Twitter Basics for NFT Artists
Before starting with NFTs, I hadn’t used Twitter in over 4 years. I also never felt like I understood why people would use Twitter until I found the NFT community.
So I’ve learned a lot of what works and doesn’t work in my year living on Twitter because of NFTs 😛
Twitter is where the magic happens with NFTs because that is where the community lives. Having a 20k following on Instagram doesn’t mean much in the NFT scene like that following does on Twitter.
So a common topic on NFT Twitter is engagement, the algorithm, etc. I’ve even done a “is anyone out there post?” before.
Ok so if you’re ready to use Twitter and you’re an NFT artist, here are some things you need to know if you’re an NFT artist on Twitter.
What is the Twitter algorithm?
Twitter has many algorithms but the one I’m going to focus on (and most people talk about) is the one that powers the home feed timeline.
Twitter describes the algorithmic home timeline as:
“A stream of Tweets from accounts you have chosen to follow on Twitter, as well as recommendations of other content we think you might be interested in based on accounts you interact with frequently, Tweets you engage with, and more.”
If you use the latest tweets view then the algorithm doesn’t affect your home view, you’ll see a list of Tweets from followed topics and accounts in reverse-chronological order. It only impacts the home view timeline but that is also the default view.
How does the Twitter algorithm work?
No one knows exactly how it works, including Twitter itself. Why? Because it uses machine learning to sort content based on different ranking signals.
What we do know is you can’t avoid the algorithm. Twitter even says that machine learning (aka algorithms) “can impact hundreds of millions of Tweets per day.”
How do I know how well my Tweets are performing?
You’ll want to get familiar with Twitter analytics to start testing out what may work best for you.
You can find out how many impressions, likes, retweets, and comments a tweet got by tapping on “view tweet activity’ on individual tweets.
For more details you can go to analytics.twitter.com to dig in a bit more and you can read more about your activity dashboard.
Analytics will be your friend as you try out different things mentioned below.
10 Twitter tips for NFT Artists
Stay active on Twitter
One of Twitter’s ranking signals is recency so you’ll want to make sure you stay active and tweet regularly.
Google says that “Tweeting regularly and consistently will boost your visibility and grow engagement.”
Post fresh content
Try to post 1-2 times per day. Some people recommend a maximum of 3-5 times per day but I can’t say I’ve really experimented with this.
Sometimes I post way over 5 but I’ve hit a RT limit once so now try to limit to a max of 10.
Twitter also hops on trends which are “topics that are popular now, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis.”
Sometimes I’ll post about a trending topic (see the What’s Happening section) just to see if it helps engagement and sometimes it does.
For example, I asked who Frank was when I noticed it was trending.
Read more about topics ranking signals here.
Use tags purposefully
Hashtags and tagging friends is a good way to gain visibility and engagement on Twitter, but don’t over do it. You’ll look like spam to the algorithm.
Twitter itself says it will not recommend “content that might be abusive or spammy.” It recommends using no more than two hashtags per Tweet.
Twitter lets you tag up to 10 people in a post but I don’t do that often. I try to to keep it to less than 3 when tagging or I fear it will get marked as spam.
Since Twitter also ranks according to who you interact and engage with tagging people can do more harm than good sometimes.
Liking and retweeting
Liking and retweeting are good, but you need to make sure that’s not all you’re doing. If all you post are retweets, you’re more likely to look like a bot or spam to the algorithm.
One of the things Twitter does is look at your previous actions like your own tweets, tweets you engage with, accounts you engage with, and the topics you follow and engage with.
This means if you use the #nftcommunity hashtag, you also want to make sure you’re active in the comments of the hashtag as well. This is how Twitter tries to determine bot vs human.
Also, some people mute retweets. Try using quote tweets, those seem to do a bit better.
Comments
It’s good when your tweets get comments, but it’s also good when you comment. It makes you look more human than bot. I try to reply to comments as much as I can and I also try to reply to other’s tweets. It just helps everyone’s overall engagement, imho.
Also, if you use hashtags you’ll want to participate and comment on other tweets with that hashtag.
Links
I have definitely noticed that tweets without links do way better than my tweets with links. I try to avoid links as much as I can and usually post them in a subtweet.
Twitter wants people to stay on Twitter (think ads) so the more buried your link is the better. I may even try avoiding in subtweets soon, too because I feel that also hurts engagement.
I say try different things and see what works best for you. You’ll start to notice trends in your analytics once you start experimenting.
Use photos, videos, and GIFs
People say that photos, videos, and gifs definitely help engagement on Twitter and while I tend to agree, some of my best performing tweets have been just text.
One thing I am going to start doing more is use captions and the alt tag. I want to be a bit more inclusive but also curious if it impacts the algorithm at all. I’ll report on that later.
Curate your profile
Think about first impressions and know that the first thing people do is go look at your profile.
How does it look? Does it show your art? I personally display my art in the banner and pfp. You also want to have a pinned tweet and make sure to have a good balance of Tweets.
For example, Tweets about yourself, your opinions, creative process, etc. You also want a balance of your art and supporting others through RTs or showing off your collection.
Connect with your community
Encourage your followers to engage in tweets by asking questions. You get to know your followers and it helps your engagement.
I also like to ask for feedback and it’s fun to ask for replies in just gifs or emojis. Try different things out and see what works for you.
Use polls to interact with your community, get valuable feedback, and mix up the type of content people see on your profile.
Experiment
Experimenting with content, times of day, amount of tweets per day, etc. is how you’ll get the most out of your Twitter engagement. I’m really not an expert, but I did lean into the data available to me.
I use tools to help get me deeper data than what Twitter provides and scheduling tools so that I maintain an active presence. Those tools also help me figure out how the tweet performs and makes it so I’m not tied to Twitter all day (even though I often am LOL).
I got to 20k Twitter followers in a year by just noticing what did well, what brought in more followers, and adjusting. For example, I didn’t like having to comment my links but realized no one would see my NFTs if I kept links in my tweet.
If you experiment it also helps you learn like I have without having to take courses or pay someone else to give you information you can find on Google.
Hope this helps!