I think the main thing to have in your mind when using Twitter for promotion, is actually to not always use it for promotion.
For example, an easy way to get followers for yourself is to actually follow others. Yesterday ( I followed a lot of new people this morning) I was following 1200 people and had 690 followers. I would estimate that about 90% of those followers became my followers after I followed them. So in rough terms, about half the people you follow will follow you in return. But who to follow? Tip number one would be to use what your shop sells and use this to find targeted users. For example, my store sells jewelry so I searched:
https://twitter.com/search?mode=users&q=jewelry
This brings up people who have put jewelry in their twitter description so is finding me specifically targeted users. I look people who have jewelry blogs, or jewelry as an interest/addiction as my top finds, but following other jewelry stores can also be useful as I will come onto.
Another trick I have for finding targeted users is to think of a store, perhaps a high street one, with a similar USP and similar items, go to their twitter account and check out their followers. These people may not have put jewelry in their twitter description of themselves, but you know it is an interest based on what their following.
If some of the above people follow you back, not only will you have followers but you will have targeted followers.
Now you have followers, what to tweet? Obviously the main point is to promote your store, so you will tweet about your items and I will come onto this later. But it is equally important to continue to bear in mind if you want your followers to stay your followers, if you want people to keep an interest essentially you cant just use Twitter to bombard them with your latest item, but you should generate other interesting content. So with that in mind:
- If you know some of your followers are fellow Etsians, tweeting links to blogs or sites with tips etc. on Etsy stores will obviously be of as much interest to them as to you. So if you read something interesting, tweet it.
- You need to demonstrate a bit of personality. Occasional tweets with details of what you are doing, even in a vague way, is great for this. For example, 'Loving this sunshine, off to the beach!'. If your items are handmade or vintage, don't just tweet your items, tweet about making them / finding them. For example, 'Off to the local vintage market to stock up - check the store tomorrow!' or 'Got some new rose quartz beads, about to get my craft on, what shall I make?'. This last one also asks a question and therefore invites engagement from your followers.
Right. So you have followers and you are keeping them interested. Next - Retweeting.Retweeting keeps you popular with your followers. Who doesn't like being retweeted? So again, this will help you keep your followers your followers. But it also has an additional benifit - when you retweet others, they often retweet you back. This expands the exposure of your tweets as they are now not only being seen by your own followers but by theirs too. This is another reason I like to follow other jewelry sellers. By retweeting their great stuff, I help them out, but also help myself out too. Win - Win.
Now I've banged on about how to use Twitter without just promoting your store, I better come on to actually promoting your store! As nice as it is to get these followers, and to keep them interested, promotion of your store is the main point.
So, for your own tweets, the first thing I would recommend is using a service such as Hootsuite:
https://hootsuite.com/
Now, there are definitely a lot of others so take a look around, but Hootsuite is the one I use, and very importantly - its free. So, what's Hootsuite for? Essentially, the main thing I use Hootsuite for is to automate my tweets. This saves me time, as I can write all my tweets at once and them time them all so they go out when I want, rather than having to get my phone out every hour to write a new one. But also, it means you can tweet while your asleep. If your target market is all based in the same country this may not be a selling factor for you, but for me, I live in the UK and sell on Etsy, who's main audience is in the US. Therefore tweeting while I am asleep means I am hitting all time zones.
So now you have some organisations, how best to tweet to promote. Firstly I always like to incentivise where possible so I set up a coupon code on Etsy specifically for Twitter so my followers can get 10% off. This is just a little added push to convince them to click on the link. And by ensuring Twitter is in the code itself, they feel they are getting an exclusive discount. Mine is TWIT10PERCENTOFF
So, for tweeting your items, this bit I am still developing if I am honest, but I try to be short and concise but as descriptive as possible so they know exactly what they are clicking on, always include a link, try to include a coupon code and try to make the most out of hashtags. So I would tweet something like:
'Geometric Pastel Bunting Necklace, get 10% off with the code TWIT10PERCENTOFF, http://etsy.me/13QSV9Z #Etsy #jewelry #handmade'
Want some homework?
This is a great blog post:
https://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/etsys-guide-to-twitter/
And I found this guide very useful when starting on Twitter:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/59589531/twitter-internet-marketing-effective
That's all for now Tweethearts! If you have any tips for me I haven't covered, please let me know as I am 100% still developing my Twitter use.
Frederica
http://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FredericaDixon
