Social Media Crashcourse – Twitter

Like Facebook & Instagram, it’s best to post regularly. Leave it days or be inconsistent and you’ll find the hard work you’ve done wasted or worse, very slow to achieve followers.

Unlike Instagram, this is a word-based platform, but images (which no longer take up any of you your 160 character count) will be welcome for any twitterer as a break from the norm.

So, how to get started?

As with all your social media accounts, it’s crucial to use your real business name and if possible, the same one you’ve used for all the rest of your social media accounts for continuity. Hyphens and underscores are something to avoid where possible, not just in Twitter usernames but also in domain names – it looks unprofessional and they’re cumbersome to type.

Once signed up you’re invited to put in a “bio”. Although you’re limited to 160 characters, it’s important to not skim this part, as users with bios and a link have shown to have more followers than those without and you always want to lead customers back to your selling portal.

To edit your bio, move your cursor up towards the top menu of your Twitter account -> Click on the “headshot” icon -> Click on “Settings” -> Then Click on “Profile”. In this area you can edit your bio in the “Bio” text area.

Your profile picture should be the same as your other platforms, a mugshot, logo or your fav artwork and do not use the provided default Twitter pic. It’s unprofessional and people can’t then identify with your brand.

THG-twitterTo edit your picture, move your cursor up towards the top menu of your Twitter account -> Click on the “headshot” icon -> Click on “Settings” -> Then Click on “Profile”. In this area you can upload or replace your picture.

Like in other platforms, I recommend using a larger image (maybe a few hundred pixels wide) and be sure to crop it into square dimensions.

It’s wise to add a header image, too. Either one of your pics or a closeup of a painting. A bespoke header will help your page stand out and shows off your wares right away. Here’s an example of ours to give you an idea of impact. I’ve taken a picture of the gallery both upstairs and downstairs to give people a feeling of being here.

Now you’ve got your username, a great bio and header picture, it’s time to get into some engagement.

Tweets are simply status updates, and they are the bread and butter of Twitter.  As an artist, you want to tweet about your work and maybe others’, too. Also, by tweeting valuable links, quotes or facts, you’re more likely to get retweets, which will help spread your account awareness. The people who will be following you are people who are interested in your art and what you have to say, so make sure the tweets are relevant.

Keep your links short. Since you can only tweet 140 characters at a time, sometimes it’s beneficial to shorten your links and use accepted abbreviations. Although it’s always best to use your full link where possible, you can shorten URL’s (links) so as to use less characters. For example, a direct link to my website would be https://www.theharbourgallery.co.uk (34 characters) but by using link shortening websites like bitly or Google’s URL shortener, I can make that link http://bit.ly/2twX5S4, which is just 21 characters. Additionally, as it’s a dedicated on-off link, I can see exactly how many people have used that click-through as opposed to the standard link.

Abbreviations are customary on Twitter, especially because of the short character allowance. Shortening words like ‘before’ (B4) and ‘By The Way’ (BTW) can make sure you get all you want to say into each post without having to use multiple posts or missing out on valuable info. If you want to really gen-up on many of these, try this page as a good resource. Don’t worry, though, the more you tweet, the more you’ll get au fait with the lingo.

What Not To Do on Twitter (or any social media accounts!)

There are some great dos and don’ts here, but whatever you do, avoid tweeting about your moods. Your customers don’t care if you’re hungry, tired or have a headache. In fact, you’ll often hear from people who don’t join Twitter because of this. So, if you do this, you’re likely have minimal followers and get little engagement from followers. Remain up-beat and positive and if you truly can’t… don’t post anything, or just cross post another’s work.

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