How To Use Twitter As A Musician
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Effective microblogging that promotes your band and creates dialogues with fans.
Estimated Cost: FREE
Estimated Time: 30 minutes preparation with immediate results.
Indie Guide Categories: Blogging Tools, Web Presences & Social Networks
What Do You Need to Do This
- A free Twitter account
- An avatar
Edit What's Needed View History
Directions
1. Create a a free account with Twitter.
Sign up is simple and completely free. Make sure to leave your profile set as public so that anyone can read your tweets.
2. Upload your band avatar.
Every Twitter account has a tiny default picture at the top of the page. This is perfect for your band's avatar. If you don't have one, learn how to make an avatar here.
3. Upload a branded band photo or graphic as the background image.
Twitter lets you personalize your background as well, so use this as an opportunity to brand this presence. Make sure if you use any words on the image that they are all aligned to the left as that is the only part that viewers will be able to read.
3. Begin following friends, other bands, and aquaintances.
You should follow everyone in your skill and opportunity networks. Add bands you have worked with, studios where you have recorded, venues you played at, and every influential person you have met.
4. When other users follow you, return the favor.
It is common courtesy to follow those who follow you. Show your fans that you care about their interests too. However, if you can tell that an account is clearly spam, don't feel obligated to follow that person. There are auto-follow programs available that will immediately add anyone that follows you, and if it you them, you should review your list to make sure that they're real people.
5. Tweet your latest news, projects, questions, and fun insights.
The beauty about Twitter is that you can talk about whatever you want as long as it is 140 characters or less. Tweet about your travels on the road, latest recording sessions, inspiring tidbits, etc. Anything is fair game. You definitely want to promote yourself, but avoid only talking about business because Twitter should be more personal and fun.
6. Read and retweet others' interesting tweets and respond to comments directed at you.
Read through others' tweets; you might find inspiration for your music and new opportunities. Whenever you read a particularly great tweet, feel free to retweet it. That is when you copy their words, add the letters RT before it, and post it as your own tweet. There is now a new feature where you can retweet with one click, so you can use that also. If someone talks about you, you can respond by directing a tweet at them. To do this, put @ in front of their user name and send them a message that everyone can see.
7. Activate Twitter mobile with your cell phone number and tweet on the go.
This is also free and allows you to send text messages that are posted as tweets on your page. You can also use your camera phone in conjunction with free services like TwitPic.com to post pictures to Twitter while you are away from the computer.
8. Tweet pictures
Using services like Twitpic.com and tweetphoto.com you can easily share pictures, often right from your phone.
Next Steps
There is nothing to do after completing this.
References
There are no references for this.