Guide To Promoting Music On Twitter

Those not already familiar with Twitter can often find the controversial platform’s scope rather intimidating, but with its vast, monetizable userbase, this social media behemoth is a marketing must. Here, we provide an artist’s guide to promoting your music on Twitter

Guest post by Shae Woodward of The Orchard’s The Daily Rind

For those less familiar with Twitter, the size of the platform may feel a bit daunting but think about all the opportunities and music-lovers just waiting to discover something new. With over 145 million monetizable (ad-seeing) daily active users, Twitter has the potential to connect you to new and loyal fans alike. In regards to the functionality of Twitter, not a lot has changed. However, the biggest update this year is their brand new layout, making the site more accessible and providing a fresh experience for users.

Key Features & How Twitter Works  

Users can craft tweets up to 280 characters, with the exception of Japanese, Korean or Chinese tweetswhich only reflect 140 characters. To make your tweets more engaging, you can attach images, videos, GIFs, and polls. Some key features include:  

Auto-Playing Video

• Videos up to 2 minutes and 20 seconds can be posted natively on Twitter
• Videos auto-play on the platform, but are muted. Once a user clicks/taps a video to view, the sound comes on
• Tweets with videos appear larger in user timelines than text tweets

Live Video

• Go Live via Periscope by composing a tweet and pressing the “Live” button
• When users click/tap your video in their feed it will become full screen with sound

Uses: Take fans behind the scenes of a music video, a tour of your at-home setup, a songwriting session, or more. 

Polls

• Create a poll by clicking the “Poll” icon in your tweet composition
• Polls can have up to 4 choices and can remain open for 5 minutes up to 7 days
• Voting is anonymous

Uses: Engage your fans by asking them anything from a silly question to what song they’d prefer you to perform for you next live set.

Threads

• If 280 characters are not enough, or you would like to serialize a story, use the “Threads” option to let fans easily find and follow multiple tweets
• Click the plus button in the composition screen to activate, and your tweets will be connected and published at the same time

Explore Tab

The Explore tab showcases the top current stories happening on Twitter, allowing users to discover popular and relevant news in an instant

• This tab is categorized by News, Sports, Entertainment, and more
• Makes it easier to find and engage with relevant topics on the platform

GIPHY Search

• On the composition page tap the “GIF” icon to search for GIF’s within the platform while composing a new tweet
• Use a GIF to enhance your post with visual content

Photo Editing 

Edit your photos directly on platform by tapping the smile icon

Twitter’s photo editor allows you to:

• Select a filter
• Edit brightness
• Crop an image
• Ad Stickers 

Twitter Do’s & Dont’s

Do.. 

• Engage your fans by replying to their questions and comments
• Plan your tweets often – around 3 to 5 times a day
• Keep tweets concise
• Use relevant hashtags in posts to allow users tracking a hashtag to see your posts – even if they do not follow you
• Tweet about relevant trending topics
• Retweet yourself to bring new light to an old tweet
• Engage with other Twitter accounts – be a part of the community

Do Not… 

• Over promote – excessive selling, self-promotions, and retweeting will clutter fan feeds and not engage – aim for 70% personal tweets, 30% promotional
• Link to other social networks – sharing from Facebook and Instagram looks messy on this platform and is very unengaging for fans
• Share news without a link
• Use too many hashtags – aim for 3 or less per posts to avoid looking like spam

Promoting on Twitter & Optimizing Your Account 

Whenpromoting on Twitter, there are a few essential things you must do in order to be eligible for a retailer to retweet your post. When tagging a retailer such as Spotify, Apple, or Amazon make sure you are only tagging one per tweet. When tagging these accounts, make sure to include a relevant photo, video, or GIF to make the tweet more engaging. Here are some ways to optimize your tweets with or without retailer support, specifically if you are looking to have your account verified: 

• Write a clear description of yourself in your Twitter bio – including album pre-order/buy links
• Have your name match your handle
• Pin an important/informative tweet to the top of your page (album pre-order, video premiere, etc.)
• Create a branded header with release information and images related to that release

Twitter Analytics 

To access your Twitter analytics, navigate to https://analytics.twitter.com/ on desktop to view the full report. If you do not have access to the referenced link, you can find the page by clicking “more” in the menu. Once you have found the analytics page, Twitter will give you a 28 Day Summary of your insights, along with tweet highlights. If you are ahead of the game and have already been using analytics, please note that the Events page was removed as of January 30th, 2020. 

Analytic Breakdown…

Tweets Page 

• Monitors your impressions, engagement rate, link clicks, retweets, likes, and replies over a certain amount of time
• You can view the information by: the last 7 days, the last 28 days, by month, or for a customized amount of time
• Use the Export Data feature to download a .csv file of all your data

Audience Insights

• Provides a look at your audience’s top interests, country, region, and demographic breakdown
• View by your followers, all Twitter users, or your organic audience
• Use the ‘Comparison Audience’ to see how your fan’s interest match up with different audiences across Twitter based on: personas, demographics, lifestyle, consumer behavior, or mobile footprint

That’s it! Use our tips, Tweet away and see your results. 

For additional information on Twitter see our details 202 Best Practices below:

Twitter Best Practices 2020 from The Orchard