How to pitch your NFT project/art on Twitter Spaces

Are you an NFT founder or artist and having trouble marketing yourself in Twitter spaces? Ever join a Twitter space with 50+ people and just feel overwhelmed? Do you feel like you’re not sure what to say, or how to say it? Are you new to the Web3 space and aren’t sure what people care about? If that sounds like you, you’re in the right place.

Twitter space screenshot

Why does your pitch matter?

Your “pitch” is the main way people hear about your project, especially in the early stages. In the NFT world, where your community is also your stakeholder, it’s crucial to create a pitch that resonates with and attracts many people. Twitter spaces are the main form of marketing in the NFT space so you only have your voice and your profile to attract your audience. In this article we’ll be going through:

• Preparation
• First impressions
• Delivery
• Content
• Post pitch

Intro

A quick intro about myself, I’m James and I’m the founder and dev for Fitness Friends. I’m a UC Berkeley grad, and was a summer instructor at Berkeley where I taught thousands of students. I also took multiple public speaking courses and have created thousands of hours of walkthrough videos at Berkeley, and most recently at Real Python. I’ve spent the last three weeks full time marketing for my project and have spent hundreds of hours on Twitter spaces so far, and I wanted to share my knowledge on public speaking and tips and tricks I’ve learned throughout this experience. Hope you enjoy!

Preparation

All great speakers prepare their speeches and why shouldn’t we? TEDx speakers for example have to prepare 6 months ahead and they practice every month until the event.

Here are some tips on how you can prepare ahead of time:

• Write bullet points for what you want to go over. My bullet points consist of: one line hook, intro team, problem statement, and call to action.
• You can also write out the entire script, especially if English is not your first language. As long as you practice it over and over and make it sound like you’re not reading from a script, it is totally fine to do this!
• Record yourself. Record yourself, many many times. You only have your voice on Twitter spaces, so you need to know what your voice sounds like, and you’ll hear things you never thought about! Focus on pacing, um/uhs, pauses, and energy. More info in the Delivery section of this article.
• Make sure your audio sounds professional. You can record yourself before and double check that the audio works. Invest in a good mic or headphones.
• Try to reduce background noise. You can take advantage of the iPhone’s mic voice isolation mode. There isn’t a built in way on Android but you can look for other apps. I hear a lot of people sharing with a bunch of background noise and I understand that not everyone can get rid of background noises (I live in NY) but try to go somewhere that has less noise.
• Double check internet strength (are you using 5G when you’re not supposed to be?). Twitter is known to rug people, and having bad internet doesn’t help.
• Practice some breathing exercises to help calm nerves. My favorite is box breathing, where you breath 4 seconds in, hold for 4 seconds, breath out 4 seconds, then hold for 4 seconds.
• You can only speak on Twitter spaces on mobile, so make sure your setup works on the phone! You can listen in on desktop but at the time of writing this article you can’t speak on desktop.

First Impressions

There’s something called first impression bias where people make incomplete assumptions based on the first minute (or less) when interacting with you. In the Twitter space and social media space, people will make assumptions about you and your project after just a few seconds. Here are some tips on how to improve your first impressions:

• Your first sentence should hit hard. Thank the hosts, and then start with something strong. Some people have slogans, others don’t. You don’t need one, but you need the first sentence to be funny or energetic or memorable.
• Humor. Play to your strengths! Open up with a joke, or a funny comparison or a fun fact about yourself.
• Smile. There’s something called the Smile sense where someone can sense if you are smiling while you talk, and it will make them smile too, associating your pitch with positivity.
• Listen to the space to get the vibe. Each host has their own personality, preferences, and energy, and it’s important to adapt to each of these.
• Same notes from the preparation section, make sure your audio sounds professional, try to reduce background noise, and make sure your internet works.

Delivery

What about the delivery of the pitch? How can we come across natural and genuine with just our voice? I purposely put this before content, because this is where most people need some help. Here are some tips:

• How not to say uh/um or filler words? First step, record yourself. Most of us are not aware that we say filler words until someone calls it out or we hear it back. Once you’ve diagnosed the problem, the solution is to embrace the pauses. My tip is channel your inner Obama :). If he can pause 2–3 seconds and become president, I think we can all pause a little more. Plus this is great for non-English audience members to understand us better. Here’s some more tips related to just this.
• Energy. Start with high energy, then change the energy as you transition sections. By fluctuating energy, you can give off the impression that it is natural even if you’re reading off a script. Also it will help engage your audience and help them focus on sections are important.
• Speak slowly. People speak faster when they’re nervous (this is proven), so if you think you’re speaking too slow, you’re probably speaking at the right pace.
• Keep it short. Most presenters in the NFT space go WAY too long. Keep it under 5 minutes, preferably under 3 minutes. You can have two scripts, one elevator pitch, and one longer, if that helps and you can pull from each one when needed.
• Again smile :) and laugh and don’t take yourself too seriously! People love a fun personality especially during a bear market.

Content

This isn’t entirely true, but it made me laugh. Anyways what should your pitch be about? This is how I structure mine, but I would say you can put whatever you think is best here.

• Hook. One liner about your project that will get people engaged. Most people will fall off after this anyways.
• Team. Start with your name (so many people forget this), and talk a little bit about yourself. Tell a story, make it memorable. Personal fun facts are fun too!
• Problem statement. This isn’t applicable to all projects/artists, but many are solving a real world problem, and people better want to come along to solve the problem. Most pitch decks to VCs (venture capital) are entirely problem + solution, and I think there is merit to this structure even outside VC.
• Project specifics. If you have time, talk about what makes your project unique?
• Call to action. Don’t forget to tell people the details! What chain? What’s the price? Website? Like/RT for a giveaway?

Post Pitch

So you finished your pitch, now what?

• Follow the hosts. Not only is this the right thing to do, but this also allows you to see what spaces they’re joining/hosting on your main page. They probably will join similar spaces and you can see them on your feed. It’s a great organic way to find new spaces. Hopefully the host will follow you back, and then you’ve built a relationship with someone great in the space.
• Ask the host when they usually host their spaces. Mark it down on your calendar. There is something called the mere exposure effect where people gravitate towards things they are familiar with, and so attending the same spaces is KEY to success.
• Ask other projects questions about themselves or their projects. Don’t be that person who jumps into a space, shares, then leaves.
• Check out what other spaces are going on either on the Twitter app or https://spacesdashboard.com/. Spaces Dashboard allows you to search for Twitter Spaces.

Closing Thoughts

Public speaking is a learned skill and through practice and help, we all can become great speakers! Come follow my Twitter and also my NFT project Fitness Friends where we’re bringing physical and mental health to Web3. We’re all about improving ourselves as people, and we host weekly Twitter spaces on the Fitness Friends account where we help you practice your pitch in a no anxiety zone! Thank you for reading!