13 Tips on Getting the Best Out of Twitter

I don't how often i have heard people say "No i don't use Twitter, it's just a bunch of people saying where they are, what they are doing and what they had for breakfast" and "What can I do with 140 characters?" Well, it has proven it can do a hell of a lot more than that, from distributing news, social and political commentary, to marketing, distributing not only short bursts of text but also pictures and videos. It has now been around for 6 years, and has pretty much become the leader in spreading information across the world, becoming the social barometer of our times.

It is now an essential tool in any musicians marketing strategy, and there is a wealth of techniques you can use to get the best out of twitter in keeping your fan base informed and engaged.

Not only can you use it as a news service, it also has great potential for you to find new fans, and get them to discover you.

Since its inception, there has become a wealth of third party utilities to help you exploit the potential of twitter to the full. Two i have been using the most over the years are Tweetdeck and Hootsuite. They give you the ability to monitor the 'twitterverse' and search for keywords and hashtags (twitters own keyword system that allows users to find tweets on certain subjects such as #art #photography #ladygaga etc) that could be relevent to you, your music and your goals. They allow you to join in the conversations and connect with people discussing things that could be relevent to you, and in turn, you might be interesting to them.

Chris Singleton over at Prescription PR has put together a list of 13 top tips for musicians and bands using twitter which i think you should take a look at. Here is my favourite peice of advice from his article...

By all means post links to your band's new videos and MP3s from time to time, but do not get too fond of doing so; otherwise you’ll just look like a jerk. Believe me, when it comes to overcommunicating about my own music projects, I’ve been there, done that and bought the t-shirt…and despite waxing endlessly about the importance of musicians keeping schtum for five minutes, I still see artists (who should know better) bore their friends, family and remaining fan to tears with hourly Facebook updates about their latest creative endeavours. Nobody cares after a while (if they ever did in the first place –geddit?). Instead, post links to great content from other sources – whack links up on Twitter to scintillating articles which don’t happen to be about your music (and rest assured, there are a lot of them). Or make witty observations about cheese and/or the credit crunch. In short, get a reputation for being an interesting dude, not a self-obsessed bore.

Check out the rest of his article here.

We also have an article on our Make It In Music site on twitter for musicians here.

 

Links

http://www.prescriptionmusicpruk.com/the-prescription/2012/5/1/using-twitter-top-tips-for-musicians-and-bands.html

http://www.makeitinmusic.com/twitter-for-musicians/

 

Click to Tweet - great new Twitter service

If you want to get more people to see a particular post on your website or to buy tickets or take some specific action, you want that message to spread to as many people as possible.

This new service, Click to Tweet, enables you to create a pre-written tweet for people to click on. This will open their Twitter account with your message prepopulated with your Tweet.

So, you can email all the people on your fan list (you do have one of those right?) or put the Tweet in a short post on your site or your Tumblr and specifically ask people to click it and spread the word.

Here's an example:

Please click this to Tweet about our latest post on How to promote your music on Spotify -

http://clicktotweet.com/wev2i

Of course, you could change the text in that link to 'Please click to Tweet about this' or similar.

When clicked, it'll open your Twitter account and have this Tweet ready to go - "Great piece on how to use Spotify to actually promote your music - http://ow.ly/7oQUc".

Please do so we can see how well it works!

As a way of encouraging people to spread the word I expect to see this be very effective.

Use Click to Tweet here.

Hootsuite takes over!

I've been moaning about TweetDeck for a while - how it slows down my computer and crashes ....a lot.

So, I have slowly been using Hootsuite more and more to help me with all my Twitter action. In fact, I can't now rememmeber when I last used TweetDeck.

And now, Hootsuite have added some very cool new ways to use it to update your Facebook Pages.

Can't see me going back!

Read their post about their new Facebook features here.

And here's their video:

 

HootSuite Adds Advanced Facebook Management Tools from HootSuite on Vimeo.

6 Tips for effective Twitter networking

Have you checked out our mammoth post series on Twitter for Musicians?

It's essential reading and really does give you chapter and verse on how to use Twitter as part of your music promotion efforts.

But, I'm always looking for more tips and loved this post from Social Media expert Madalyn Sklar as it distills the essence of Twitter into 6 simple tips.

Here are my 6 simple tips that will help you build momentum and followers. There is no magic pill for instant success. But if you follow these strategies, you will improve your results. And remember, it’s about building your Twitter network… one follower at a time!

It takes time, consistency and a plan of action. So let me ask you… how effective are you on Twitter? People I talk to either love it (and might even admit to being addicted) or they just don’t get it, not understanding how it can help them.

Read them here.

How to find local fans on Twitter

We look at how to find potential fans of your music in your local area in this part of our Twitter music marketing guide.

Obviously, if you can find your fans near to your home base then you radically increase your chances of getting those people to shows.

This video from Ariel Hyatt looks at another way to do this.

 

Timely Twitter Tip

A commenter on our site the other day put me on to Timely, which one of my clients has been trying out with some success. I'm giving it a go today.

It claims to look at your last 199 tweets and then schedule your tweets at the times that they are most likely to be read, Retweeted or replied to.

My client noticed greater activity - I'll let you know if I do too!

Check it out here.

The power of Twitter

I'm not saying that you should set up a hoax using Twitter to spread the word about our music, like this TV writer did.

But, if you read the story it gives insight into how people trust what they read on Twitter and how Retweets and "quotes" from other users can add instant authority to your Twitter stream and profile - and therefore, to your music.

Or maybe it's just time to set up a hoax!

Read about it here.

For the right way to use Twitter as a musician - go here.

5 ways to lose fans on Twitter

Great reminder post from Dave Cool (yes, really!) on Bandzoogle's blog.

Common sense maybe - but you still need to be reminded.

Most artists and bands now use Twitter to promote their music and connect with their fans. But like with all promotional tools, there are certain things you should avoid doing. I’ve searched through literally thousands of artist accounts on Twitter and noticed some alarming trends. Here’s a quick Top 5 things that could cause you to lose your fans on Twitter:

Read the 5 tips here.

Of course, when you have a day to spare, you can read our definitive guide to Twitter music marketing.

 

How to build your Twitter Tribe

There's some great advice in this post on Twitter.

Primarily written for business/ brand users of Twitter, all the advice is applicable to musicians.

Of course, you need to read the definitive guide on Twitter music marketing on our site as well!

We cover some of the same ground but this has good info on how to find people to follow and, in particular, how to make your tweets stand out as interesting - the answer is to treat them as headlines.

You don’t need to dedicate the time to a tweet that you would give a full blog post. But there are a few simple things you can do to make your tweets achieve a better reach among your followers.

Whenever you tweet an article, try to link it with the interests of your community.

This means that sometimes the title of the article will fit this purpose very well, sometimes it won’t. Try finding a quote in the article that particularly relates to your community’s and followers’ interests.

Read the whole thing here.

Twitter for Musicians - the basics

Ariel Hyatt posted these two short videos on the basics of how musicians should use Twitter and although I have posted the first one before, it makes sense to have the two together!

Here's part 1:

And here's part 2:

Of course, once you've got the basics you should regularly dip into our masterclass series on Twitter for Musicians.

The 3 most important platforms for musicians

Are:

Email

Twitter

Facebook Shares

.....according to Topspin.

This is a short post that sets out the direct to fan specialist's view, backed up by their data, that those are the three most important platforms artists can use to drive direct sales. Note that it's about sales and they also give a large nod to YouTube for engagement.

It's also refreshing that their advice is to spend all your attention on developing your art and finding people who can do the marketing for you. Clearly, your material needs to be great for any marketing effort to be worth the bother.

But, read the piece and don't ignore their data and the reasons. Email creates sales.

If you're not running an artist website that offers free tracks in return for an email.....you are an idiot!

Read the piece here.

Getting to understand Twitter

For those that missed my Tweet earlier - I've finished the 6 part series 'Top Twitter tips for Musicians'

Please check it out. I honestly think it's the best thing we've done on the blog so far.

To go straight to the 6th & final part of the series - click here.

In my last day of research and writing I came across this infographic which perfectly illustrates how your mindset changes as you grow to know and love the way that Twitter connects you with like-minded people.

We all take it for granted already that we can reach and talk to people all over the world who share our interests (such as your music) - but even just a few years ago, that would've been science fiction.

It's a time of unrivalled opportunity for all of us to reach out and engage people - whether that's to promote something like your music or just to share stuff with others all over the world.

Snoop Tweets it like it is.

I really am about to post the final part of my Twitter for Musicians series. Tomorrow!

For now, this is a great post on why Snoop Dogg is so good at handling his own Twitter presence.

As a Hypebot reader, you're undoubtedly informed on the importance of artist-fan relationships and how Twitter has broken down the walls between the artist and the fan by keeping each one at arm's length from another. Yet still, many artists I know refuse to enter the "Twittersphere" as they are still not fully convinced that they need it to communicate with their fan base.

While an artist may not necessarily need to Tweet, it certainly opens up an entirely new landscape for fan interaction and engagement.

One music artist who is a master of digital fan engagement through Twitter is Snoop Dogg. As of this writing, Snoop has 2.4 million followers! This gives him an incredible sphere of influence. So how does Snoop keep his fans engaged?

Just head over to Hypebot and check it out.

 

What to say to your fans

Don't dismiss this post as being off-topic. It's not.

In my advice to my management clients (but it also applies to readers of our music marketing blog) I am consistently finding myself talking about 'content strategy' and what they need to plan out and then pass on to their fans from their various online profiles.

That will be music (free tracks, DJ sets, covers, demos), videos (rehearsals, gigs, backstage, on the road, messing about), and......information.

That information will often be about them, their music, their releases, but it's also about other stuff that they're in to, their scene, other bands they like.

We try to plan out when things will be posted and released, but we also like to be able to react to what's going on in music and comment on it and be involved.

This is very powerful for an artist as it places them in the fan's sense of an overall love of music.

And, here's the point - we encourage artists to use tools to follow and discover things that they might want to Tweet, mention on their Facebook wall or blog about.

In order to be at the forefront of things happening in your scene, you need to monitor what's being said online and then get involved.

The best way to do this is to monitor keywords in a variety of ways. Once you have your keywords (things like 'London music', 'London Gigs', 'Post Rock', 'Post Rock London', 'Post Rock UK', 'Sigur Ros' - might be some of the things you'd monitor if you were a London, UK-based post rock band, for example).

You can then monitor these words using tools (Google Reader is the one everyone talks about but I'll show you a better way another time!) and regular searches on Twitter and pass relevant things on to your fans. That way you're not always talking about yourself!

In my example, if you pass on good and timely news about Sigur Ros or a new post rock band playing in London, your fans will appreciate it (as will the new band) and they will start to see you as an integral part of that scene.

This non-music post by a marketer talks about the same thing and gives some suggestions on using tools to keep abreast of your searches.

It’s a cliché, but the early bird really does get the worm. In this case, the quick and sly Internet marketer gets the traffic and the conversions.

Staying ahead of the competition in terms of social media presence is often an underrated weapon. However, in a world where there are potentially thousands of competitors, doing the little things often separates the leaders from the rest of the pack. Beating everyone to the punch and staying in the forefront of the buzz can take a website from obscurity to Internet prominence in a hurry.

Oh, I know – it’s physically impossible for you to monitor each blog, forum and social network 24/7. We’re not going to do that.

We’ll pick our spots so that even the upstart Internet marketer can do things that will move him forward.

Read it here.

What do you use to Tweet?

I found this interesting as I am, belatedly, finishing off my series on Twitter marketing for musicians.

I'm just writing the bit about using third party clients like TweetDeck and Hootsuite and came across this infographic.

I assumed that loads of people use these options - and clearly many do, but it's interesting to see that the vast majority use the interface at Twitter.com.

You're missing out if you don't use one or several of the available clients. We look at these in the final part of the Twitter series on the main blog.

Image by Rosaura Ochoa

Bln.kr launch their 'tweet for a track' service

I wrote about Bln.kr in the Dailies and then in the latest part of our Twitter music Promotion guide - please check it out if you haven't yet.

Well, Bln.kr have launched the 'tweet for a track' (which, in fact, is also a Facebook share for a track service as well) in a bit of a private Beta.

I am loving their whole service and can see it being a default for rapid sharing online. In fact, if you're not going for the paid option that the actual Tweet for a Track site offers, in order to collect the email addresses of downloaders, then I don't see why you'd choose that service now over Bln.kr. Bln.kr offers more and is adding new stuff all the ntime.

Check out their video of this particular bit of the service.

 

 

If you want to get on and use it, it seems that at the moment this isn't available on their site and you'll need to email them at feedback@bln.kr. Obviously, this will be an on-site faeture in the very near future.

Twitter Search and finding out what's happening right now

Mashable created this video and posted about it here yesterday.

I've embedded it here though as it goes perfectly with my 5 part post on Twitter for Musicians - which I am desperately trying to finish today!

Dead simple - this video shows you how to use the advanced Twitter Search to find out up to the minute and more personal tips on anything - searching on Google is obviously 'the daddy' but it can take ages for good material to get indexed and if you're looking for the latest view on something, Twitter Seacrch is where to go.

This can be applied to music, music promotion tips, local venues to play - anything you can think of that's connected to your music career.

Find the advanced Twitter Search at http://search.twitter.com/advanced

Using the '@' on Facebook as well as Twitter is essential!

There is one character that should appear in most of your facebook posts and tweets. No, not YOU, silly! I’m talking about the “at symbol” (@). For many of us, it resides on the same keyboard key as the number 2. And now that we know WHERE it is, let’s look at WHY you should regularly use it in your social media communications.

So says the article on CDBaby's Diy Musician blog.

This mystified me for a long time but once I worked it out we have used it for all our clients.

We obviously talk about '@replies' in our Twitter for Musicians guide. But, generally just 'shouting' at someone on twitter with an '@reply' is wrong and just doesn't work. BUT, on Facebook, mainly because you have 140 characters and you can post Fan Page Wall to Fan Page Wall, you can do it without being spammy.

And it can be VERY powerful.

So, for example, you could do an acoustic cover of a song by a hot band and post it on your Facebook Fan page (via YouTube). Then you could post across to the band that you've covered's Fan Page and you will get people to come over and see your post on your Fan Page wall.

BTW - most really huge artists have disabled posts from others on their walls, but there are still a huge amount that haven't.

Read it here - and implement it!

How to make your tweets go viral

So, I've been beavering away on my magnum opus - Twitter for Musicians - for weeks, and it's finally getting published this week.

I'm therefore pleased when I find something to add to it in the Dailies.

This is a great post on the ever amazing CopyBlogger site that looks at some of the statistical data about sharing and retweets on Twitter.

Publishers can complain and wistfully wish for the good old days of blog links and Google juice, or they can adapt to the new reality Twitter represents. Getting your content “ReTweeted” on Twitter (i.e. getting people to repeat what you’ve said, usually along with a link) can drive significant quality traffic to your site, which in turn can boost your subscriber numbers.

So, how does ReTweeting happen, anyway? Well, here are the 5 factors you need to take into account when trying to get your content to spread virally on Twitter.

Read the post here.

 

10 websites that every DIY musician should know

I wanted to post this the other day but it mysteriously disappeared for 24 hours or so!

Now, it's back - a great article on 10 key sites that every DIY musician should at least be aware of - in fact, YouTube and Twitter aren't optional really, are they?

I’m going to focus on the second and third moment by providing a list of websites your band should visit to stay ahead of the curve.

Some sites are organizational tools, some are means of communication, while there others that relieve the tasks a band manager usually performs. And the best part about the following sites? You don’t need to be the most tech savvy person in the world in order to use them. It just takes some diligence and of course, creativity.

Anyways, I hope you find a couple of the sites to be useful.

Read the post here.