Twitter Hashtags for Writing

This thread does have a decent list of hashtags. Not perfect, but a darn good starting place.

#FebWritingChallenge is a place to check in with writers and ensure you either get 500 words a day or 1 hr of editing. It's a nice group.

I like #1lineWed and the similar #2bitTues--I figure if nothing else they'll make me open my WIP and look through it for a good line. Helps during periods I feel non-productive, because once I've got the document open, I might as well at least polish it up a bit. There are hashtags for other days of the week, but I don't want to participate in more right now. Oh, and when I edit a line down to fit 140 characters, I often find that it's crisper and better than the original.

There are also monthly hashtag events for writers: #WIPjoy, #authorconfession, etc. The host posts a question every day (often previews the whole list before it starts, so you can see what's coming up). I'm participating in #authorconfession this month. I figure one tweet about my WIP every day isn't too obnoxious, and it gives me a chance to find people to friend who are writing cool stuff. And is useful in coming up with brief descriptions of character, plot, etc.

Another type of event are writing chats, which usually are scheduled to take place for an hour. Hosts posts multiple questions. I tried one of these and didn't care for it--feed gets clogged quickly due to the number of questions, and it makes me self-conscious to post repeatedly about my WIP. I do have Twitter friends who aren't writers.

Marlys, you are so right that trimming a line down to 140 characters can be a valuable exercise!

#Meta4Monday sounds intriguing, mrsmig. But unless you have some really memorable humdingers in the category, how would you search your ms for examples?

#MondayBlogs for posting a blog post. No self-promotion, though.

Also, consider www.hashtagify.me and www.ritetag.com for help in finding trending hashtags.

Poke around Rachel's site (BadRedheadMedia). She's got tons of advice on social media for writers.

You should look into something like Hootsuite to help you schedule some Twitter posts. You can sit there on a Sunday, schedule 15 or 20 posts over the week, and be done with part of it. It's a tool that lets you schedule posts on up to 3 social media accounts for free. You can buy in and cover more accounts if you want, but three is enough for most writers.

Don't forget to check out the various hashtags before you use them. I've seen a few dodgy people (scam agents, for example) favour some specific hashtags and you don't want to get involved with them. One bloke used #askagent a lot until a few reputable agents started RTing his nonsense and explaining why he was wrong; I think he now prefers #sfchat, or something similar.

cmhbob said:

You should look into something like Hootsuite to help you schedule some Twitter posts. You can sit there on a Sunday, schedule 15 or 20 posts over the week, and be done with part of it. It's a tool that lets you schedule posts on up to 3 social media accounts for free. You can buy in and cover more accounts if you want, but three is enough for most writers.

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The problem with that is that Twitter works best when you engage with the people who read and respond to you. If you're not there to respond when people RT or ask questions, you'll lose a lot of the impact.

Old Hack said:

Don't forget to check out the various hashtags before you use them. I've seen a few dodgy people (scam agents, for example) favour some specific hashtags and you don't want to get involved with them. One bloke used #askagent a lot until a few reputable agents started RTing his nonsense and explaining why he was wrong; I think he now prefers #sfchat, or something similar.



The problem with that is that Twitter works best when you engage with the people who read and respond to you. If you're not there to respond when people RT or ask questions, you'll lose a lot of the impact.

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I've also seen what I think are programs that automatically thank people for likes or retweets--and include spam for some product or webpage. I don't unfollow as soon as I see that since I figure people might not have realized they'd be including ads, but if it happens more than once I do.

Marlys said:

I've also seen what I think are programs that automatically thank people for likes or retweets--and include spam for some product or webpage. I don't unfollow as soon as I see that since I figure people might not have realized they'd be including ads, but if it happens more than once I do.

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I use Social Jukebox for some automated promo (no more than three days per week, and only a couple of tweets per day. I also use their Friday "thanks for interacting with me" gadget. Don't know that it's helping me or not.

Avoid though the auto-DM's that DM someone as soon as they follow you. I know a lot of people tend to quickly unfollow those accounts.

I unfollow anyone who seems to use anything automated on their twitter account, anyone who sends me promo DMs, anyone who only uses twitter as a promotional tool rather than a fun social thing, and anyone who is dull.

I only follow people who are sparky, who say interesting things, who chat and laugh and have a nice time there.

I dislike being thanked for following, liking, or retweeting anything. I didn't do it to up your stats, I did it because I liked your post.

So far only two people have sent me automated DM's trying to give me a free copy of a book I was never interested in. I just followed them because they tweeted something that wasn't political. Then I found out they were a bot account.

I don't mind promotional tweets. Twitter is a social site but it's great for promos and reaching a lot of people (plus the free retweets are great), but I don't want my feed full of "Buy my book!"

Old Hack said:

I unfollow anyone who seems to use anything automated on their twitter account, anyone who sends me promo DMs, anyone who only uses twitter as a promotional tool rather than a fun social thing, and anyone who is dull.

I only follow people who are sparky, who say interesting things, who chat and laugh and have a nice time there.

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It took me a long time to "get" twitter, but now I'm liking it, especially the #chats! So friendly and supportive.

Marlys said:

I dislike being thanked for following, liking, or retweeting anything. I didn't do it to up your stats, I did it because I liked your post.

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Me too! Well the follow thing. I, uh, retweet and like lots of stuff--but I tend to follow peeps with great stuff! (but not everything) Gah, and I love architecture and landscapes, you'd see retweets of those in my stuff.

Hashtags things I found today and like are...

These are great when you want to post something, but don't know what. And they're great to watch and interact with!

#authorconfession
created by @_JM_Sullivan
has a daily topic--today's was what does your protag and antag have in common.

#DreamWIP
created by @claeriekauthor
also has a daily topic, wider range, today's was what setting do you detest.

Southpaw said:

Me too! Well the follow thing. I, uh, retweet and like lots of stuff--but I tend to follow peeps with great stuff! (but not everything) Gah, and I love architecture and landscapes, you'd see retweets of those in my stuff.

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Oh, I retweet and like a lot of things. I was saying I don't want to be thanked for retweeting or liking someone. For some reason, "thanks for liking my post!" irritates me.

Ah! Gotcha. Groggy today, what can I say?

It would bug me if someone thanked me for that too. It seems unnecessary in that world.

All you need to do is put a # in front of a word or phrase (with no spaces). It can be anything. If using a phrase, it's best (IMO) to capitalize the first letter of the word – like #GoingToEatHealthy

One I have used is #SquirrelApocalypse – only to find out it's already in use. That's was fun to dsicover and read what others has to say.

http://hashtagify.me and http://ritetag.com are two good places to research existing hashtags, along with https://www.hashtags.org/

It took me awhile to get into Twitter (like a few years). What turned me was the #chats. (i.e. #SFFchat) They are usually an hour long and everyone chats, asks questions and replies --and everyone is so supportive and friendly.

I tend to find them randomly.


ETA: There is a #SFFChat in 30 minutes (8 EST).