Should Those In The Arts Tweet?

By Bridgette | October 21, 2010 |

As part of my workshop (Part 2) scheduled for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators meeting (SCBWI) Scheduled for November 1, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. Houston, I am adding some information about Tweeting.

Should artists, writers, musicians- basically those working in the arts tweet? Does it really do much good, and as someone said to me recently, “I don’t care to hear about what others are doing in their day to day lives.” I agree. I don’t want to know if someone is walking their dog. But I do want to know about new technology as it pertains to art, new things to share on my blog, and resources available to me as an artist, writer podcast host and speaker. So it is really about learning how to use Twitter, rather than if you should tweet.

My biggest problem with twittering is that I don’t twitter from a phone. I wouldn’t even do this if I could, because I am old school and am really feeling that people having their nose in a box attached to their hand 24-7 is at most times- Rude. Now I know that is my opinion, but there is my two cents.

Now for tweeting. I set up two accounts on twitter. Why two? Well I have two different aspects of what I do. Really I’m multilayered, but two is all I can handle. One is for my God’s Word Collectibles gift line and Insipration/Generation Podcast as well as the Creative Christian podcast. So my twitter account twitter.com/creategodsword allows me to twitter about those inspirational items without overloading those who could care less about this subject. Where My other twitter account, twitter.com/Sculptorwriter Allows me to twitter about Technology, sculpture, the arts, and marketing in the arts. Having two accounts is quite enough, but it did set up another dilemma. I need to manage two accounts!

Well in came twhirl. For quite a while, I would use twhirl on my desk top to post my tweets. It has worked quite easily for some time, but just recently I found I wanted more. You see, it is important to tweet throughout the day or week; and finding time to tweet often was just out of the question for me. I was also sure that when I was in the office and it was near midnight, central time and I was tweeting, that no one was really seeing it, not on this continent. I needed more control. In came twAitter. I searched to find something I could use and so far I like twAitter. It allows me to sit down and post tweets for the entire week, if I want. I scheduling them for when they will appear. I can even copy them and retweet them at other times. Remembering that tweeting is not like blogging. Once you tweet… well it is gone. Only to be seen by the few that are following or retweet. So scheduling tweets helps me in my workflow, and hopefully to be seen.

Now I am also reviewing TweetDeck. What, another program? Well, yes, but only because I really don’t care about those who are walking their dogs, but if there is someone out there tweeting about new technology in art, or something like that, then I want to know about it. I believe that TweetDeck can also schedule tweets, but we will see if it is exactly what I need. I am looking at TweetDeck to monitor what is coming in. See if there are tweets I can retweet or information I can use in my blogs, articles podcasts or lectures. I’ll let you know how TweetDeck goes.

If you want to read a good article on learning to tweet, I would recommend this SEO BLog article, 101 Tweets on How to use Twitter.

So, should those in the arts tweet? I’m looking for success stories. Those who have received a book deal or sales because of tweets, those who have booked a musical gig, or artists selling work. Let me know if you have anything. I do know that on our podcast with Dennis Welch about his book “Rich People Shop Here,” he said that someone picked up a tweet about his book, and retweeted it and the sales at Amazon went up! So who knows?

If you are in the arts and tweet, send me your success stories and links. I’d love to use them in my workshops and posts, maybe even podcasts.

( These workshops will soon be available as an online workshop in marketing in the arts. If you are interested in receiving information about them when they are available please drop me a line and let me know.)

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