Registering a HashTag

75 thoughts on “Registering a HashTag”

1. I have no idea what to do with it but I am going to hop over and register one.

   1. That’s exactly how I feel about it, Karen! Thanks for the chuckle. 🙂

2. What a cool idea. Thanks.

3. I just registered #ontherightside. That is the main title for my speeches and the title of my book so let’s see what happens!

4. I just registered #cedarhollowseries. I have no idea what to do with it, but I like the idea that it’s mine! 🙂

   1. thanks for reminding me Melinda. I registered #julieseerseries too.

      1. I’m debating whether or not to register all my titles., too. 🙂

5. Yes, thanks to Lynne’s article here on IU I had registered 2 hashtags from that, and since then I have registered 2 more and showed 2 other authors how to do it. I felt that if the title of your book is short, sweet and to the point, why not use it as a hashtag and see if I couldn’t get other authors to help tweet about my books. Of course, I totally expected other authors to register their books (or whatever) as hashtags so we can tweet about each other books and maybe get a little more recognition for them if we all tweet about them.

   So I registered #LifeLessons, #LifeMemories, #WildernessHeart, and #KnightNDey for at least four of my books. If I keep the title short, I think it can work very well.

   Now here is the part I like about twubs and what we can do after we register the hashtag. On Kat’s last graphic in her post, there is blue button you can see called ‘Join This Twub’. If we all sent invites to each other about our hashtags and ask each other join our twub, then we can follow that particular hashtag and tweet each other and our books. With all the different followers we have, we can hopefully reach more readers about our books by helping each other. There is also a box titled ‘post message to #MrPish’ in that last graphic where you can type message to Mr. Pish and it is immediately displayed. Now Kat, everytime someone tweets using that hashtag, she can see it instantly appear below on her twubs page without having to try to find it in her twitter feed. And you can set how fast the feed scrolls through.

   When I registered #LifeLessons, it was a hashtag that was already in use by a lot of people but none of them had registered it to themselves so I snagged it for use for my book. The scroll feed on that hashtag’s twub page goes pretty fast, but I can set it to go slower if I wanted to.

   The other reason I created my first 2 Life hashtags was that I was hoping I could garner some buzz about it before I published the two books, you know ahead of their book launch. The only problem with that is there is no link to put in the tweet, but I feel it would still garner some interested readers, maybe. Then once the book was published I’d start some new tweets with the new link of where to buy the book.

   So far, I have joined 12 other hashtags to follow and tweet. When you joing a twub for that hashtage it shows it pages, the contributors and its members. There is even a hashtag called #booklaunch that author Nigel Ross registered.

   I had also created a word doc where I have over a dozen tweets of 140 charaters or less to use about my book Life Lessons using my new hashtag and #NewLaunch hashtag. (Someone somewhere said using only 3 hashtags in a tweet was ideal, so that is what I try to limit mine to.) As I write new books, the first thing I will probably do is set up a twitter doc full of tweets ready to be used.

   So everyone, let’s do some twub partying, register those hashtags, lets join each other’s twubs and lets garner some publicity and new readers for our books by tweeting each others books.

   1. Oh and when you join a twub, a window pops up asking you if you want a notification sent to twitter on your behalf telling everyone you joined a twub and what it is all about. So if you click on send, it will tweet for you and this is where it would be a good idea to make sure when you register your hashtag, that you put a lot of information about your book in the Tell Us More About it box.

   2. Thanks for the info, Jacque. Twubs boasts some other functionality, like live events and conferences, but I am not up to speed on those yet, and not sure I ever will be.

6. Great info! I just registered my hashtag for my romantic suspense series: #whitneysteelnovels. I’m going to use my new hashtag and schedule a live twitter chat when the next book is released. 🙂 I also just joined your Twub. 🙂 I’m your first member.

7. How does this help you? It’s like those sites letting you name a star, or buy a plot on the moon. If I wanted to, I could start my own Twitter hashtag registration site tomorrow, and all those tags you registered could get grabbed again, by new people.

   It’s not official. It’s not recognized… By anyone. Anyone who wants to can use your hashtag for whatever they want, whether it is “registered” or not.

   Basically, it’s a waste of time spent on an illusion. Sorry. 😉

   1. I was hoping it was somehow linked to Twitter so if someone clicked on your hashtag, it would give that person the info you’d entered. I’m still not certain how/if Twubs and Twitter communicate. I went to hashtag.org and couldn’t figure anything out from that site.

      1. Actually, I heard from a friend of a friend who knows stuff that Twitter measures the interest in each new functionality previous to launch, and when the potential feature looks promising those who registered for it first will be ahead of the game. Or at least have created more brain cells by thinking outside the box.
         Jeez, I’ve spent too much time with Nelson Q. Lewis today.Horror is draining. 😉

   2. I can see how it could have the potential to be a useful tool at some point, depending on what – if anything – Twitter wants to do with it. And Jacqueline brings up some interesting networking opportunities. Either way, it’s fun (I also own a star 😉 ). #marysunshine #funisgood #starowner

   3. Because, you are not TWUBS, you have not done this, you do not have the algorithms or the connection with Twitter, or the pull. You do not just THROW a site up. I WILL SAY, that many of these sites that register are exactly what you are saying. AND GUESS WHAT? They are not an OFFICIAL Twitter site, but they are a starred twitter site as in they actually have worked WITH TWITTER and gotten their ducks in a row, not like many of them, my dear need to nay-sayeth man.

      It is exactly what you do with ANY OF THIS that will make it work. TWUBS was PROVEN and SHOWN TO WORK during a beta test I took part in with Triberr for a campaign. We broke it into four groups and our group, TWUBS, ended up having 6x the actual retweets and interaction with the campaign than the others using the SAME HASHTAG before we registered, upon registration (free) we ended up blowing the doors out of the water.

      Waste of time? NO but it takes some investment of time. ILLUSION, I call you on that, I personally have seen the difference and having taken part and seen exactly the behind the scenes math and programming and cooperation, you are right.

      The only thing you have RIGHT is the illusion of REGISTRATION means copyright-ish or owning that hashtag, NO ONE OWNS one even if it is registered, what it WILL do is push with keywords the hashtags involving the content (as she showed you how they ask what it was about) to the TOP tweets shown in the search and it will be specific when searching and easier to find. THAT is NOT illusion or misdirection (to steal magic show metaphors in this case) that is called successful re-direction and detours into the OUR illusion of the promise land of literary goodness.

      1. Hi Kriss, thank you for taking the time to explain all that. Great info! 🙂

         1. You are welcome. Good article… now did you see my rabbit and top hat, I have more ILLUSIONS to debunk *polishing my wand*

      2. But the system doesn’t actually help prevent anyone else from using the same tag. If TWUBS is doing something to help push certain hashtags up in Twitter algorithms, that’s awesome. But I think the whole “registration” thing seems like illusion designed to facilitate a *feeling* of ownership which actually doesn’t exist.

         If someone registers #MrPish, that doesn’t stop anyone else from using that tag. It’s not an ownership… And using the site to create the appearance of ownership when it doesn’t confer any such thing has a dishonest feel to it.

         The TWUBS site repeatedly talks about “your hashtag”. But there’s no such thing; hashtags are not owned. They’re publicly shared tools for tagging information.

         1. Again you are right, but even if one does not simply own a hashtag, as you have stated, it does not nullify the tool. For example, as you have stated, against my advice someone registered SSP without doing much research at the time. They believed by registering it they would actually (as I simply stated it) be pushed to the top.. well yes but the problem is because SSP at the time was being used for a bombing in England it didn’t help. You still have to be specific. For things such as book titles which won’t usually trend unless you are having a twitter party or a HUGE campaign it will HELP, this is NOT an illusion and you are totally drowning the issue in semantics. Forget about the labels about what is what and who owns what. The fact is IT WORKS, and there fore ownership and registration are really not going hand in hand. PERIOD. Your argument is mute as well as already agreed upon. Not arguing ownership, stating facts and not semantics. So therefor it is not even an argument against “wasting” time.

            The facts are the math, the rules, the code. Just as with hashtags the more you have, the more twitter pushes it to the bottom, it waters stuff down. the more specific they are can also lesson the folks who are not your friends not find them, by registering them they open it to more than friends and general public. TWUBS is not a third party client who is not affiliated, they are affiliated as in they have permissions and granted access to twitter, it is a bit different than the unfollow sites and the others, hence why these things work. Same as with Triberr, no other company can do what Triberr does and they paid dearly with it and work hard daily too. Where as Buffer is limited unless you pay, and even communIT (though that one really is for a BIG Corporate sponsored Twitter peeps not us casual users) the key is finding a good hashtag to bother registering, like a book title. So when you have parties and people talk about #urbanfantasy that the hashtag will join the other fish in that particular tidal pool of search engine starfish (yes went there, it is summer).

            1. BTW want to check the actual power of your hashtag check out http://hashtagify.me/

            2. On the contrary… Another site CAN create another hashtag registry. All they need to do is use the Twitter API, and a new site like TWUBS can be coded, complete with its own set of hashtag registrations. Eventually, there could be a hundred such sites, each registering the same hashtags to a hundred different people.

               I’ll give you the ownership thing, Cabin Goddess. I just think the site could be a little more clear about it. The way it is phrased, we’re GOING to see people fighting over “their” registered hashtag (when of course there’s no legal defense of that tag possible).

               I am curious what mechanism TWUBS uses to make a hashtag more visible, though… It doesn’t actually talk about that feature on their website. Anyone know? (Cabin Goddess?)

8. I registered a hashtag for my last book. Hey, you never know.

9. Who knew that article was so useful? 😀 I haven’t yet registered hashtags for my series, but clearly I need to do that — if for no other reason than to say, “Yeah, I own those.” 😀

   1. And to be on top if somebody searches #LandSeaSky. 😉

10. Kevin, it is somewhere on the Twitter site and no the API doesn’t just cover it, you actually have to work with Twitter itself more than just a the simple API and of course they can, but my point is TWUBS is there, established and working for everyone, and there are more I was only stating TWUBS because of my direct beta work. It is called SPIN, if people perceive registration as ownership, there is buying and selling power. Twitter will tell you NO ONE OWNS A HASHTAG, so that is fact. BUT someone can REGISTER and become a business which is promoted or a Twitter account which is, such as a celeb account, seen more than the rest. I happen to have one of those accounts and I do NOT use it because it is costly, sites like TWUBS earns advertising etc, sure it is business and marketing and branding, but your statement that it is a waste of time is WRONG, hell it is a TOOL. If you want to use a tool you have to find the right ones for your toolbox, everyone has things they are good at, and if TWUBS works out with the rest, it is therefor again, not a waste of time. WHICH was your point in the beginning. This is ridiculous, it works, end of story! Be happy move on and have a great Wednesday!

11. If for no other reason than someone new seeing your work, name, or linking information, it is good. The more your name is present, the better the opportunity to be recognized. Consider it as another marketing tool.

    1. Your tools are only as good as you use them. *grin* so if you use a hammer to kill spiders it won’t do much for helping you put up a wall, now will it.. (oh yes read all you want into that one… snort)

       1. I use grenades to kill spiders. Should I be using a hammer? 😉

          1. Considering the one I just found, I don’t even think a grenade let alone a hammer would work… I wonder if I registered #diespiderdie and got it trending if it would work?

       2. Well why wouldn’t you use any marketing tool? Hmm, I guess I missed something; I was trying to be positive.

          1. LOL and again, the nuances of speech and tone do not translate to the internet. Oh hon, I was not being negative or positive! There is only one in on the discussion who is a naysayer and someone who has to argue and it is not you, love.

             1. I’m willing to give it a shot. Why not, right? 😉 I’m curious though: would someone be better off trying to register a generic hashtag, like #urbanfantasy, or a specific one like a series name? And why?

             2. Why would you register a generic hashtag? I am not sure you are understanding the nuances of hashtags you want it with a good balance doing something like #nakeddancinginmybathroom is kind of WAY to specific where as #dianedancesfordollars maybe something that is a good one to register and put your info in there to describe it maybe a bit more specific and yet there are a lot of Diane’s who may dance for dollars, naked and everything. BUT the THING that TWUB does is ask you to fill in the blanks, so suggestions pertaining to your profile and peoples tweeting practices and ALL that wonderful dynamic mining codes will find and lead towards our Diane’s hashtag instead of someone elses. Series names, yes! THAT is a good one, more important than a book title (sorry loves). An authors name would be a good one too. A publisher, easy so all you imprints think about that one. A meme, another one #MondayBlogs is registered and the intricacies of registering a hashtag are really explained well by Rachel Thompson “#hashtags are crucial IMHO on any social media at this point. Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Google+, even Pinterest has written them into their algorithms — those who use hashtags on any of those platforms come up higher in Search.

                You’re absolutely right in that too many hashtags makes a tweet (or share) all but unreadable. I don’t recommend more than 2 per tweet or share.” She also uses TWUBS with her street teams and book titles. BUT she USES them and so you need too. Kevin, it sounds like this would not be something for you, but it is a tool, not an illusion. Seriously end of story. My point in this particular thread was, a tool is something you need to understand to use. If you want to understand it, do the research, or take what you want from this. If you do not, don’t and you are not being a devil’s advocate for anyone but yourself here. That was my sarcasm and tone. A lot of what you have done is argue for the sake of arguing, and I understand you have this particular sport sharpened and honed to a fine point. One you choose to use often from your online social presence tool box. Otherwise. I believe this was a wonderfully presented, easily understood first look at a though not new idea (been around for about four years) but one that finally has the power to be really strong… again depending on how you use it. I would plug it in a three prong, do not clip that third prong and jerry-rig it and forgo the use of battery operated or rechargeable variations because they tend to fizzle with inferior parts. (Sorry on a roll).

             3. Ah yes, the nuances.Thank you, I’m a glass half full person, so I love anyone who is positive. If I may say one of the reasons that IU is so important, at least to me, is the platform provided for ping pong matches such as this one. 🙂

             4. If I may say, I am positive you are a lovely person, Aron. Thank you for the kind words about IU. 🙂

             5. One wonderful thing I would like to share (BTW it is Kriss for those who don’t know but I am logged on with my blog account obviously, at least the pink hair is here…) ANYWAY Rachel Thompson whom I confirmed with to make sure I was not passing on wrong info, you can find a few things I quotes and said above in these articles. She has over 20 years in the marketing business and is quite amazing. She writes at HuffPuff too – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-thompson/ check her out and read what she has to say about hashtags.

                ALSO a note: KEYWORDS, TAGS, HASHTAGS, basically the SAME THING, it allows easy searching and more refined searching with either the typing of a keyword which is associated with a TAG on a website, the TAG for us old HTML farts is basically a metatag, it is what the mining aspect of search engines look for. Twitter added the pound symbol # and created the hashtag, because # is also know as a hash, so hash+tag… you see where I am going.

                It is basically a CLICKABLE searchterm, and the #brings everything together. It is only broken by either a space or another symbol so #bacon+#lettuce+#tomato will give you nirvana…err a #BLT (grin). Does that help? Hashtags can improve your ability to be found after you have written your opus as a jewel amongst fools gold and other jewels at least 21% faster and more frequent … easy peasy! Don’t over think it. K.I.S.S. and look back at the hashtag for grads that Lynne Cantwell wrote mentioned above.

                I need to stalk this site more, I am beginning to love love love it here… I know where I would lose myself if I could at this moment, in a site such as this. Thanks for allowing my voice, KS!

    2. Agreed, Aron. Some marketing tools work quickly, some work over time. I’m for both, but I truly believe the more we have our works (and maybe even our faces, although I’m not thrilled with that part) out there, the more we’re able to build our brand and connect. I’m also a firm believer that what works for one won’t necessarily work for another. I’m an introvert – using extroverted-type marketing tools isn’t a natural fit for me and isn’t very effective. Hashtags, though – I could grow to love these. 🙂

12. “Tweets with hashtags get two times more engagement. Keep hashtags to a minimum. 1 or 2 will get you 21% more engagement than if you add 3 or more. This could be because hashtags often connect a tweet to a particular topic or Twitter chat that others are following or interested in. Keep appropriate hashtags in mind when posting, especially if engagement is something you’re looking to improve.” (According to social media scientist Dan Zarrella – FastCompany).

    SO if you register your hashtag, a powerful one (OR NOT) using ONE brilliant one will put you up, what was that???? 21% add on one more #amreading or #BYNR or #wow (waiting on wednesday) #FridayReads etc… well I think that says it all.

    One more thing, let’s be SPECIFIC here, again you are right it will not stop anyone from using it but because Twubs allows you to “register” your hashtag it allows you to create a branded page for it and at least make note of the hashtag, the category it belongs in, and your intentions towards it made public online.

13. Well Kevin, what have you got to lose in trying one of your own? Who knows, if you use it enough, spark interest in it with your readers and get other authors to share it and share other authors’ hashtags, it might be a win win situation for all of us.

14. When I stop looking for keywords under my doormat,

    When I can figure out what IDN or SMH are,

    When I can place tags in my website without bursting into tears before giving up,

    When I figure out what tags are, and why they aren’t called keywords,

    When I can push that button to unlock my car without the alarm putting the navy base on red alert,

    When I get a cell phone that can take a picture,

    In fact, when I start carrying my cell phone with me, rather than leaving it at home as a land-line phone,
    maybe I’ll be ready to register a (freaking) hash-tag

    Until then, I’ll continue to revel in the fact that my picture somehow pops up whenever I make a comment.

    Have a nice (ish) day.

    1. Ken, LOL. I can tell you that a tag is like a label. (Ok, so is a keyword – but a keyword is for search engines. A tag is for your blog.) The tag allows you to categorize your blog posts so that if someone clicks on that tag, a list of all the posts with that tag will show up. It’s a way to sort it. Like this post – if you look at the bottom of it, is “tagged” with a few different tags, one of them being hashtag. If you click on that, it will take you to this page: https://indiesunlimited.com/tag/hashtags/ which will show you ALL the posts related to hashtag. There you have it. Baby steps, my friend.

       1. PS – IDN = (do you mean IDK?) I Don’t Know. SMH = Shaking My Head. Don’t say I never gave you anything. 😉

       2. LMAO l8tr you will figure it out! *grin* You are to cute.

          1. Come on, even I can figure out i8tr!

       3. Ah, thanks! So use tags on the blog instead of keywords, and keywords on the website instead of tags. I will work on that. Baby steps? I need fetus steps.

          1. Me, too. 🙂

15. Your explanation makes the whole process sound very straightforward, but what on earth do I do with it once I’ve registered a hashtag? Does it get me more hashbrowns at breakfast?
    I fear this is just another gimmick to complicate our lives along with Facebook, Google +, Twitter, and a host of other social media outlets I’ve never heard of and hope I never will which waste so much of my time trying to make sense of them.
    I think I’ll pass on this one. I’ve got better things to do: books to write.

    1. Ian, if you’d like to know more, The Cabin Goddess and Jacqueline Hopkins have explained how to use them and why here in the comments. If you choose not to try it, that’s fine. There are some things I pass on, too.

16. I’ve just read the Cabin Goddess post and now I understand what these things are for. The mud is more transparent and I begin to understand the usefulness. I can even see ways in which they could save time. Now that’s progress!

    Between you, you have convinced me to invest a little time in studying the system and it’s possibilities. Thanks for the explanations.

    1. My pleasure, Ian! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂

       1. Awesome, ,mud is fun when it starts to be able to be peered through! Yes time savers..woot!
          (grin)

          1. I thought you girls already knew all about how to look through mud. I mean, you plaster the stuff on your visage and call it a facepack, but still see what’s going on, so surely you can see through mud?
             This kind of mental sediment is different.

             By the way, does registering a hashtag require you to be signed up to that awful Twitter thing?

             1. Ian, yes hashtags are Twittercentric and the registration is for Twitter hashtags, the others.. USE THEM EVERYWHERE ELSE to your hearts content *snort*

          2. Mud is also great on insect bites and zits. I prefer toothpaste, however, on my fair skin. Plus it smells minty fresh.

17. Just registered my series title and the titles of each of my books in the series. It worked like a charm. Either that or I’m getting smarter. lol

    1. So what are your hashtags, Yvonne? If I can find them I might learn something!

       1. Not sure if you’ll learn anything from them but here they are. #EarthsPendulum, #BackFromChaos, #ThroughKestrelsEyes, #The DreamtChild. I haven’t done anything else with them yet. Still learning. 🙂

          1. OK, since you’ve all gone to so much trouble t try and make it easy, I’ll try to learn too.

             It might take a little time.

18. So, does one have to be signed up to Twitter to use hashtags as described above, or can anyone use them?

    1. Ian, you can use hashtags in a lot of places – Facebook, Twitter, GooglePlus, and more. We’re hoping that the Cabin Goddess will write something for us about how to use hashtags not just on Twitter. Hopefully that will be coming soon.

       1. I’s, so relieved I don’t have to become a sparrow!
          That’s enough to encourage me to dive right it and have a try.

       2. I will I will PROMISE, already working on it. Ian you do not have to be on Twitter or become a sparrow to use them. I would even register them if you can JUST cuz you can, but for someone who does not want to use Twitter Facebook, Google+ and even search engines will translate it, though using twitter where all the research is being done. I will be sure to include the power of the hashtag over all platforms.

          1. No worries! Just wanted them to know help was on the way. 🙂

             1. What a relief! Help is invariably necessary with anything high tech.
                High tech may be defined as anything more complicated than a pencil sharpener. (i.e. a knife blade)!
                Hashtags are most definitely high tech.

19. Great stuff here. I’ve registered a few things, As with anything, its the amount of time we put in that determines its effectiveness. Regardless, they do a great job with the site and as many have stated, you never know.

    1. Thanks for the info, Jim. 🙂

20. wow! finally found where to post a comment! this article has really gotten a lot of conversations! This is all wonderful information and I have gone over and registered ours there too. Its a bit different but its a fun learning tool as well. I have the three titles of our books as hashtags and will play with it to see how it goes. very interesting and thank you everyone for all the info!~

21. OK TEST RAN! I have a weekly popular feature called Fourth-Wall Friday. I use the hashtag every friday (it’s in my post title) #FourthWallFriday I average 60 tweets from one source, 30 tweets from another and 10 from Pinterest for THIS particular post. I watch these stats religiously because it is one feature which is unique ONLY to my blog and nowhere else. (Lynne Cantwell has been doing them for over 2 years). ANYWAY I have used the registration as mentioned above to track for clients but never myself (no clue why).. ANYWAY I went and got all the relevant averages for the last six month cleaned and squared away and read again and checked etc etc so I can say without a doubt the use and registration of a hashtag works. My daily visits are up 28% (highest from twitter in a LONG time), my shares are double from twitter, I crashed my server at 8AM my time (hah, yes indeed had to reboot it) and I registered it and wrote up the stuff etc and shared it, and did everything Twubs suggested and am watching it. YEP, works. Only one hashtag in the tweet which is being shared (There are about four which have been retweeted over 20x each so going with that).

22. Pingback: Twubs Follow Fest | Link Sharing | Indies Unlimited

23. I’m going to try this out with #clairevioletfiction

24. Pingback: Blogs for Self-Publishers, June 14 – 20, 2014 — The Book Designer

25. Thanks for this. I’d created a new hashtag (#SumNovRev) for a Summer Novel Challenge to share goals and resources with writing friends working to finish a novel by summer’s end, but I didn’t know how to make the tag “official.” Thanks for the explanation.

    1. Glad to be able to help, Elissa. Thanks for stopping by.

       1. I just shared links to your post on Twitter & Pinterest. Again, thanks for a great resource.

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