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Twitter For Magicians – 8 Top Tips

by Merchant of Magic Leave a Comment

By Paul Osborne

Twitter for magicians - Top Tips

Paul runs Merchant of Magic’s Twitter account. A former teenage magician, he took a brief 30 years off to pursue drumming and standup comedy. Now back in love with magic, he’s slowly working his way through Royal Road to Card Magic and Bobo‘s Modern Coin Magic.

Firstly, let me say, I’m not some bright young thing with a man bun, smart shoes/no socks, and a degree in marketing and social media. I’m just someone who has used Twitter a lot over the past few years and kept an eye on what works and what doesn’t; looking at which accounts get a lot of followers, and why — and which posts get a lot of retweets.

So I thought I’d put together a few tips to help those magicians — or magic fans — who want to grow a following on social media.

1. You MUST treat Twitter as a SHARING platform.

This is the most important tip. But what do I mean by ‘sharing’? Well, just sitting there sending out a couple of tweets a day about your new magic show is a waste of time. Most people follow a lot of accounts (sometimes thousands). The chances of them seeing your lone tweet in their timeline are nil. I’m not saying don’t send out these tweets, I’m saying you must do lots of other things as well. 

And this is where the sharing bit comes in. Make a list of other magic accounts that you like — ones that tweet interesting stuff about magic, [John Cox @HoudiniWild tweets daily about Houdini, for instance] and regularly retweet them. What often happens is, after a while, people will also start checking out your account because they know you retweet interesting posts. Go through your list every day to check for new posts from these Twitter users. It gives you a more structured way of using Twitter.

Secondly, if someone mentions you in a post [eg, ‘I saw your magic show last night, it was brilliant!’] don’t just hit the ‘like’ button; retweet it as well. It’s a way of saying thank you to the person who left the comment and it’s also a bit more promotion for you. Sharing the love!

And comment on other people’s posts. Add to the conversation if it interests you. It will get your name about.

2. You don’t have to be on Twitter ALL the time, but you do have to use it regularly.

When I first started using Twitter I was often amazed at how certain ‘normal’ people (ie, not celebrities, businesses, etc) would get Twitter followings of 8,000, 9,000, 10,000 people. After a while, I realised that many of these people are, not only, on the platform for hours at a time, but they are also regularly commenting on other people’s posts and retweeting other people’s comments and posts — sharing, you see. And then the circle of people they interact with gradually grows over time — and so does their following.

Now, most busy magicians — or working magic fans — probably haven’t got time to spend hours on Twitter, but a little structured, regular use will help. Effective Twitter for magicians only needs about 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes in the evening? Or put aside some time at weekends. And if you regularly travel by train, then that would be a good time for Twitter sessions on your mobile phone.

And if you’re spending that time retweeting other accounts’ content, then you’ll only be using one hand (either your smartphone scrolling thumb or your mouse if you’re on your laptop) so why not practise a few coin sleights with your other hand? Kill two birds with one stone.

The important thing is that the time needs to be spread out over the day. I spend two hours in the morning on Merchant of Magic’s account, an hour late afternoon, and 30 minutes in the evening. (plus a few stints over the weekend to keep it ticking over.) If I compressed all those hours into just, say, mornings, then I’d miss any engagement/comments posted during the afternoon and evening.

3. As well as retweeting others, post interesting content yourself.

As a magician, you’ve got a skill that ‘normal people don’t have. So make sure you’re regularly posting interesting stuff about magic. It could just be a photo of you performing at that wedding last weekend. Or a photo of the latest trick you’re working on. A show or event coming up. Anything interesting. (eg, The Magic Mod @taylormod posts a Magic Mod Monday trick every week, which is very popular)

Why aren’t you posting some of your thoughts on magic? Sharing clips from YouTube of your favourite magicians? Or asking questions of the magic community, ‘What’s the worst gig you’ve ever done?’ etc. People love getting involved with these sorts of questions because it’s good fun for everyone to chip in.

And, briefly, on the subject of ‘divisive topics’, if you’re just using Twitter to promote yourself as a magician — or you’re a magic fan and want to build a following of other magic fans — then I’d personally steer clear of tweeting about politics, religion, etc, which may put some people off revisiting your site if they don’t share your views. But it’s a personal choice, of course. One way around it would be to have two Twitter accounts – one for your magic tweets and one for politics. But, again, it’s up to you. Tweeting about politics could actually help you build a following of people in your political camp if that’s what you want.

4. Don’t forget to tag in relevant accounts.

Here’s one of the Twitter mistakes I see a lot. Someone will, say, write an interesting blog about a forthcoming magic show, and they’ll just tweet out their blog post, and that’s it. Why haven’t they tagged in the magicians involved? Why haven’t they tagged in the theatre? Theatres often retweet favourable blogs/previews etc because it’s good publicity for them. If you’re writing about Mac King’s show, or you just mention Mac King in a tweet, tag in Mac King! He may retweet it, you never know.

5. Follow people back. 

If someone follows you, follow them back. It’s just a nice thing to do. I’m always amused when I see people who follow no one, and into my head pops the phrase: ‘How incurious of you!’ (Sometimes follow-backs are missed, so if you’re reading this and we haven’t followed you back then give us a nudge!)

6. Make sure you have a good pinned tweet.

Twitter lets you ‘pin’ one tweet — which means that it always sits at the top of your profile. So when someone visits your Twitter site they will see that tweet first. So, if you have a show, event, or just a general tweet about you as a magician that you want people to see, then pin it to your profile. Just google ‘how to pin a tweet’ if you’re unsure how to do it. 

Your whole Twitter for magicians strategy should be about creating an interesting Twitter site that encourages people to check out your account, see your pinned tweet and then check out your timeline.

7. Twitter banner pictures need to look good.

Make sure the photographs at the top of your site look great. A good picture of you performing, for instance, or a posed picture in your stage clothes. (Not in your hoodie drinking a cup of tea — unless that’s your act!) Or how about a photo of a selection of magic tricks? You can get some good photos on free images websites.

And think about the words in your bio. Put yourselves in the shoes of a magic fan checking out your account for the first time. Does it sound professional? It could even be something simple such as ‘Professional magician’ with a link to your website, or ‘Magic fan’. And make sure you double-check the spelling, grammar etc.

8. Getting followers if you’re new to Twitter.

If you’re new to Twitter and have zero followers then, first of all, you need to follow a bunch of people so that a proportion of people follow you back. But beware of visiting a famous magician’s followers and going down the long list hitting ‘follow’. Twitter may think you’re a bot and briefly kick you off. So be a bit selective. It’s probably better to search for the word ‘magician’ or ‘magic fan’ and find other magic enthusiasts to follow that way.

And finally…

Remember, it may take a few months to start building a group of people who regularly interact with you, so be patient — and just enjoy it.

If you have any more tips/ideas, please leave a comment.

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Filed Under: how to do magic tricks, Marketing for Magicians, promotion, Questions and Answers, SEO Tagged With: marketing, Marketing for Magicians, Social Media

SEO for Magicians

by Merchant of Magic 2 Comments

 

Search Engine Optimization for Magicians

Tony asks:

‘I don’t know anything about SEO for magicians websites. Can you help me with some tips?‘

It doesn’t matter how much you practice your magic, unless you have an audience, all that hard work is for nothing. If you are ready to start performing for the public, it’s time to build a website to advertise your services as a magician. Lets look at how magicians can improve their websites, so they get noticed in the search engine site listings.

Search engine optimization, often shortened to SEO, is essential if you want your magicians website showing up near the top of the search results. However, there are good SEO and bad SEO:
Bad SEO for magicians.

There are many ‘companies’ that promise to get you listed at the top of  Googles search results, by clever SEO. Many of these services uses ‘black hat’ techniques that can get you banned by Google for trying to ‘game the system’. Some SEO companies offer to stuff lots of keywords onto a website, or create hundreds of low quality links from other sites back to your site. This won’t fool Google anymore. Generally, if a companies promise sounds too good to be true, it usually isn’t true.

Never try to cheat the system when it comes to SEO. Google employs some of the world’s greatest mathematicians and experts. Their job is to stop  websites from cheating and to find ways to punish those that do!
Good SEO for magicians.

The good news for us magicians, is that there are many positive things we can do, when building our websites to help the search engines rather than cheat them. The reward for playing by Googles own rules is a greater chance of a higher listing in their search results.

The right keywords.

The  first step is to choose the keywords you will target. Make a list of 6 words or phrases that people looking to hire a magician in your area would type into the search engine. Perhaps your name, style of magic, location, type of event etc. So, if you are a close up magician living in Southampton, and you entertain in restaurants, your keywords/phrases could be:

  1. Magicians
  2. Southampton
  3. Restaurant magicians
  4. Magic
  5. Hampshire
  6. Restaurant entertainment

Content is King.

Now that you’ve picked your keywords, build them into the content you publish on your magicians website. Use them in your about page, as headers, within buttons and links.

Don’t over do it. Write for humans rather than the search engines. A keyword  density of 1% – 2% per page is about right. If you use the same keyword too many times on the same page, Google WILL notice. If Google thinks you are ‘keyword stuffing’ they may punish your website in the listings. Google could even remove your magicians website from their search results completely.

 

3 Tips for picking a domain name for your magicians website.

1)  Choose domain names that contain some of your keywords. Google includes the keywords in your domain name in bold. This stands out in the search results.

2)  Choose a domain that is specific for your local area and client base. If you work 99% of the time in the UK, then choose a .co.uk domain name. Google gives preference to those in the Google UK results.

3) Avoid hyphenated domains. HampshireMagician.co.uk is better than Hampshire-Magician.co.uk
Don’t forget the META tags.

You should also add your keywords in your META tags. META tags are hidden from visitors, but search engines use them to understand and index your  site.

The essential one is the Title META tag. The text you add in the Title tag  is shown in the main link to your site, in the search results. Ideally, the Title tag should be your magician’s stage name, and the subject of  that page (for example, Paul Smith – Restaurant Magic in Southampton,  Hampshire).

Keep the page Title tag under 175 characters, so it’s not  truncated in the search results.

The other two META tags that are used by search engines are Keywords and Description.

Keywords are not really used by Google anymore, but add a few in anyway. The ‘Description’ IS important, as that’s shown under the Title tag in the search results. It’s not used for ranking, but visitors that look at the listings will read it to see if the page is useful to them.

Building links.

Google tries to judge a website by how trustworthy it is. To do this, it will look at the number of websites that link to your magicians website. The more high ranking websites that are linking back to yours the more ‘SEO  Juice’ your site builds up.

The  best way to get links to your site is to make it interesting, so other sites will link to it. A generic magicians website is not going to be a  popular site for links, so you need to think about ways to earn links. A great way to do this is to set up a ‘recommended’ page. You can then  link to other types of entertainers or party services, who will  hopefully give you a link as well. We on the lookout for sites linking to you with a ‘no follow’ link. These links don’t pass any ‘SEO Juice’ to you as Google doesn’t count them.

Don’t get ripped off.

At all costs, avoid companies that offer to set up backlinks for you. Google knows this is ‘gaming the system’ and the latest Google update  (called Penguin) will punish sites that use link farms and bulk link-back tactics.

Be Social.

Google counts links on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, so make sure you add a few links back to your magicians website. Remember not to spam links on social networks, as it does more harm than good.

Say goodbye to Flash.

Search engines don’t see Flash, so make sure you use as little as possible on your website.

Provide a guide.

Remember to include a site map for Google to use. It allows Google to crawl your site quickly and get to every page.

Experiment.

Look at website site traffic reports for your site. Notice which keywords people use to find you. Check where you rank in Google for your chosen keywords. If you rank very low for some keywords, think about changing them to keywords that have less competition, but will send more targeted visitors to your website.

Getting your SEO fixed.

Search Engine Optimization is vital for your magicians website to work for you. – If done right, it will bring you publicity, and many more magic gigs.

One of the problems magicians face when trying to get the SEO right on their magicians websites, is who to trust. There is a great deal of companies that offer a paid service for SEO. Some are excellent, but there are many that use questionable sales techniques, and can’t be trusted.

Do you have any SEO tips for magicians you can share? Please leave a  comment below. We would love to discuss this topic further with you! 

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Filed Under: Magicians Websites, SEO, YouTube Magicians Tagged With: Magicians Websites, SEO, YouTube Magicians

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