Testing Twitter
Is Twitter really that effective for marketing one’s art?
All my friends have been telling me how great Twitter is to market one’s product or service. So for the last couple of months I have been testing Twitter. (I even have two accounts!)
Like other artists, I would put up links for fellow Tweeters to see my newest art or go to my Etsy store or other links. My hope is that lots of people would click on the links to see my art and maybe somebody would even want to buy some of my art.
But how many Tweeters were actually clicking on my Tweet links? Would it be All 500+ of my followers? Or even more counting RT (re-tweets)?
To track links clicked I found that the URL shortener www.bit.ly offers lots of statistics on links in one’s Tweets; how many clicked, when they clicked and what country they are from.
So I started using bit.ly shortened URLs to test the number of clicks.
On my 500+ followers (and the millions of other people on Twitter) only 12-20 were clicking each time I put up a link. Not impressed.
I had other Twitter friends test the link clicks and they found the same thing – only 1-4% of Tweeters were clicking on their Tweet links.
Hmmmm…..couldn’t I get more clicks to my links other ways?
What is your experience with Twitter? How many clicks on links in Tweets do you get?
Has Twitter helped sell you your art or networked you a new opportunity to exhibit your art?
Please add your comments and experiences below.
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A concern I have with Twitter is that one is limited by one’s followers (and do they really even read my Tweets?).
My goal is to sell more art. But who is following me on Twitter? Art buyers or other artists?
From what I have seen on Twitter, people follow people with the same interests: Lawyers following lawyers, dentists following dentists, artists following artists, photographers following photographers and so on.
So all those links of “look at my new art and please buy it” kind of fall on deaf ears if it is just being read by other artists who are writing the same type links.
If they only had a group called “buyers of art” that would follow me on Twitter 
May 5, 2009 at 2:34 pm
My experience with twitter is similar to yours, or that the people do not do click in the links that I add in my twets. I think that twitter goes very fast and the updates are flying away immediately and others come …, and in end that I it do not see very effective to attract visitors to the web. It serves me more Facebook and also I am starting having shyly visitors of Linkedin. Now I am going to be employed mas my promotion at these two sites.
In twitter the noise is mas that the nueces.
May 6, 2009 at 1:58 pm
first off, i do like to know one’s true name when i comment on their blog, so i’ll just address you as mr. artbiz!
twitter is a strange phenomena. very time consuming and yet it is like a personal community within a community. i use it for many reasons; to get my work “out there” not just for a direct sale but for imprints on one’s mind for future or just as a memory. secondly, i use it as a form of accumulating information of ALL sorts of stuff. at times it is overwhelming how much info there is coming in! thirdly, to establish connection w/people different than myself to learn and establish connections i would never do physically or have the opportunity to meet them otherwise.
i do know it is hit/miss as to who responds to anything you post! seems people hit a link i would never think anyone would be interested in to find that 60 people looked at it? but that is the beauty of twitter! just as in life one never knows, do we.
thanks for your post and questions!
best success for you! hazel
May 6, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Hazel, thanks for the reply!
The basis of my blog is to discuss, comment and have others do the same about how artists can sell more of their art.
The art world and the ways of selling art are changing and I wanted to have a place just to discuss old and new ideas to sell art – from an artist’s point of view.
How can an artist best and most effectively take advantage of changes in the world to sell more art?
Is one new social networking site better than another at increasing art sales or getting artists more exhibition opportunities? One can easily spend lots of time on “social network” sites, but does it really sell any more of an artist’s art? An artist only has so much time in a day, how can they most effectively use the internet and non-internet methods to increase sales of their art.
Just as an example – I can get more people coming to my art website just by adding or changing a keyword in the meta tags of my website (which Google and other search engines look at) than I get from Twitter. So far, for me, Twitter is not of any help in selling my art. But I continue to experiment with it to see if I am not doing it right.
Again, thanks for commenting.
May 8, 2009 at 1:24 pm
I joined twitter for many of the same reasons as you did….but with far less of a plan. I haven’t seen any direct sales – and have no idea of the number of times my website (or blog) have been visited. Twitter “friends” did inspire me to begin blogging – and I have been able to make some connections that in my tiny bubble of the world, I would never have made. I have met several very caring new mentors and hope to continue to learn from them. Maybe one day, an opportunity to be in a show or some sort of referral will come through my contacts on twitter. My real hope is that I will find some new gallery representation. In the meantime, I have realized the need to balance my online social networking and art making (as well as balancing family, my other jobs, and other commitments!) Best of luck – and keep us posted on twitter! kathy
May 8, 2009 at 1:25 pm
I think thats to be expected, still 12-20 clicks is something and you never know, thats 12-20 extra people walking thru your gallery, I think twitter is worth while just to get new ideas but I dont think its any kind of miracle marketing tool, but it all helps
May 8, 2009 at 5:43 pm
My experience with Twitter is that I am getting some click-throughs. I track my analytics and a decent portion of people follow through on my linked tweets, but are they turning into buyers? Not as of yet, but its highly possibly I haven’t hit the tipping point of Followers vs. Art Buyers.
I will say this though, Twitter isn’t an automatic traffic server. The clicks I do get are usually from people that I have built relationships with, no matter how minor. If you go into Twitter with the mindset of only getting something out of it, you’ll probably lose. If you instead take time to build those relationships, eventually you’ll see the traffic. They may not become buyers right away, but they may eventually, or they may share you link with someone that is a potential buyer. Relationships first. Sales later.
Oh, and from my experience, artists are usually some of the best buyers because they have more appreciation for the work. I buy lots of art, much more than I sell.
May 15, 2009 at 1:17 am
Once in a while I get RT’s from some of my followers, and have met a few stellar personalities via Twitter that I have a feeling may lead to some JV or collaboration.
I agree with Dave Conrey when he says “Relationships first. Sales later.” Point well taken, Dave.
Who wants to have a relationship with ppl that come across as hucksters with no intent other than to sel you something?
Not I.
I can tell you though that the ONLY way to build up a business is one person at a time, carefully nurtured as not only a potential customer but a valued friend.