Hi everyone! I’ve been doing a lot of chatting with fellow authors about how to effectively use Twitter, and as most of you know, hashtags are vital.
#Hashtag 101
If you don’t know what a #hashtag is, it’s simply the # sign in front of whatever topic you want people to see. Example: #suspense, #kindle, #mywana. This way, people who search for these specific topics are much more likely to see your tweets, and even better, you can organize your Twitter columns accordingly.
But what about hashtags for writers? And more importantly, for readers to FIND our books?
I’ve been researching, and I’ve found some VERY cool things.
Twubs.com
Twubs.com looks really interesting. I’m stealing this description from SproutSocial.com:
Twubs is a unique site that lets Twitter users form groups around popular hashtags. Since the information is user-generated, you can see what hashtags are popular under categories such as books, conferences, the Internet, movies, news, politics, and much more.
Since Twubs is one of the few sites where you can find hashtags grouped into categories, it’s an excellent place to find other Twitter users with similar interests to connect with. Once you start interacting with other people on the site and through Twitter, you can expand your own network with like-minded individuals.
What does that mean? Means we can easily what groups of people are talking about now. Twubs also has a hashtag directory. For instance, the hashtag #reading only has one member in its group, but it shows the live #hashtag feed of #reading, and who’s talking about what, much like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite. Of course, the big groups are entertainment related – #breakingbad, #dexter, etc. Just about any show, movie or artist has a group on there – it’s a great place to find new friends to chat with.
It works a lot like a tribe, and anyone can register a #hashtag into a group. So if I wanted to start a #hashtag group called #SuspenseLoversRock, I could do that and get people to join. I’ve only just skimmed the surface of Twubs and will be checking it out more. I highly encourage you guys to do the same to figure out the best way to use for your needs.
WhatTheTrend is another really fun one. It simply shows what’s trending for the day and for location. A good opportunity to chat and get to know like minded people.
Tagdef is another one that shows hashtag trends including popular, top this week, and all time high.
Hashtags.org
Hashtags.Org is my current favorite. I think Marcy Kennedy mentioned this one a while back, and it’s VERY easy to use. You enter a hashtag, and it will give you the peak trending time IN THE PAST 24 HOURS from a 1% sample of all tweets. Now, that’s just a snippet, but it’s probably indicative of daily trends. And it would be really easy to simply chart it for a week.
Again from SproutSocial.com:
Hashtags.org also lists a number of topics along with their related hashtags. So, instead of using the #business hashtag in your tweets, you might consider the alternatives suggested by the site, such as #networking, #consumer or #marketing. Hashtags.org will help get you thinking about other possible keywords, topics, and hashtags that you can use in your Twitter updates.
I spent some time tonight checking the #hashtags I tend to use and was really surprised by some of the results. This is a long list, but I wanted to share with you. The one downside is that (unless I’m just not seeing it), it didn’t give a time zone on these. But I do think the stats are very useful.
Peak Count and Times for the last 24 Hours:
#ebook – peak of 400 between 10am and 2pm
#amreading – peak of 160, fairly steady between 10am and 6pm
#suspense – peak of 280 between 6 and 8pm
#kindle – peak of 600+ and steady between 8am and 5pm
#nook – peak around 120 between 8 and 10am
#paranormal – peak of 120 between 12 and 2pm
#mywana – peak of 70 around 3pm
#romance – peak of 300 between 2 and 3pm
#fantasy – peak of 350 between 10 last night and 12 am; 250 between 12pm and 2pm
#romanticsuspense – ZERO
#truecrime – ZERO
#thriller – peak of 230 at 6pm
#Amazon – peak of 1400 at 10am; second peak of 1300 between 6 and 7pm
*I’m assuming this one is increased by the holiday season, but it’s something to watch.
#giveaway – peak of 4000 at 8am and again at 12pm
#mustread – peak of 120 at 10pm last night and 10am this morning
#goodreads – peak of 120 at 10am
#amwriting – peak of 150 at 8am; 160 at 4pm
#read – peak of 150+ at 10am
So what does all this tell us? First off, remember Twitter isn’t just about “buy my book” or “follow me” – you’ve got to connect on some level. If you like to chat, these sites give you a good idea of where your favorite topics are. And I think that by following the trends on hashtags.org, we can have a better idea of when to tweet promotional stuff and how to tag them.
And don’t forget to use bit.ly for your sales links! You can copy your Amazon link into bit.ly, which will give you a shortened version, making Twitter’s 140 character count more manageable. As long as you have an account (free), you can then track how many clicks come from that particular bit.ly link. That is another great way to figure out when your tweets are most used-and if you’re getting click throughs at all.
What do you guys think? Do you have anything to add? How do you use your #hashtags? Have you noticed some hashtags working better for connecting then others? What about time of day?
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karladarcy
What a great and really helpful blog post this was. I’ve saved it to my bookmarks so I can check some of these new to me tags. You did a lot of research for this and it’s really appreciated.
Stacy Green
I’m glad it was helpful! Definitely check out the tags and see if using them gets you more exposure. Good luck!
Kristine Cayne
Great post, Stacy. I use hashtags but I had not idea about the statistics behind them. This is really interesting. Now I know what tags NOT to use. 🙂
Stacy Green
Thanks. TBH, I didn’t either, and I’ve been using some that were kind of worthless, lol. Glad to help!
emmaburcart
I’m torn because as a reader I don’t like hastags. I usually skip tweets when they just look like a bunch of hastags and links. I guess I am a visual person and all the tags just make my eyes go Argh! But I understand how they can help us reach readers. I think maybe if I could find some good hashtags for me and then only use one in a tweet, I would be willing to try it. I will check out those sights. Thanks for doing all the research for us! 🙂
Stacy Green
I get what you’re saying. It does get cluttery when you have a bunch, but aside from helping you stand out in a search, if you’re talking about something specific, they’re a good way to make your tweet more clear.
So if I say: I don’t want to go out tonight, it’s going to be so boring. #lousyrestaurant. Or something to that effect.
Good luck, and you’re welcome!
PJ Sharon
Thanks for the info Stacy! i just used hashtags.org yesterday for the first time which gave me the idea to use #health and #writers on my tweets to hone in on the target audience for my blog post. I’ll definitely check out the other sites.
Stacy Green
You’re welcome. Yesterday was the first time I’d used it too. Great idea on using #health and #writers – good luck!
Terry Odellt
I will only add that it’s not a good idea to put more than 2 hashtags is a tweet — definitely 3 as a max (and there might be something in TOS about this). Nothing turns me off faster than seeing all those hashmarks. Can’t tell what the real message is
Stacy Green
That’s a really good point and something I’m guilty of at times. Will make sure to pay attention to that. Thanks!
Gene Lempp
I view hashtags and PR multipliers (16 years of PR experience in my background) – send it without any and only your followers will see it – send it with a couple of well-thought hashtags at the right time and thousands of “new people” will see it as well as your followers. As far as services, I just began using Hashtags.org and have had good results with the couple of test tweets I put out, including getting one of those tweets picked up by a Paper.li with 1k readers; a special bonus.
Thanks for sharing these great resources with us, Stacy. I’ll be sure to pass them along 🙂
Stacy Green
Great tips, Gene, thanks. And congrats on the test results – would love to hear more detail on that if you have time. And you’re welcome!
Terry Ambrose
Great resource Stacy! Thanks for all of the research and for passing this along.
Stacy Green
You’re welcome – hope it helps!
malanouette
Stacy, this is wonderful, especially for a twitter ignorant like me. Thanks again. Marian
Stacy Green
Great, I’m so glad I could help. Good luck!
Auden Johnson
This is great! I use hashtags but I don’t have any strategy behind them. I usually don’t even read the feed. Thanks for the info. I’d never heard of these sites but they sound awesome.
Stacy Green
Honestly, I don’t have much strategy either, but I’m going to start applying it. You’re welcome – hope they help!
Meradeth
Oh wow this is helpful! I’m terrible with the hashtag business, though I spent far too much time on twitter… Going to check these websites out. Thanks!
Jessica Vealitzek
Slowly coming to understand the confusion of Twitter, so thanks for the helpful post!
Stacy Green
You’re welcome! Just keep playing with it, and you’ll get the hang of Twitter. Good luck!
Kassandra Lamb
Great post, Stacy! I’ve bookmarked for future reference!
Stacy Green
Awesome, hope it helps!
Sonia G Medeiros
Awesome info! So much I didn’t know. I tend to stick to a few hashtags I’m comfortable with. I’ll work on expanding my outlook. 😀
Stacy Green
I’m glad it could be of some help. I didn’t know much of it either, and I wanted to make sure I shared:)
Nichole L. Reber
have been using Twitter for four years & Still learned something from this. Will share with others now on Twitter.
@NicholeLReber
Stacy Green
Awesome, Nicole! So glad I could help. Thanks for commenting!
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Reetta Raitanen
Really useful post, Stacy. Hashtags are so much more useful when you know how to use them effectively. I’ll be sharing this post in my link mashup on Wednesday 🙂
Stacy Green
Yes, they are, and it’s kind of surprising to see which ones work and which don’t. Thanks for stopping and sharing!
corajramos
Great info!. Thanks Stacy. These sites you’ve highlighted will help me expand what I do presently, which has been less and less lately, instead of more and more. One of these days I’ll feel like I’m being effective with Twitter, which at present I don’t. Will pass this on.
Stacy Green
You’re very welcome. I’ll be honest, I’m still unsure of Twitter’s ability to sell books, and I think we have to be careful not to oversaturate. Hopefully some of this will help with that.
Trisha
I’m still scared of Twitter, but at least I understand it a bit better now than I did for the first couple of years 😉
Stacy Green
I’m glad! Just keep playing with it. Good luck!
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