Twitter for Artists

Does Twitter Work for the Arts?

I often get asked by my students how Twitter can be of use for artists or galleries. Twitter is usually not the chosen platform for visual content. Instagram or Facebook seem to be much more suitable to show works of art. I mean – what can you say about art in 140 characters?

As a big fan of Twitter I was curious to see how other art-related professional sites were doing on Twitter compared with other platforms. I was pleased to see that sites like artnet, Artsy, MoMA or Guggenheim were tweeting with great success. Their number of followers on Twitter even exceeded their numbers on Facebook or Instagram.

 

How can Twitter be valuable for artists and galleries?

 

Research

No platform is better for researching keywords, competitors or your target audience.When you are just starting out with Twitter, check out a few art related accounts and keywords and you see what I mean.

Start with museums like the Museum of Modern Art or Tate Gallery, continue with art magazines like Art in America, ArtNews or Art Asia Pacific. You can also follow blogs and vlogs like ArtDaily, The Art Newspaper or vernissagetv.

Also look for art seller sites like galleries, auction houses and art fairs.

Who is following these sites? Their followers seem to be interested in art that is sure…

You can not only research sites but also relevant keywords. Try #contemporaryart or #artmarket. Maybe you can think of hashtags which are more precise regarding the artwork you want to promote. Who is tweeting similar content? Who are these guys following and who is following them? What are they saying? Can you contribute to the discussion?

 

Links

140 characters – what can you do with THAT? Link it to a 140,000 character article for example. If you want to lead people to your website or blog Twitter is definetly the platform to chose. I don’t only link my tweets to my blog or gallery but also to my pins on Pinterest. It all helps to develop the right audience.

 

Visuals

Is Twitter as well designed for visuals as Facebook or Instagram? I don’t know. But they definitely work well on Twitter. You can easily upload photos, photo albums and videos. And the live broadcasting feature worked first on Twitter (with Periscope) before Facebook got on board. AND Twitter is still not so overcrowded with great visuals like the other platforms which makes it easier for you to stand out.

 

Lists

It was when I discovered Twitter lists that I got really excited about this platform. Lists help you to keep the accounts you want to follow in order. I have quite a few lists like “Art Magazines”, “Museums” or “Journalists”. You don’t even have to follow the accounts in order to put them on your list. Why not list all the interesting people together that keep posting about your relevant hashtags? It makes it easy to stay up to date, to find interesting content quickly and to contribute to the discussion.

And if you don’t want to create you own lists you can just follow lists from other people.

I hope I was able to introduce you to a few possibilities for the arts on Twitter.

What is your experience with the platform?

Twitter for artists

Paul Klee, The Twittering Machine

 

David Teniers el Joven

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