That’s the reason for the change in my blogging. I’ll be doing the occasional Thriller Thursday when it strikes me, but my time is very limited, and I need to spend it writing. And you know what? True crime isn’t the only thing I’m interested in. So when I do blog, I’m not going to follow any preset rules. I’m going to write about what I want to.

And to the point of this post: Twitter hashtags. Let me say first I speak from experience on this, as an author with only two books out. It is VERY easy to get caught up in tweeting about your book several times a day, or by joining a group who will do it for you in exchange for your pimping their book. But guess what? Nearly everybody does it, especially the newer authors, and the vast majority of those Twitter links are ignored, because they are nothing but white noise. I know this because I’ve used bit.ly to track my click-thrus, and despite many, many RTs, the click rate was dismal.

Even worse, I’ve used hashtags like #FridayReads, #bookworm, #mustreads, #Goodreads, and those hashtags, to my knowledge, were created for readers to talk about the books they loved. Not for an author to promote their own work. Same with many of the groups on Facebook. They’re supposed to be for support, networking, or just chatting up books, but they quickly become laden with desperate authors eager to get a sale or two.

It’s happened on Goodreads as well. I know authors get frustrated with Goodreads, but there’s a reason most groups are strict about promotion. The mods are protecting their online safe place, one of the few locations left to simply chat about books without a salesman coming in.

I say this pointing fingers only at myself. I’ve done it more times than I would like to admit. It’s only in the past couple of months I’ve backed off, and guess what? Sales didn’t change. August was lousy all around for most of us, but September is picking up. And I’ve done nothing differently because I’ve been working hard to write more books.

So here’s an apology to all Twitter users who just want to chat about books. I’m sorry for hijacking your tags and promoting, and I won’t be doing it any more. It’s bad business and not a way to build a following. When I do tweet anything about my books, I will be sticking to the appropriate hashtags: #amazon, #kindle, #nook, #indie, etc.

I’d love to take back my Twitter feed from the endless spam of links and be able to chat a few minutes every day. Leaving those hashtags alone is a good step. Easing off the link spam is another. Sending out conversational tweets and joining hashtag conversation is another–if I have time to do so, and simply for the sake of chatting about like-minded interests, not selling a book.

For me, the bottom line is this: my books will sell my books. Great word of mouth and praise like TIN GOD’s being a finalist in the Best Indie Book Awards will sell my books. Bombarding people on Twitter about it produces poor results, makes me look bad, and makes me feel less than professional.

How do you use Twitter? Do you believe it’s overloaded with links? Is that how it should be, or should it be about connection?

#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

We all know social media is vital for today’s writers. We’ve been told by various social media experts that we must have a brand, a network, a footprint. I’m working on it, but most days it feels like a big muddy smear.

We need to reach out and be active on Twitter, Facebook, etc. It’s about connecting, not promoting. And I get that. That’s the easy part. I can jump onto Twitter and visit various #hashtags (#wewrite, #amwriting #row80 #pubwrite, #mywana) to find new and interesting authors to meet at any given time.

But the social media mountain is still slippery for me. Facebook, for instance. I have a Facebook page that combines friends/family/writing stuff. I’m slowly building my friend count and trying to connect. But then I was told to have the author page as well. So I have it. Out of 300-something friends, only 37 follow the author page. And really, what’s the difference between the two? Is it really necessary to have both? What are the benefits? And how do I get more people to “like” the author page, other than just asking? I HATE asking, unless it’s someone I know well.

And Goodreads. It’s a great place to connect with readers. Have lots of friends on there, too. But again, how do I use it effectively? I belong to some groups, but most of the discussions are the daily “how are you” type thing. Those are great, but we’re all pressed for writing time. There’s got to be a better way to socialize on Goodreads. I suppose I just haven’t found the right group yet–or haven’t paid enough attention.

Google+…haven’t even tried it. Worth the time? With a presence on Twitter, FB, and the blog, do I need to continue to stretch myself?

I’d also like to find a way to reach READERS. You know, people who aren’t writers but read the genre I write. Is Goodreads the only place for that? Are there other online groups dedicated to suspense novels? I confess, I haven’t looked for those yet. I’m still stuck on trying to figure out everything else.

Finally, there’s the blog. It’s doing well, and I’m grateful for all the great feedback I receive. And yet, I need to find a way to really put Thriller Thursday out there, to draw in more readers outside our blogosphere. I know the way to do that most likely lies with Goodreads and the outside groups I just rambled about, but I’m not sure of the best way to reach out, so to speak.

How do we promote without PROMOTING? You know, constantly telling people to read this and comment? The only way I know how is to join groups and just chat, connect, as Kristen Lamb says. But I still feel I’m not doing enough. I’m just not sure what the other ingredients are.

What do you guys think? For those of you already published, self 0r traditional, what have been your best strategies for effective social media?