The Business of Art...Twitter for Artists

'Heavenly Roses'           8x10        pastel          ©Karen Margulis  $50 auction

Are you on Twitter yet?  I know you may be thinking that you don't have time for any other online activity. You might not want to get sucked into something else that takes time away from creating art. At least that is what I thought. But that was before I understood how Twitter could be helpful to my art.

I have been on Twitter for a year now and I am glad I gave in. It really doesn't take much time at all to check my Twitter feed every once in awhile and I am finding new things to tweet about all of the time. How can Twitter help your art?

• Social media is an important part of promoting yourself to your collectors and potential opportunities. Twitter is a small part of the social media pie. I will address the others in future posts...facebook,Pinterest,blogs to name a few. Twitter can be used to drive people to your other sites.
• Twitter is quick and easy to use. You don't really have to be a techie to follow others and to send your own tweets. I came across this great introduction to Twitter for Artists on this Squidoo Lens.
• Twitter doesn't have to take up a lot of your time. I have my social media feeds all together in Hootesuite and check in when I take a painting break. What I LOVE about reading my Twitter feed is that I always find an interesting art related tidbit that has been shared (tweeted) by others who have more time to uncover these goodies!
• There are many ways to use Twitter to benefit your art career. Here is a great post from Mashable.com that lists 10 ways artists can use Twitter.   Here are a few ways to get you started: Share your work or work in progress, connect with other artists and collectors to find out what they are up to, make announcements about your art events and news. I also like to follow other social media experts so I can be informed on how to best use social media to help my art.
• You can use Twitter to keep up with your other non art-related interests. Follow your favorite celebrities and companies for example.

Are you convinced to give Twitter a look?  If you haven't tried it yet visit Twitter here to sign up. If you do have a Twitter account but don't use it much I will be posting more on getting more out of Twitter soon.

I invite you to Follow me on Twitter. I will be sharing the latest helpful information for artists and I'd love to share them with you! Follow me @karenmargulis