Word of mouth advertising has long been considered the most effective form of advertising. This was long before the emergence of The Twittersphere, which has effectively merged the personal with the social, in a free market of ideas that places no barriers on admission and imposes no limits on one's potential to reach mass audiences.
For the niche marketer, Twitter is a godsend and here's why: personal websites are isolated entities. They are dependent upon searchers seeking them out and they lack the interconnectivity of social media platforms. Twitter puts its users together in one forum which makes it possible to reach mass audiences and target those who are relevant to your interests.
Think of a website as a home business, and the Twitter account as a kiosk at the local shopping mall. Both the amount of foot-traffic and the placement of the kiosk determine how well it will succeed with a given product. If it's positioned by the correct stores, it can benefit from the cross-marketing. For example,a kiosk selling sunglasses and suntan lotion would fare better near the clothing store specializing in swimwear than near the bookstore (assuming that more beachgoers than bookworms will need protection from the sun's ultraviolet rays).
A Twitter account doesn't tell the whole story but presents a lead-in. The idea is to connect with the right users and draw them over to your personal website. Hashtags such as #zombieart, the one I promote with my own work, are used to filter your outgoing Tweets into relevant categories, increasing the odds that your messages will be received by the right readers.
An important note about etiquette: DO post links to for sale items but DO NOT utilize urgent "buy it now" statements. The link should stand alone. Waste no characters on prompting the potential buyers to click. The focus of the Twitter post should be to draw readers based upon content, not hype. If you're targeting the appropriate niche and using the right hashtags, then the buyers won't need to be told what to do.
With each image you upload, your account becomes a de facto web portfolio. Each uploaded image makes your work instantaneously accessible to potential collectors even outside of the Twittersphere once your posts start showing up on Internet searches. As you accrue followers, their own network will overlap with yours whenever they promote your Tweets on their own "feeds" in what are called Retweets.
For the purposes of hotlinking to your auction, it's preferable and more efficient to purchase a web domain and forward it to your auction listings. This will save you the time and trouble of copying and pasting unique URL's for each listing. The domain name you choose should be memorable and related to your work. For example: "JaneDoesButterfyArt.com." Keep it simple, keyword oriented, and memorable. This domain name is part of your long-term branding strategy so name it appropriately. .
JaneDoesButteflyArt.com would post images of her butterfly artwork and by remaining within the parameters of those search terms, would gradually build up a web presence within that particular niche. I use ZombieArt.us to link to my Ebay store which matches my #zombieart hastag, and my social media user names, such as Twitter.com/Zombieart and Facebook.com/Zombieart.
Your Twitter feed can be published on your personal website in order to reach those who don't use Twitter, and those who do but don't follow your account yet. Your embedded Twitter feed makes it possible to direct new buyers to your auctions with one click. (Look to the right margin of this blog to see an example.)
If you are consistently keep your store stocked, then even expired Tweets will serve as permanent advertisements. Much of my own Ebay traffic comes to my store from old Tweets and even if they don't find what they initially sought, they will usually find something from the same series (see my post on Serialization).
Jack Larson
http://www.Twitter.com/zombieart
For the niche marketer, Twitter is a godsend and here's why: personal websites are isolated entities. They are dependent upon searchers seeking them out and they lack the interconnectivity of social media platforms. Twitter puts its users together in one forum which makes it possible to reach mass audiences and target those who are relevant to your interests.
Think of a website as a home business, and the Twitter account as a kiosk at the local shopping mall. Both the amount of foot-traffic and the placement of the kiosk determine how well it will succeed with a given product. If it's positioned by the correct stores, it can benefit from the cross-marketing. For example,a kiosk selling sunglasses and suntan lotion would fare better near the clothing store specializing in swimwear than near the bookstore (assuming that more beachgoers than bookworms will need protection from the sun's ultraviolet rays).
A Twitter account doesn't tell the whole story but presents a lead-in. The idea is to connect with the right users and draw them over to your personal website. Hashtags such as #zombieart, the one I promote with my own work, are used to filter your outgoing Tweets into relevant categories, increasing the odds that your messages will be received by the right readers.
An important note about etiquette: DO post links to for sale items but DO NOT utilize urgent "buy it now" statements. The link should stand alone. Waste no characters on prompting the potential buyers to click. The focus of the Twitter post should be to draw readers based upon content, not hype. If you're targeting the appropriate niche and using the right hashtags, then the buyers won't need to be told what to do.
With each image you upload, your account becomes a de facto web portfolio. Each uploaded image makes your work instantaneously accessible to potential collectors even outside of the Twittersphere once your posts start showing up on Internet searches. As you accrue followers, their own network will overlap with yours whenever they promote your Tweets on their own "feeds" in what are called Retweets.
For the purposes of hotlinking to your auction, it's preferable and more efficient to purchase a web domain and forward it to your auction listings. This will save you the time and trouble of copying and pasting unique URL's for each listing. The domain name you choose should be memorable and related to your work. For example: "JaneDoesButterfyArt.com." Keep it simple, keyword oriented, and memorable. This domain name is part of your long-term branding strategy so name it appropriately. .
JaneDoesButteflyArt.com would post images of her butterfly artwork and by remaining within the parameters of those search terms, would gradually build up a web presence within that particular niche. I use ZombieArt.us to link to my Ebay store which matches my #zombieart hastag, and my social media user names, such as Twitter.com/Zombieart and Facebook.com/Zombieart.
Your Twitter feed can be published on your personal website in order to reach those who don't use Twitter, and those who do but don't follow your account yet. Your embedded Twitter feed makes it possible to direct new buyers to your auctions with one click. (Look to the right margin of this blog to see an example.)
If you are consistently keep your store stocked, then even expired Tweets will serve as permanent advertisements. Much of my own Ebay traffic comes to my store from old Tweets and even if they don't find what they initially sought, they will usually find something from the same series (see my post on Serialization).
Jack Larson
http://www.Twitter.com/zombieart
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