By Edie Melson @EdieMelson

I remember the first time I ventured onto twitter. It’s an intimidating site, full of unfamiliar terms and strange rules. Beyond that, the more people I followed, the more confusing the newsfeed became. To my untrained eye, all those 140 character bursts were just disjointed and disconnected chaos.

I really didn’t understand how anyone could get anything good out of this network.

Luckily for me, I didn’t give up. I kept digging for articles to help me understand the value of Twitter. And that’s when I began to unravel the Twitter chaos. As I became more familiar with this alien landscape, I began to appreciate why Twitter and writers are a perfect match.

1. It respects our time. Interacting in 280 character bursts keeps conversations focused and moving quickly.
2. It helps us write tight. If you’ve spent any time at all studying writing, you’ve heard the advice to write tight. This means eliminating unnecessary words.
3. It’s a networking superconductor. There is no social media platform out there that is better at allowing us to find connections with like-minded people.

How Connections are Made

So how do we tap into that networking superconductor? First, lets back up and evaluate the reason we’re all working at building an online presence. We are looking to deepen existing relationships and build new ones. But building new ones can be difficult if the only people we interact with are those we already know, either online or in person.

We can get a little bit of exposure to new folks through introductions from our existing connections, but that’s a time consuming way to go about it.

Twitter offers a better way—hashtags.

What if there was a way for someone to search a given social media network by topic and find new, interesting people to interact with? That would be a great way to grow our connections.

THAT, in the simplest of terms, is the purpose behind hashtags.

If I do a search on twitter for the popular writing hashtag #writing, I’m instantly able to discover people that I’d never have known existed.

AND if I include the hashtag #writing in one of my tweets, people who are searching for writers can find me, even if they’ve never heard of me from anyone before.

When you compose a social media update that includes one or two hashtags that summarize the topic, you are giving folks a way to find you.

For example, I’m have a new series of nonfiction books written for weary and stressed-out creatives.

Here’s a sample tweet I might send out, targeted at those specific readers: 

‘Soul Care When You’re Weary’ – A book that uses #creativity to connect with God during moments of stress from @EdieMelson https://amzn.to/2RUJErx #faith

Let’s break down how I composed this update. I know that the Steampunk community loves to create costumes. So I’m giving them information they’d find useful and interesting.

• I used #Creativity so that anyone searching Twitter for others who are interested in this topic can find me.
• I also included @EdieMelson, because on Twitter, that is a clickable link that takes them directly to my Twitter page.
• Finally I used #faith, because that’s the hashtag for believers

NOTE: Use # (hashtags) to denote a subject, and use @ (at sign) to denote a person or organization. With organizations, you’ll find some that hashtag their names and others use the @ sign.

Twitter isn’t the only social media network that has hashtags. You can use hashtags in the same manner on Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram. There may be other networks that also use them, but those are the main ones.

Hashtag Etiquette

Two is the still the optimum number for hashtags in a tweet. Using a multitude of hashtags leaves your tweet looking like a hard sell. 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. The best place to research hashtags is also the easiest, just type it into Google or the search engine of your choice.

Now it’s your turn to ask your Twitter questions. Or share how Twitter has helped you make more connections. Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments sections below.

Edie Melson is a woman of faith with ink-stained fingers observing life through the lens of her camera. No matter whether she’s talking to writers, entrepreneurs, or readers, her first advice is always “Find your voice, live your story.” As an author, blogger, and speaker she’s encouraged and challenged audiences across the country and around the world. Her numerous books reflect her passion to help others develop the strength of their God-given gifts and apply them to their lives. Connect with her on her website, through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.