Twitter for Musicians: 9 Ways to Promote Music on Twitter

Why? Twitter is basically like the beating pulse of all things newsworthy, trending or interesting - if it’s being talked about, you’ll find it on Twitter. So how can music artists make the best out of what the platform has to offer in terms of bigging up their online presence and joining in on some of these BIG conversations? Let’s find out.

Best Twitter music marketing strategies

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Before we jump into the how’s of promoting music on Twitter, first let’s consider the why - more specifically the benefits of using Twitter as a musician. Why should you bother?

Twitter is an especially great platform for musicians considering most of the trending or ‘favourited’ topics on Twitter are centred around music. On Twitter, a ‘Favourite’ refers to topics or subjects that users are most interested in. Whether that’s people searching for genres, specific artists or new music generally, chances are, it’ll be being talked about on Twitter.

It’s hardly surprising then why countless songs and artists have risen up over the years on Twitter. And many big artists now use the platform as a focal part of their digital persona, including the likes of Kanye West, Katy Perry and Cher.

A lot of this comes down to the personalised, POV-like character that Twitter’s whole premise is built on. Twitter is a place where artists can show off their voice, their music and their personalities - all at once.

This makes Twitter a budding place for new music and artist discovery, whether that’s listening to new tracks from artists a user already follows or finding new artists to listen to.

From an SEO perspective, Twitter can also really help to boost your online visibility as a musician when someone searches for you via Google. Twitter ranks highly in Google search results, so chances are your Twitter profile will usually appear higher in the ranks than any other social media profile.

So yeah - Twitter should definitely be a big part of every artist’s social media marketing strategy. So now let’s turn to those all important how’s.

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9 ways to promote your music on Twitter

1. Twitter-tailor your content

Great content should form the backbone of all your music social media marketing. That’s a given. And only the top-notch kind will get you noticed.

But when it comes to your music marketing strategy on Twitter, you’ll need to fine-tune your content so it not only meets the requirements of the platform, but the practicalities of it as well - i.e altering your material for a better user experience for your followers.

So for example, your full official music video might be racking up the likes on YouTube (woohoo!) but Twitter is better suited to short-form, quickly digestible content - in terms of things like videos, images, as well as the length of tweets and statuses.

So a 3 and half min long music vid wouldn’t work in terms of both Twitter’s video requirements (all videos on Twitter are limited to 2mins 20 seconds), and neither would it pull in the best engagement from users simply looking for a quick Twitter high during their rushed morning commute.

Now that’s not to say you can’t still promote your longer-form content via Twitter - and in fact, you should! It simply means you should tailor your content to cater for a Twitter-based audience. So sticking with the music vid example, a trailer type cut video would be a better option, or even a link to the track on YouTube embedded in a tweet and pinned to the top of your profile.

Here’s the general guide to content requirements for Twitter:

Captions/Tweets: 280 characters or less

Images (in tweets): Recommended 1080x1080 or 1920x1080

Videos: Recommended 1080x1080 or 1920x1080 and no longer than 140 seconds in duration

For more specific info about the imagery sizes you should use for your Twitter profile picture, banner image & more, check out our full social media image sizes cheat sheet.

2. Link up

Unlike Instagram, links are a lifesaver when it comes to Twitter. They’re a great way to direct followers from your Twitter account to your music and other social media profiles, turning them into followers elsewhere too!

Plus links are ideal for promoting an upcoming release, event, project or like we mentioned earlier, any kind of material that isn’t necessarily best-suited to direct promotion on the platform.

You can feature links on Twitter in a couple of different ways…

- In your Twitter bio

As the first port of call for someone who lands on your profile, this will immediately draw them into whatever it is you’re promoting.

- In a direct tweet

When you add a link to a tweet directly, you have 2 options. You can choose whether you want it to appear as a link exclusively within the tweet, like so:

If you’re opting to include a link like this, make sure you keep it short - with only 280 characters to play with, long links will eat up your tweet text count. Bitly is a great online tool you can use to generate shortened links that you can alter or customise the text on too.

You also have the option to create a Twitter Card using the link URL. Twitter Cards will appear below the original tweet, usually formatted with a customisable thumbnail image that forms a kind of preview of the link material.

3. Follow with intention

Following other Twitter users is how you’ll essentially build out your Twitter network in the first place. And while we’ve got nothing against you following your friends, family, (your pet’s account) and so on, you’ll need to go a step further and source out accounts that are similar to yours.

This might be a fellow artist who makes music of the same genre, artists who’ve had their come-ups in the same area as you, or even artists who’re performing at a gig, festival or lineup that you’re also featuring on.

What’s crucial is the ‘commonality’ factor.

If you have something in common with these types of accounts and/or artists, it usually means your audience and theirs will share that common bond too. This means their audience is more than likely made up of the kind of people you want to be targeting and putting your content out in front of.

Once you start following people with a proven interest in your kind of music and content, you can lead them back to your Twitter profile, introduce them to your music, maybe even get them to your website and before you know it, they’re your next superfan.

At a grassroots level, this is also an ample opportunity to network, collaborate and take inspiration from some of your favourite independent artists by observing how they’re using the platform themselves.

4. Beef out your profile

On Twitter, your profile is made up of your profile picture, a banner/header image and a bio. These 3 things are the first things a user will see when they come across your profile - and first impressions count.

Profile picture - This might be a recent press shot or head shot type picture. Twitter will automatically crop this image into a circle when you hit save so bear this in mind when you’re choosing which pic to opt for.

Banner image - This is essentially a background image for your profile, similar to a Facebook cover photo. You can customise this image to promote your latest project or release. It’s good to switch this image up from time-to-time based on what you’re promoting at the time.

For example, Harry Styles uses his banner image to big up his most recent album.

Twitter bio - Write an exciting bio about yourself in 160 characters or less, telling people who you are & what you’re about. If you have the space, it’s a good idea to try and get a link in here too, either to your website or to your latest release on your chosen streaming platform.

TOP TIP: If you’re running out of characters or you’ve got more than one link you really want to share, you can opt to use a LinkTree or list your website in the space Twitter provides directly under your bio.

Like so…

5. Go live or Use Spaces

Download the Twitter app to go live with a performance or Q&A session on the platform. Live-streaming saw a massive influx during the COVID-lockdown era, and with videos now the no.1 kind of consumed content online, it seems live-streaming is here to stay.

How to setup a live stream on Twitter:

1. Download the Twitter app and login to your profile.

2. Tap the camera icon when you go to compose a Tweet and swipe right to "LIVE" to start a live video.

3. You can type in "What's Happening?" to include a Tweet with your video.

4. Tap "Go LIVE" when you're ready.

Beyond live performances, you could use your live-stream to take fans behind the scenes of your recent music video, a tour of your at-home recording setup, a song-writing session and more.

Twitter has also recently launched their brand new Spaces feature, which lets you have live, audio conversations on the app.

Spaces are public meaning anyone on Twitter can start, join in or listen to a space, making it a great way for your fans to start a conversation with you and get to know you on a live, conversational level.

Find out more about how to use spaces on Twitter and start sparking real life, live conversations with your fans and followers!

6. Get verified

It’ll come as no surprise that getting verified on Twitter will boost your profile almost instantly - especially as a musician.

Why?

Getting the little blue seal of approval can do amazing things for your profile in terms of increasing the credibility of your music brand & and establishing your authority on the platform as an artist.

All the big names on Twitter boast a nifty blue tick next to their name, so it’s definitely something you’ll want to secure early on in your Twitter music marketing strategy.

If you’re unsure about the verification request process, do not fret! We’ve got a whole step-by-step guide on how to get verified on Twitter that you can check out to get started with your submission!

Getting verified on Twitter isn’t necessarily a done deal, but there are definitely things you can do to improve your chances throughout the verification process, including:

- Be active on the platform: interact and engage with your followers and other users on a regular basis

- Include an up-to-date & relevant cover photo: ideally this should be an image of you performing or some album artwork from your latest release

- Have an embedded ‘follow’ button on your artist website: lead followers directly from your website to your Twitter profile

- Write a great pitch: in your verification submission form, tell Twitter why verification would benefit you AND other Twitter users too.

- Submit more than 2 links: while 2 is the minimum number of links required in your verification request form, the more links the better.

7. Be an active Twitterer

The best kinds of users on Twitter are the active kind.

As well as posting content regularly, being active on Twitter also means interacting with your followers through liking, replying and retweeting content.

Tweets themselves are short and fleeting. Once they’re out, they’re already in decline. So in keeping with that theme, by a general rule of thumb, keep your tweets short, concise and regular.

Not sure where to start? Here’s a few ideas you could tweet about to get you started…

- Personal tasters of your life - The point of tweeting is to showcase your own, unique voice. Share a playlist you’re loving, tell users what you’re up to or tweet about a random shower thought you had.

- New music/gig announcements - Your Twitter should be a place where your followers know they’ll be the first to know about any big news from you.

- UGC prompts - Asking users for their input and involvement will make them feel much more connected to you online, for example, “What should I call my next album?

- Start a poll - Start a conversation with your followers through the Twitter Polls feature. This allows followers to vote on a customised topic of your choice with up to 4 voting choices. Keep your poll open for between 5 mins - a week long.

- Reposting your fans’ tweets - Be selective and repost any tweets that are relevant to you or your music. For example, if a fan tweeted some footage of you from your recent gig, that’s prime content that you can run with.

- Tagging/mentioning other artists, events, streaming platforms, venues - Engaging with other Twitter accounts give you the chance to be part of the bigger and wider Twitter community. For example, “It was great playing alongside @artistname last night at @venuename!” - this also gives these accounts the chance to retweet you to their followers too!

While it’s great to use your Twitter as a platform for promoting your upcoming music, projects and gigs, avoid excessive self-promotion - too much selling and retweeting will all just clutter your fans’ feeds and start to resemble spam.

TOP TIP: Aim for a 70/30 rule - 70% personal tweets and around 30% promotional type tweets.

8. Use hashtags effectively

While you definitely should use hashtags on Twitter to play the algorithm, make sure you’re using them effectively to get the best out of what the platform has to offer.

Using relevant hashtags that other people are tweeting about means users who’re tracking a specific hashtag will be able to see your post, even if they don’t follow you.

And the best part is, you don’t have to try and figure out what people are talking about on Twitter - Twitter’s handy ‘Trending’ feature eliminates all the guesswork!

How to find out which hashtags are trending on Twitter:

1. From your Twitter dashboard, head to the ‘#Explore’ tab

2. From here, select the ‘Trending’ tab

3. Customise the results to find a list of hashtags and trending topics according to your own interests

Avoid using too many hashtags otherwise your account might start to look a bit spammy - aim to use around 3 max per tweet post.

9. Track your progress

Twitter analytics is a great in-platform tool to actively see how your Twitter social media strategy is working (or not working).

Navigate to Twitter analytics from a desktop to view the full report. Here, Twitter will give you a full, 28 day summary of your insights along with specific tweet highlights. You can also customise the time frame if you want to check out the stats over a specific period.

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From the ‘Audience Insights’ page, you’ll be able to see a breakdown of your audience’s…

- Top interests

- Country

- Region

- Demographics

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You can filter this to view it by your followers, all Twitter users or your organic audience.

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From the ‘Tweets’ page, you'll be able to monitor things like…

- Your impressions

- Engagement rate

- Link clicks

- Retweets

- Likes & replies over a certain period of time

While tracking social media metrics and data can sometimes feel a bit daunting, it’s something you should definitely make part of your Twitter in-app marketing strategy in order to make decisions about the type of content your users want to see. Like anything, it’s a lot of trial and error. But in terms of gaining long-term success, the data don’t lie.

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Before you go one last thing - Twitter favours the bold.

So whatever you do, do it with confidence, creativity and style. There’s a lot of big personalities on the platform. If you really want to make your presence and brand stand out, you’ll need to really lock-in to the platform and spend time crafting your twitter marketing strategy to find your audience and ultimately - your flow.

Happy tweeting! Oh, and if Twitter isn't quite your thing, why not try out promoting your music on Instagram Threads instead?

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