Building a Twitter Following

[Former_Member]

Happy Thursday everyone. This month, we've been working really hard on promoting our shop. While we promote on social networks somewhat regularly, Twitter has always been difficult for me, although I'm not sure why.

In your mind, what's the anatomy of a good twitter post? How often do you tweet, and what types of tweets do you feel best reach out to your audience?

[TheDorothyDays]

Hi :)

I started using twitter to just do promotional tweets and saw a huge increase in views so carried on doing them. However I now do not think this is the best and most effective way to use twitter. I post as regularly as possible. I do still do promotional tweets but I also spend time interacting with other twitter users which means they quite often rt my posts and interact with the posts I am posting which is great, I also ask my followers questions, post random bits so my followers get to know me a little more etc.

I think its really important to work on being interactive not just promoting :)

The Dorothy Days

[Former_Member]

Thanks for your input! That's very helpful!

[CaseyHPerez]

I started using twitter only doing promotional tweets, like whenever I added a new item. I started to feel kind of spammy, and thought I wouldn't want to follow someone that only had products of whatever they were selling in their tweets, so I still post every new listing to twitter, but I am trying to get into the habit of tweeting non listing things. We started tweeting a photo of sketch of the day, just a snapshot of something in one of our sketchbooks, random thoughts I may have about the creative process, inspirational creative quotes etc... something to make my follows feel like I am a real person, not just some shop.

[Former_Member]

I've linked my instagram to my twitter and what I do is post photos as I am creating items to "generate a buzz". It actually has brought the majority of views to my items.

[Former_Member]

Agree with the above :) at first I posted my new listings on twitter too, then read back through my feed and realized I probably wouldn't follow someone who just promoted their items. So I started interacting on twitter and just being myself, tweeting funny little things during my day, or inspirational quotes, or beautiful things that fit in with the style of my shop and products. I got a lot of interactions then and my followers went up quite a lot, just be yourself and you can't go wrong :)

[Beaderbeads]

Me too. I thought I should try to be more human than all spammy. I'm still working on it.

[Former_Member]

I use the 80 / 20 rule on Twitter, and everywhere else. Make 80% of your posts about related content: DIY patterns, tutorials, recipes, other cool gifts or listings you find interesting... you know - relevant material for your audience, and make only 20% of it promotional stuff, whether that's coupon codes for your followers or backlinks to the shop.

Social media is a lot like real life. Be polite. Don't just talk about YOURSELF all the time. Be engaging!

I try and schedule between 6 - 8 tweets per day (I get a lot of ideas from Pinterest and Tumblr), and I make sure my Twitter is active 7 days a week. Try to vary the times of your tweets to appeal to different audiences. Don't just tweet 8 am - 8 pm in your time zone, try later in the day or night to appeal to a world wide audience.

[Former_Member]

Amanda Jayne also has a great point. WIP or Work In Progress photos are very popular, too.

For social media, twitter included, original content rules the world. If you can create a tutorial or be the first person to tweet something cool, it can go viral!

[Babiease]

I schedule about 5 tweets a day and fill in when I'm able to. Make your tweets worth others to follow. I share about the funnies of being a mom of boys, new parenting articles, etc. Give it time too. After about 4 months of being active I'm getting a "following" :)

[Former_Member]

Thank you all for your feedback! I love the work-in-progress pics idea!!

[Davs]

Chloe from PatchworkPrinterie says

Agree with the above :) at first I posted my new listings on twitter too, then read back through my feed and realized I probably wouldn't follow someone who just promoted their items. So I started interacting on twitter and just being myself, tweeting funny little things during my day, or inspirational quotes, or beautiful things that fit in with the style of my shop and products. I got a lot of interactions then and my followers went up quite a lot, just be yourself and you can't go wrong :)
.....
^This is me too! Also I used to hate twitter but now it's my favorite social network! =)

[Former_Member]

I just find the whole Twitter thing really confusing to figure out! Personally I hate the whole Social Media way of marketing myself. I feel like a phony. I don't like blogging, I deleted my Facebook Friends down to a few close ones that I don't want them to feel like I am hitting them up for a sale. I don't really like talking about myself on Twitter. I guess I'm a private person and when I signed on to Etsy I didn't realize how much Social Media played a role in my shop gaining exposure. I guess I just thought people would shop the sites and find me. Silly me!! Lol! I guess the easiest way for me is Pinterest. I do like posting lots of others pics, and when I have something i've made I link it to my shop. It seems more natural to me than letting 200 followers know "I just burned my toast". Who gives a rats @$$.

[MidwestAtticTreasure]

Wow. I'm so glad I read this post. I've just recently started posting on Twitter and just doing the listing thing. I realized as well as some of you, I would never read anyone's tweets about ONLY new listings.
I have ideas now of how to effectively use my time(and anyone who reads mine). Work in progress is also a fabulous idea...need to try to remember that next time! Also just random funny stuff. I think people like to know you aren't just a robot, and actually just human, funny bits and all.

[jocaledesign]

Thanks this is a really interesting post. I have a twitter account, but like many others haven't really worked out what I should be tweeting. These are some really good ideas.

[Former_Member]

I agree with what previous posters have said about how to tweet and build a following, although I'm just starting out on Twitter myself. Also, I've found that finding other Etsy sellers is a great way to build an audience as well. Hopefully they'll follow you back and then you can help each other out by re-tweeting each other's tweets. <<that was a mouthful!

[Former_Member]

Wow this is helpful! A minute ago I took the plunge and linked my shop with my Twitter account (I never used my Twitter account prior to that). Scary to be entering into the vast Twitterverse, we'll see how this goes!

[JulieEllisDesigns]

Great post. I like the suggestions for making your twitter posts more personal and not completely promotional! I've got a lot to learn about twitter. And instagram.