bombard your followers with links to buy your stuff. Be sure to mix up your self-promotional posts with the personal ones. Nothing will lose you followers faster than incessant “look at my stuff and buy it” posts. I’ve actually set up a separate account that I use solely for promotion. It’s so obvious that anybody who chooses to follow it knows exactly what they’re signing up for. I still post self-promotional tweets on my personal account, but I mix it up.

The one thing that has really helped out with promoting my goods on twitter is the “hashtag”, which is this symbol #. I saw people using the hashtag before keywords (example: #painting) and had to investigate as to why? As it turns out people can save searches for their favorite topics and see posts from all the twitter users that use a particular hashtag/keyword. For instance, if you want to see what the entire twitter community is saying about fashion simply save the search. Using the hashtag is a great way to have people see your posts that aren’t following you. I’ve even picked up new followers that found my tweets with hashtags. I’ve posted links to items in my etsy shop and have seen 20-30 more views in a matter of minutes. Same with blog posts. The key, of course, is to find popular hashtags. Search for a few in your field to see how often people are posting with the same tag. Here are some of my favorites:
#etsy
#diy
#art
#painting
#craft
#style
#streetart

You can also try some specific local keywords for where you live. Where I live (San Luis Obispo) local twitter-ers will use #slo and #centralcoast. So, when you have an art show on the Central Coast promote it on twitter with “#centralcoast“.

When you get really obsessed with Twitter you’ll want to tweet using a third party. Here are the two that I use and swear by.
Tweet Deck – Super easy to use and you don’t even need to open a web browser to use it, which I think is great.
Hoot Suite – This is awesome because you have the option to schedule your tweets! I love this feature. The site is a little crowded, but it’s still easy to use.

I still have a lot to learn about the world of tweeting, so if you have any tips and tricks please share with us by leaving a comment. Thanks!