Twitter For Magicians – 8 Top Tips

By Paul Osborne

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.

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.

Magicians Twitter Mistakes – How to Use Twitter

by Dominic Reyes 2 Comments

Many magicians are using Twitter to promote themselves. Here's how to avoid common magicians twitter mistakes.

Dominic Reyes talked with magician and active social media marketer Sean Boon on common mistakes that magicians make when they use twitter to advertise their services. Sean and Dominic discuss how magicians make two common mistakes. They build the wrong type of follower list, and they use twitter to broadcast adverts.

Here's a transcript of the conversation:

Dominic Reyes : We've known each other for quite a while now – and one of the things that really impresses me about the way you run your magic business is your activity in social media.

Sean Boon : Are you trying to say I'm online too much? [laughter]

Dominic Reyes : But you're really active on Twitter and that seems to be working really well for you, and you've got an interesting approach to it.

Sean Boon : Yeah, I think the way that people are looking for products and services – whether we're talking a magician or even a plumber or builder for that matter – has changed.

We're losing the directory style – Yellow Pages style of looking and I think we lost that a long time ago and it's evident when everyone started naming their company 'Aardvark Cleaning' and 'Aardvark Builders'. Technology's changed – we use keywords now, we're thrown adverts in our face based on keywords – so I use social media almost in the reverse. I look up what people are looking for from other peoples' tweets – technology, software-based but I'll go into that another time.

I like the idea that it spreads virally. It's not about having loads and loads of likes on your Facebook page, it's not about having loads and loads of follows on your Twitter page – what's more important is that it's a virtual word of mouth, more important that people are talking about you rather than you saying, 'Look, well I've got 3,000 people that 'like' my page – I must be good'. No, that's just 3,000 that clicked the 'like' button – that's not '3,000' that are talking about you currently. That's the most important thing.

Dominic Reyes : You often say that a lot of magicians have the wrong type of followers?

Sean Boon : A lot of them – and it is tricky because we are quite a close-knit community – a lot of magicians follow magicians, which is fair enough but it is a two-way street, particularly on Twitter – you've got to have followers. So I look for the mutual services, so for instance if your main bookings are weddings, then I'll try and find a wedding supplier to follow in the hope that they follow back. So for instance, I'd look up a wedding planner, even an events organiser, so that we've got that mutual interest.

Dominic Reyes : You're expanding your circle of influence as well, aren't you? Outside of just now and outside of magic?

Sean Boon : Yeah, and as I've mentioned it's not about having a number of followers, it's about having people talk about you, so if you're connecting with someone like an events planner or an events organiser, you follow them they follow you, maybe you have done an event at that venue and that's your reason for following them. Then if they spread the word. If they say, 'Oh yes we saw you at such-and-such event', and they tweet that, well your message has gone out to there hundreds, thousands, millions of followers, whatever. If one of their followers sees that and was also at the event and they spread it, it spreads again, it spreads again, and there's that impact that's so important on Twitter.

Outside of trade shows and things like wedding fares and outside of that, my main source of work is from Facebook and Twitter.

Dominic Reyes : I think it's quite an undeveloped area for a lot of magicians.

Sean Boon : Yeah, for magicians definitely.

Dominic Reyes : It might be focussed on but maybe in the wrong way.

Sean Boon : Yeah. Some people, they hear about technology and new methods like Twitter, like Facebook, and they use it incorrectly. They think it's about keywords, so they make their tweet or their post consist of just keywords and a link to their website, think that that's going to get them a hit. It might get you a hit but it also looks awful on the timeline or the newsfeed for those people that do follow you. You've got to engage with people. It's virtual – it's called 'social' media for a reason. You talk to these people.

Dominic Reyes : So do you favour conversations rather than broadcasts of bits of information? Are you trying to create a conversation?

Sean Boon : Well, outside of magic I do train people in social media.

There is a broadcast method. Now, the broadcasting of a tweet or a Facebook message is great, but the analogy that I use in my courses is it's like standing at the top of the mountain and going, 'Hi, I'm Sean Boon, I'm a magician'. And that's great if someone's there to hear it. So if you've got existing followers then they've heard that message. But if you've got existing followers, they've already heard the message.

Dominic Reyes : Yeah, I do often see a magician and he's literally just reposting the same tweet, 'Joe Blogs, magician available', and the website url, and it's over and over and over again.

Sean Boon : There are strategic ways of structuring a tweet. You can directly converse, so if I put the @ sign and then your username and then put a, 'Hi, how're you doing? Saw you at such-and-such or saw that you had a gig in Eastleigh or whatever or London or this and that and the other'. That's a conversation between you and I which can be seen by you and I but it can also be seen by our own mutual followers as well. So it does get out to a bit of a bigger picture.

However, if I constructed the tweet this way, 'Saw magician buddy Dominic Reyes' and then @ your username ' at such-and-such an event – really great fun from what I hear', then that message has been seen by me obviously because I wrote it, it's been seen by you because you've been tagged in it with your username, but because it's been structured by having text then the tag then more text, for example, it's also been seen by all my followers. And at this moment I've got a couple of thousand. So my private conversation that we were having is now less private but it serves as a bit of free publicity for you. Do you see what I mean?

Dominic Reyes : Yeah, so you're also sharing the benefit. Not just for yourself and bringing people in to you but you're also expanding other peoples' circles.

Sean Boon : I get venues that follow me or I follow them. I tweet about them saying, 'I've just got back from a wedding at such-and-such a venue', and I put their username in it, and they favourite that tweet. That's like bookmarking. Doing this is great for me because it shows that they've seen this tweet and they've bookmarked it, They think it's something worth remembering', but if they hit 'retweet' instead or on Facebook hit 'share', that's gone out to all their followers and their followers can also see it. People may say 'Oh, this guy Sean performs at their venue – he does gigs there often'. That serves as a free advert.

Every tweet you make, every status post, every comment you make, every 'like', every group you join is all becoming more and more visible – particularly on Facebook – and if that's the case, you've got to think of them all becoming free adverts for you every time you do that. It doesn't mean to say that every tweet or every post should be, 'Hi I'm Sean and here's my website', because that becomes essentially junk mail.

Do this to avoid common magicians twitter mistakes:

1) Start conversations.

2) Don't fill up your follower list with other magicians. Follow clients, venues, event planners etc. Follow people that are actually interested in using your services.

3) Find ways to give your clients free advertsing and to build their own follower lists. By doing this, you also reach their followers.

4) Don't repeatedly tweet 'Joe Blogs magician London URL' filling up your timeline and giving the same message to people that have already seen it.