A member over at Absolute Write mentioned he was new to Twitter, and asked for help with the whole hashtag thing, so I dug through some of my bookmarks and passed these seven tips on. Then I realized other writers who aren’t active at AW might find them useful. (And if you’re a writer, and you’re not active at AW, you should be!)
What’s a hashtag? It’s a word or phrase preceded by the hash or pound sign that helps guide social media conversation on a particular topic. #amwriting is one of the most common writing-related hashtags, and it’s quite a community. You can follow a hashtag easily with most social media clients. Here’s a basic guide to the topic: http://techforluddites.com/the-twitter-hashtag-what-is-it-and-how-do-you-use-it/
Now for your seven tips:
- Rachel Thompson has some great tips: http://badredheadmedia.com/category/social-media-2/twitter-tips/
- Also search Elizabeth Spann Craig’s Writer’s Knowledge Base at http://hiveword.com/wkb/search
- This article lists 100 common hashtags for writers: http://www.aerogrammestudio.com/2013/03/12/100-twitter-hashtags-every-writer-should-know/
- A nice guide to researching hashtags: http://sproutsocial.com/insights/twitter-hashtags/
- Trendmap lets you find trends locally and wordlwide: http://trendsmap.com/
- There’s also Ritetag to find trending hashtags: https://ritetag.com/hashtag-search
- I use Hootsuite to help me keep up with Twitter and Facebook. The free version lets you manage up to three accounts, and you can set up an almost limitless number of tabs. I have one tab called “Hashtags,” and within that tab, I have four streams set up for the primary hashtags I follow (#amwriting, #MondayBlogs, #OKWX, and #IndieBooksBeSeen)
That should help get you on your way to becoming a social media pro. What’s the number one hashtag you follow?
1 Comment
lindsaycomplinin says
Like the tips here. And not just for newbies. I have been on Twitter for a year and growing followers very slowly. I feel these tips will help me to use Twitter better, engage more and grow my following. Thanks.