Hashtags to live by….maybe.

The other day I as talking about marketing with one of my non-writing fringe friends and she asked me why I always insert hashtags with random words after them on my social media sites. I have to tell you, it made me feel good knowing I knew the answer to this question. My ego also went up a few notches because I knew something about social media that she didn’t – and she has young kids. I add that part because we all know anyone born after the millennials have media stuff encoded into their DNA!

But I digress…

I answered her question and after I did she said, “I still don’t get it. If people are following  you anyway, why keep putting those tags on things?” I had to then explain the theory of GETTING MORE FOLLOWERS AND WHY I NEED THEM/WANT THEM.

Okay, the reason I put that in capitals is because this fringe friend doesn’t use social media in a business sense, but strictly for personal reasons. She finally “got” why I use hashtags with my postings, instagram pix, tweets, etc. People follow certain hashtags across their social sites and even pre-program their sites to upload ( Download? I always get these two confused!!!) any new postings that feature these tags when they are put up. I used the #amwriting hashtag on an instagram post a few weeks ago and the next day I had 25 new follows based on that one alone!

Since I was born waaaaaaaaaay before the millennials ruled the world, I had to learn all this stuff the old fashioned way: by reading about it and asking tons of questions to people who knew what the heck they were doing as far as marketing, branding, and making their businesses grow. One of the best blogs ( and nicest people!)I’ve found is Stacy Nachajski and her blog Great Brook Media .   You can click on the previous link and find some absolutely fab articles/blogs she’s written and posted, along with tutorials about all things media related. Frog around on her website. You’re sure to find something you didn’t think you needed to know!

SO, most of my hashtags are writing related. I mean, duh! What else would they be?? Hee Hee.Some of my favorite hashtags to add when I’ve written blog posts or put up instagram pix are the following:

These are all for Twitter:

#5amwritersclub

#behonestin4words

#tagabookbloggerTuesday

#tagyourfavauthorthursday

#worstsadviceeverin5words

#worstpickuplines

#amwriting

These are for blog posts and Instagram posts:

#amwriting

#amediting

#readromance

#romancewriter

#romance #contemporaryromance

#goodreadsreaders

#romancereaders

Every day on Instagram I do a positive, spiritual, or self affirming quote using these hashtags:

#morningmotivation  #Personalgrowth #believeinyourself

One thing I always try to do when I post to Instagram and Twitter is to include an actual person if I’ve referenced them. For instance, when I post this blog I will make sure I cite @greatbrookmedia   in the posting so people who follow Stacy can see the post and share, like or retweet it. This helps her by having some new people see her site through my contacts, and it helps me by potentially garnering new viewers to me via her link.

Got it??
So that’s why the right hashtags mean so much when you want to grow your followers, business, and on-line presence.

When you finish reading this, look down below at the section marked: categories and tags. You’ll see all the hashtags I assigned to this post.

Here’s another great post I found just as I was writing this post on what to do and not do with hashtags.

And as always, you can find me – with and without hashtags – here:Tweet Me//Read Me// Visit Me//Picture Me//Pin Me//Friend Me//Google+Me// Triber// BookMe