Using Twitter to Sell Your Art and Your Story
Twitter.com is mainstream due to exposure from Oprah Winfrey, Ashton Kutcher, and a number of other high-profile players. The now debunked rumor (in the U.S.) was that a Twitter television show (that box people watched before the Internet) was in the works.
A quick, boring background: Twitter is a self-described “service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” (in 140 characters or less) The full story is on Wikipedia (where everything is true).
While there are no rules for using Twitter effectively, there are strategies and tactics that work better for selling art online. To see Rule #1 for using Twitter for purely marketing and PR (public relations) purposes, click here now.
Despite the above guidance, there are no shortage of opinions about how to use Twitter for marketing and PR … 629,000 at last count. So, if Twitter isn’t a marketing and PR tool, “What is it good for aside from announcing that awesome breakfast?” At its core, Twitter is a messaging system and relationship building tool. In aggregate, your Tweets should give people more information about you, your artwork, and your creative process. You can use Twitter to engage followers in a discussion about [your] art.
Here is my shortlist of tips for using Twitter to further your artistic bone fides. Please feel free to add your tips and tricks in the comments area below.
If you want to be effective using Twitter to promote and sell your art:
DO
- Use search.twitter.com (also see Twitter Advanced Search) to find and follow people interested in art, t-shirts, design, interior design, office management (these folks buy office art), etc. Essentially anyone with an interest in creativity.
- Use Twitter to alert followers about:
+ Your progress about a current project or series. Use a RedBubble Journal article, Twitpic.com or another service to post works in progress; people love to see work in a fluid state. You can engage and pre-sell people on the design, solicit feedback, etc.
+ Tell people the beginnings of “the story behind a work.” Continue the story on your RedBubble Profile Page or on the ‘Show Work’ or ‘Configure Page.’
Note: The one thing that most Twitterers are lacking is great content; content is the most expensive tool in a Twitter toolbox. The good news is that you already have this content in your RedBubble Profile and/or Bubblesite.
+ Link to relevant content such as a RedBubble Journal Post or an article by an industry thought leader. Use TinyURL.com, Bit.ly or another free service to shorten your links.
+ Announce the addition of new work to your RedBubble profile.
+ Announce a promotion, e.g., a short-term reduction of your royalty, or a RedBubble-sponsored promotion. Always announce the promotion with a deadline. You can send one reminder when you’re 24-36 hours away from the end. That’s all though; no Tweet spamming.
+ Live ‘tweet’ an event. For example, every gallery in my hometown opens its doors on the Second Saturday of each month. Restaurants, musicians and street vendors also use the event to gain exposure. Twitpic, post to a RedBubble journal article, or simply tweet the goings-on – show your work, other work, action, etc. Give context to your work and your story.
DON’T, if you want to use Twitter effectively for selling art …
- Don’t use Twitter to announce what you had for breakfast.
- A lot of people are voyeurs, but you’re looking for action, so create a call to action. E.g., use verbs like “see, click, view, read, try …”
- Be ultra-efficient with your words. Get the point across and add a link if needed. A preamble isn’t needed for a Tweet.
- Don’t use Twitter as your soapbox for negativity. On Twitter, no one can see you; they just hear you. If your language is ugly, well …
EXTRAS
You can customize your Twitter background to include pictures of your art and design, as well as your RedBubble URLs, a personal website address, phone number, or some context about you and your work. Remember to keep it simple.
Note that I didn’t tell you that it’s imperative to use Twitter. Twitter isn’t for everyone. It’s an exercise in dedication, efficient use of words, and restraint; verbal diarrhea is not recommended nor effective.
Please add your commentary, ideas, etc. below.
H M Bascom
Twitter has been good to me so far! Great journal entry.
selling replied
Thanks for the comment. I’m now following you on Twitter.
artist4peace
this is great,thanks
MuscularTeeth
interesting.. im still unsure how useful twitter would be to me… do you need a mobile phone for it?
selling replied
Good question. You can “tweet” from a mobile phone, but you can also just use your computer (at Twitter.com or other sites noted below).
Matt Simner
Great stuff – it’s also worth noting that there’s lots of ways to feed into and out of twitter, so when you tweet it can show up elsewhere, and when you blog (e.g. tumblr) it can auto-tweet – so each message you write can be seen by multiple audiences. This sort of integration’s only likely to increase in future too :)
selling replied
Yep, please elaborate. You can set your tweets to update your Facebook status updates too.
georgiegirl
Thanks so much for all that. I’ve just joined Twitter GeorgiegirlofRB but am now confused… you say spam is telling people to check out links. So whats the difference between that and adding a link with a blurb about it?
selling replied
Telling people to check out links is fine, but make sure that they have value, context, etc. “Check out my art” is not as good as “I added a new image of Lorne to RedBubble. Link: http://www.tinyurl.com/... #beaches #ocean #australia”
ccwri
Wonderful info, THANKS!!!!!!
Matt Simner
Yeah – haven’t looked too much into this yet (not doing any facebook integration), but for instance I’ve got the following set up>
(pasted from forum )...
the blog is connected to the tum-blr,
the tum-blr’s connected to the twit-ter,
the tee-burb’s connected to the twit-ter (too),
oh hear the word of the lord :)
I think a lot of the bigger blogging platforms will now offer cross posting and twitter integration…
georgiegirl
Thanks so very much!! I’d hate to be branded a spammer!! I’ll make sure to add interesting info to all my chirpings at Twitter in future.
Facebook is much easier… we get to include little thumbs along with lots of space to chat about the link. The only thing I don’t like about Twitter is the lack of space… those characters run out really fast!!!
Regarding connecting all the blogs, twitters and other places together… Does anyone worry about the security of it all, or is it just me? Its giving all the control to the virtual world.
Anne van Alkemade
oh, so saying “look what I just posted at Redbubble … here” is okay?
I’ve seen heaps of people doing this and thought I’d start but the “anti spam guilt” in me has been blossoming so I might try value-add instead.
Cathie Tranent
LoL @mattsimner!
Wonderfully valid points Jason. I don’t believe I’ve been guilty of too many of the naughties yet!!
Thanks!
Ben Ryan
Another important aspect of using twitter is to tag your tweets with 1-3 relevant keywords, such as the ”#beaches #ocean #australia” example above. They make your tweets searchable when preceeded with a #.
They also don’t have to come after the message. You can include them within it eg: “New #photographs…” is a common one for Dave Pearson’s tweets.
selling replied
Thanks Ben – good tip. Yes, be sure to use @username when referring to a Twitter member, #keyword if you want the topic to be easily searchable, and RT if you’re retweeting a message verbatim, e.g., “RT @50champ A commentary on why relationships sell art. http://tinyurl.com/pb7p8c #art #sales”
waitin' for rain
there are lots of firefox addons and additional sites to make the life in twitt more simple ..
i love the “Shareaholic”for firefox, http://twitterfall.com/ for filtering and firing on E71 for mobility.
ozlat
here are some twitter tools to automate your “journey”
http://twitterfeed.com/
-integrated with- http://bit.ly/-to automatically update your twitter account with RSS feeds- for example-a blog-http://www.tweetlater.com/
-used to send new followers an automatic welcome message- can be-on rotation with different messages-http://www.twollo.com/
-to automatically follow people on designated search keywords- and http://tweetspinner.com/-to mass follow and unfollow people-simplylovely183
well now i’ve been sucked into the twitter void…
AngelArtiste
How do you find people interested in art etc.?
selling replied
The tough love message is that artists have the best opportunity to sell their work. Contacts, friends, family and personal leads have the highest conversion rates [as many of us have witnessed].
That said, I can tell you that RedBubble does a lot of heavy lifting in order to drive traffic to its marketplace and community. We advertise on search engines (pay per click), blogs, related content sites and build traffic through search engine optimization, social media, and revenue sharing agreements. RedBubble also reaches out to businesses to generate B2B sales on behalf of its members; this past week we outfitted a Phoenix, AZ business with art for its 30,000 square foot headquarters.
One way to drive traffic and sales that’s unique to RedBubble are its Groups. Groups are member-led and do a very good job channeling subject matter, e.g., landscape photographs, tattoo art, automobiles, images of Tuscany, etc. These groups are search engine powerhouses, and RedBubble gives members the opportunity to sell collectively through a sales widget (ask your hosts to activate the widget). RedBubble also supplies individual artists with a Facebook widget and other assorted links and banners as part of its suite of promotion tools.
We’ve found that RedBubble members with 10-plus listed works sell more than those with fewer works. We also see wonderful sales for t-shirt designers and those artists that allow their work to be sold as multiple paper-based products, e.g., as greeting cards, calendars, matted prints, framed prints, etc.
taiche
Check out this …it’s
taiche
Sorry – here
selling
Here is a very good Twitter basics article for anyone interested in using the service.
Stephen Mitchell
I can vouch that you will get an increase in traffic from advertising on Twitter. I periodically announce articles on my journal to twitter and within hours, my traffic spikes. I wish we could see the traffic-spikes from advertising Redbubble!
monocotylidono
Great article and thread – be careful when searching with hashtags: Searching for redbubble and #redbubble does not give the same results. I use TweetDeck and have a search column for each. Other useful searches are #photography and #photographer. Even if the sgnal-to-noise ratio is very high on those, you will pick up some interesting gems. – George
Janis Zroback
Twitter is my preferred social network as I can reach so many people in the space of a minute…since joining a few weeks ago, my list of folllowers is building rapidly, as I post informative articles on a daily basis, primarily for artists working in all mediums…
eoconnor 26 days ago
A lot of information here especially as i am just a beginner.I will save this to reread again thanks
Jason Laderoute 26 days ago
Interesting I have many friends how have been utilizing twitter since it came on scene, I am amazed at how my friend is able to sell cars by it, yet I don’t know how I can see myself using this form of communication, as I tend to be more granular in my communication seeking rather to be definitive hmmm considering the change of pace could encourage me to be more point form but I also wrestle with the fast paced unfinished thought flow. Will have to do some thinking about this thanks for the insight.
EligoDesign 9 days ago
i was thinking these days to start a twitter account