In her book Cyper PR For Musicians: Tools, Tricks & Tactics For Building Your Social Media House, author Ariel Hyatt presents the amazing story of artist Amanda Palmer who in 2011 managed to raise $11,000 by tweeting that she was alone on a Friday night, when her tweet “I hereby call THE LOSERS OF FRIDAY NIGHT ON THEIR COMPUTERS to ORDER …” generated huge buzz and a host of interaction which lead to her designing a shirt about it on the spot that night, which she then put for sale as was able to sell 400 shirts in two hours at $25.00 each.  Click HERE to read Amanda’s retell of that night here, who knows it just may inspire you.

This amazing scenario brings to life what we as independent songwriters, musicians, composers and artists hear over and over—but maybe never fully appreciated till reading Amanda’s story—there is insurmountable power in social media. The trick however is using it right!

Thankfully written resources like Ariel Hyatt’s Cyber PR for Musicians exist to help us independents devise tips, strategies and techniques to summon the power that lies in social media to our benefit.

In today’s blog we focus on Twitter and reference some key pointers from Ariel.

Ariel offers that one reason every musician should care about twitter is because it allows you a platform to directly connect and interact with your existing fan base and to connect people who you would other not meet, via tweets, replies and direct messages. Notably, Twitter reported having some 320 million active monthly users as of December 2015. Just imagine if you could engage with even 1% of these active users.

One technique recommended by Ariel in order to grow your twitter following, is to search for individuals who follow artists who are similar to you and start following them. The most common response is that those individuals will review your profile when they get your follow notification, thereby increasing the likelihood of them learning about you and your music and following you back! It’s important therefore to ensure that your twitter profile is up to date with links to your website, a short appealing biography and a picture and background twitter skin which artistically reflects you.

Additionally Ariel recommends constant retweeting and @replying to tweets made by others in order to foster greater engagement and interaction.

Meanwhile, when it comes to your twitter content, Ariel recommends tweeting at least three times a day and using what she calls “the social media pyramid” in order to mix up your twitter content and the link you share with your community, and not get in the rut of posting the same thing or types of content all the time.

She also warns against “over-hyping yourself.”

“If all of your tweets say things like ‘Buy my album! Come to my show!’ you’re not going to build an audience who trusts you…. Or wants to hear from you!” Says Ariel.

For more great Twitter and other insights from Ariel we highly recommend getting yourself of copy of Cyber PR for Musicians! Meanwhile, you can read more about Ariel’s Social Media Pyramid and how you can use it structure engaging, diverse content HERE:

So Here’s to tweeting our way to more engagement and music success!

References:

https://about.twitter.com/company

http://cyberprmusic.com/can-you-eat-then-you-can-master-social-media/

Hyatt, Ariel. (2012) Cyper PR For Musicians: Tools, Tricks & Tactics For Building Your Social Media House