#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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This was one of the most suspenseful books I’ve read in a long time. I couldn’t keep track of how many times I held my breath, or how many times I tried to figure out who the bad guy was. Green kept the momentum, excitement, thrills, and chills going throughout the book, with just the right touch of romance added. – Review written by author Andrea Buginsky