Thursday Review—The Best Choices for Twitter Hashtags

One of the best parts of Twitter is the Hashtag. This lowly number sign turns any bit of text into a searchable topic within the Twitter universe. But, the magic only happens if you choose your hashtags wisely.

Today I’m going to review some of the best practices for using, finding and researching hashtags. If you’re not quite certain what I’m talking about you can read my post on Twittering Your Time Away to catch up.

First, a quick lesson on the difference between the @ sign and a # (hashtag). The @ sign is used for people or entities that have a Twitter account. The # is used for a topic.

Hashtag Etiquette

Try to never use more than three hashtags in any one tweet. If you can make it two that’s even better. Otherwise you end up looking like a used car sales man. If you’re trying to reach more groups, schedule multiple tweets, at different times, about the same subject and target your groups two at a time.

Always research your hashtag before you use it. Never assume it’s the correct one. For example, I was targeting military families with tweets about my devotional for military families and I thought #military would be the logical hashtag. No, turns out that hashtag is frequently used by those trying to date someone in the military. Not really the demographic I was trying to reach. The hashtag I wanted was #militaryfamily and #deployment. Here are four places I like to research hashtags:

• http://Google.com
• http://hashtags.org
• http://trendsmap.com
• http://whatthetrend.com

The following is a list of popular hashtags for our industry. Please note that while this list is extensive, it's not exhaustive. 

List of Hashtags 

#100words flash fiction

#ACFW American Christian Fiction Writers

#Amazon

#amediting  posts from people who are editing


#amreading for readers

#amwriting  posts from people who are writing


#askagent  agent questions and answers


#author


#authors

#Christian


#Christfic Christian fiction

#devo Christian devotion

#devotion Christian devotion

#ebooks

#editing

#editmark


#fictionfriday


#freebooks

#freelancelife

#freelancewriter

#fridayflash  flash fiction on a Friday


#Goodreads

#Kindlebooks

#kindlefree

#Kindle_promo

#JesusTweeters from believers

#microfiction

#nanowrimo  national novel writing month


#novels


#novelists


#poem


#poet


#poets


#poetry


#pubtip  publication tips


#publishing


#reading

#scifi


#selfpublishing

#socialmedia
#socialnetworking

#suspense
#twitter

#vss   very short story


#webfic  web fiction


#weblit   web literature


#wip   work in progress


#womensfic

#womensfiction

#wordcount


#writegoal


#writequote


#writer


#writers

#writetip  writing advice


#writing


#writingtips  writing advice


#wrotetoday 
 

Finally, here’s a great post from Daily Writing Tips about Twitter. And an open GoogleDoc Spreadsheet, found in that post, with a list of current Twitter chats.

All of these should help you find the hashtags best suited to your situation.

I’d love to hear from you now. Twitter is ever-changing and hashtags come and they go. What are some of your favorites?

Don’t forget to join the conversation,

Blessings,

Edie