Welcome to Crafty Biz – a series of posts discussing the business of selling your craft or art online.

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Okay – so what the heck is Twitter – and why should you use it for your business? Read on!

Why Should I Bother with Twitter?

Twitter is becoming a part of the everyday world. No longer just the preserve of the online geek elite, you can now follow celebrities, popular news programs and radio stations. This is a signal of how mainstream Twitter is becoming – and why you should definitely take advantage of this tool in your crafty business.

More to the point, Twitter is fun! Of course, like everything, it is what you make it. You have the wonderful power of choosing to follow (‘following’ people means seeing the updates that they ‘tweet’) only those people and organisations that you are interested in, which makes it simultaniously one of the biggest and one of the most niche-specific social networks out there.

So – how can I use Twitter to help sell my work?

1. Don’t spam.

People choose to follow you because they are interested in who you are and what you do. As a general rule, people will unfollow you if all you ever say is ‘buy my stuff’. Mix it up – talk about what you are doing in your life, things you are thinking about, projects you are working on… and yes, do occasionally tweet your new item, or something you have sold.

2. Do fill in your profile.

This is vital. Have a nice avatar, upload a unique background image, and fill in where you are. Use all the characters in your description to tell people about yourself. Here’s my description – “I blog about handmade style, indie design, craft resources; I make contemporary silver/metal jewellery; I love reading scifi; I am a tea addict!”. My aim was to outline what I do and who I am – and give a few little quirky details for interest, too.

If people don’t know who you are, they won’t know why they should follow you.

3. Get to know people – Interact

I have lost count of the times I have had hilarious random conversations with people on Twitter. It’s a wonderfully egalitarian platform – don’t be afraid to @ people and comment on something they’ve said. Just like any other social platform, you can get to know people and make friends. Business-wise – people like to buy things from people they know and trust – as your follower on Twitter they will feel that they have an insight into your life.

4. Give people the chance to follow you.

Make sure you make your Twitter username easy to find. Have it in your shop announcement, on your website and blog, in your e-mail signature…  the more followers, the more people who will get to know about you and your work!

5. Don’t try to read everything.

You are not meant to read everything tweeted by the people you follow. If you tried, you would never do anything else! Twitter is something to have running in the background – to be checked once in a while. If you have a nice reader like TweetDeck (I use this and love it), any posts directed @ you will show up alongside your stream – so you don’t have to worry about missing something someone has said to you.

6. Use Mr Tweet to find people

How do you find people to follow? Well, the first step is following those you already know – fellow crafters, friends… once you’ve got that first few, I recommend checking out Mr Tweet to find new people to follow. The nice part about this site is that it recommends people to you based on who you already follow – and who they follow. You can also use a twitter search engine like Twellow to find people by niche or keyword.

Will it help me sell my work?

Yes. I have definitely made a number of sales directly from Twitter. I have built up a following (as of when I’m writing this) of over 1,000 people – and whenever I mention a new product on Twitter I get upwards of 30 views on it almost immediately. Remember – the more people who see your work, the more likely someone will love it enough to buy it! It may take some time to build up a following – but it’s worth it!

Good luck in your Twitter journey – please feel free to follow me (@jessvanden) and say hello!!

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