Twitter really is a place to go viral. It has been for a long time. Many people use it as a digital diary, documenting their day-to-day lives. Others use it to share tweets they can relate to or pitch in with the conversation. With it being so popular, you need to know how to use it as an artist.
Why should you use Twitter?
This is the platform where people are less afraid to say it how it is. Due to this, people are a lot more vocal and will speak up more. This is great when it comes to getting your work shared because people will happily bombard their feed over and over again.
There are three options when it comes to sharing someone else’s tweet; you can retweet, quote the tweet or like it. With someone sharing or quoting your tweet, it appears on their feed and on their profile. This means all of their followers will view your post also and could decide to share it from there. The quoting a tweet option allows them to give some feedback and have their say on your post. You want your fans to use this to tell their followers how much they love your new track while sharing it.
Don’t overlook likes either, having people like your tweet can also get it featured on other people’s newsfeed. It often shows the liked tweets of people that you follow. This means there are many ways to spread your music across the platform without your fans having to do much work.
Hashtags, trends, tagging…
If you’re thinking of using Twitter regularly as an artist, you should come up with your own hashtag. Say for example you were us here at PUSH.fm, you might choose #PUSHyourself in all of your tweets. Something short and sweet but catchy that in time your fans might start to use as well. This would be a great way to get your name travelling around Twitter.
Remember there are character limits, which can be hard, if like me, you like to talk a lot. Try to be as concise as possible and keep everything short and snappy. People tend to like reading shorter tweets, so remember this when starting out. This is why creating your own hashtag could be a fun thing to do that drives your artist momentum. You may decide to just drop an artist image along with your hashtag, simple but effective.
Twitter gives you the option to tag anyone you want in your tweets. This is a great thing for collaborations. You can add in all the artists you have worked with when releasing your latest track. In turn, guess what? They’ll likely retweet you and spread the message to their followers. It also gives you the chance to have your say on another artists work which again, could get a share from them and peak an interest from their fans.
There’s also daily trends. Topics that are being spoken about the most will appear here. Alternatively, Twitter also suggests ones you may be interested in. This could be linked to topics you search for or things you interact with the most. If you want to get your name on there, you need your fans to be talking about you.
Your artist profile
Again, as we have said in other blog posts, your artist profiles should be consistent across all social media platforms. Twitter is no exception to this, it should fit in with your artist brand. Your artist image and header should fit in nicely with the rest of your social platforms. When your fans look at your page, they should know it’s you without seeing your name.
Think carefully about your username. This can be changed at a later stage, but once your fans remember it, they’ll continue to tag your previous name if you’ve changed it, and you might miss out on a lot of promotion and interaction. Keep your Twitter name true to your artist name. Don’t have it as your personal name if your artist goes by something completely different. Try and avoid making your name too long as well as your name takes up characters in a tweet and if your fans are talking about you, you want them to have the space to say as many good things as possible. The other thing about it being too long is people may forget it!
Show us what you can offer
Make sure you include your latest music videos in your tweets. Ensure you share your streaming links and other social media pages. Have all of your social media accounts interlink with each other, so you can share the same message across the board. There’s no point having a digital diary if you’re not going to share to it.
Don’t be afraid to show your personality through it. People on Twitter are a lot more laid back than other platforms. You don’t need to be serious and professional all the time. Show some humour and have some fun. Also make sure you put other tweets that aren’t just promotion out there. Let your fans know how your musics going or what new things you’ve been up to lately. Not every tweet has to be focused on promoting your tracks.
Encourage others too. You might spot another artist who is similar to yourself. They don’t have to be a rival, instead you can help each other out. Share their work and let them return the favour. Respond to their tweet asking for some advice and encourage them to keep going. We all need a bit of a boost sometimes, and helping them out may mean their fans notice you.
Most importantly, use the platform to have fun. As I mentioned, Twitter is far more laid back than other social media platforms, and it’s a great place for a discussion. If you’re wanting to gain a following, Twitter might just be the place to do it because everyone is down for a chat. Get involved on the platform. See what’s trending and make a conversation with someone about it. They might just end up becoming a loyal fan.
