Twitter can be a pain in the butt but it does have its uses. I’ve recently begun using it much more often. I find plenty of writers, agents, and publishers on Twitter. With the help of some good hashtags, I’m finally gaining some readers. There are hashtags for every day of the week. Here are the hashtags I use:

#MotivationalMonday – It’s what it says it is. I post what motivates me to write.

#1lineWed – Post one (or a few) lines from a WIP or new book.

#novelines – Post some of your best lines from a WIP or new book.

#FolkloreThursday – Since I write erotic fairy tales I take stock of this one. I post information about  unusual and obscure folklore and myths. There is often a theme. Follow it.

#indiethursday – More lines from WIPs or new books

#FF – This one always garners retweets and comments. FF stands for Follow Friday. I link to about fifteen people whose tweets matter to me.

#FollowFriday – See above.

#FicFri – More lines from WIPs or new books. This stands for Fiction Friday.

#FictFri – See above.

#SlapDashSat – No themes! No rules! Only freeform writing! Pull dialogue, character descriptions, opening lines, slam poetry, secret confessions, original song lyrics, etc. from the deep recesses of your mind, from your WIP, from the ether… the sky’s the limit (Hell, go byond the damned sky)!

#badwordsat – Use naughty words. Works well for erotica.

#amediting – It’s exactly what it says it is. Tell what you’re editing.

#amwriting – One of the most useful hashtags. Talk about what you’re writing. Talk about WIPs.

#WritingLife – Talk about your writing life; your goals, dreams, writing area, anything.

#WhatToRead – Drop your book info here or recommend books to read.

#amreading – What are you reading? Talk about it.

#reading – See above.

Post memes, photos, book covers and other graphics to make your tweets stand out.  Nothing is as lonely-looking than a plain-text tweet.

I also post hashtags for genres such as #horror, #erotica, #fairytales, and #romance. Limit yourself to no more than three hashtags. Lots of hashtags look annoying and they may be considered spam.

Remember to respond to people who respond to your tweets. Also visit their Twitter pages and follow them if they seem like someone you’d be interested in, or especially if they seem like a possible reader.

I’ve started using manageflitter.com to keep track of people I’m following and those following me. You may trim your follow list by using the following categories:

Not Following You

No Profile Image

Non-English

Inactive

I’m still getting used to this site. There is much more to manageflitter than those four categories, but I am not acquainted with it yet.

Whatever you do, don’t make your twitter feed endless links to your books. You’ll bore people to death and you won’t gain any readers. Your twitter feed will be viewed as spam. Instead, pick a few topics that interest you. In my case, that’s gardening, baking, birding (I have window bird feeders that provide endless hours of entertainment), movies, television, and music. Provide links to interesting articles. Include memes (especially funny ones) that appeal to you that you think would interest your readers. Post quotes from famous people. Within all that, you may post info about your books but don’t force them on your readers. If you have new writing news or a new book coming out, by all means post about it. But don’t post about only it.

Twitter can be useful. It can also be a huge time suck. I confine myself to 15 minutes twice per day. I tend to not post on weekends. Look at Twitter in a new way and make the most of the platform. Engage in conversation. That’s what Twitter is all about. It’s social media – be sociable. And enjoy yourself.