Twitter Releases Official Guide For Musicians
Twitter recently shared a series of tips and suggestions for musicians using Twitter along with examples from such artists as Katy Perry, Selena Gomez, Gavin Rossdale, Tom Petty, St. Vincent, Bruno Mars, Foster The People, Silversun Pickups, Adele and Amanda Palmer.
They're great ideas that are well worth a look. Just keep in mind that when they talk about how excited you are about your Grammy, translate that into something that resonates for your own life as a musician!
Twitter For Musicians And Artists offers solid, real world examples of their top tips. To some degree, they can be summed up in the advice to speak directly with your fans in your own voice. However, they insist that Rule #1 is:
"Your Tweets should reflect the things you're passionate about."
Top Tips For Musicians Using Twitter
The artist’s voice empowered:
"The most powerful voice is your own. Whether you’re celebrating a career milestone or need to clear the air, Twitter is the easiest and most powerful way to get your message across, directly and clearly."
Use hashtags:
"Great hashtags are creative, and the best ones compel followers to join the conversation by tweeting with them."
Reply to your fans:
"Twitter will be more fun for you and your fans if you connect with them directly."
Fan interviews:
"Sitting down for interviews with reporters can be laborious and time-consuming — but doing fan interviews via Twitter isn’t!"
Live-tweet events:
"Give your fans something they can’t get from anyone else: your unique point of view."
Include photos:
"Up your game by including photos of unique images and scenes that could only come from you."
Break news:
"You don’t always have to rely on a publicist to say that you’re excited about your GRAMMY nominations; simply tweet it and share the joy instantly."
Break bands:
"Twitter gives you the power to help your followers discover other artists."
Here are two possible approaches for running a band account:
"The first is to have one member manage the band’s account, but consistently point to the usernames of other members."
"The second is to have a primary account in the band’s name that all the members share."
Twitter may be willing to help share your music news:
"Tweet us at @TwitterMusic if you have a question, an experience you want to tell us about, or just share some tunes."
More Resources from Twitter:
Hypebot Features Writer Clyde Smith maintains his freelance writing hub at Flux Research and music industry resources at Music Biz Blogs. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
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Most of these are fairly logical and down to common sense. Would have liked more detail on TwitMusic. But thanks for the post
Unfortunately if you don’t know how to communicate with people chances are you have larger issues than what to say on twitter.
This is a good opportunity for the musician.
I am a little wary of their guide and examples, I am a fan of both Amanda Palmer and Tom Petty and used to follow them both on Twitter. I stopped following Amanda Palmer becouse of the completely irrelevant posts. Tom Petty gives 5 or 6 posts closely grouped and then does not post again for 24 hour.
Both posting trends are shown to be ineffective, while it does generate a high number of followers it has the following problems; in the case of Amanda Palmer fans stop reading her tweets. In the case of Tom Petty tweets are often missed becouse they are too grouped together, which is upsetting becouse his tweets contain very good content.
I have consulted with labels for 15 years on digital music and have spent way to much time dwelling on topics such as this.
It’s good to see more and more musicians interacting with their fans on twitter. Especially when they are posting bikini pictures of themselves (hello katy!)