Celebrating Independent Authors
Hashtags are a great way to direct your post on social media towards viewers who might want to see what you have to say. Everybody knows that. But there are about 60 million hashtags out there. How can you find hashtags that will attract the right people to your post?
Hashtagify is a handy tool for finding useful hashtags. Here’s how it works. Continue reading “Finding a Better Hashtag: the Basics of Hashtagify”
I joined Twitter in 2008. It looked like a fun way to connect with people and share blog posts. I made a lot of mistakes at first — I got spammed, I got hacked, I got suspended…and then I got smarter. I stopped automatically following anyone who followed me. I learned how to recognize the red flags that pretty much guaranteed the person behind the avatar (if it was indeed a person) had no interest in two-way communication. Many things about Twitter have changed since then. A lot of users have gotten savvier about Twitter etiquette since 2012 when I first posted about this topic, but I continue to heed a few basic signs (and a few new ones) before hitting the “follow” button. Here’s why I’m still not following you: Continue reading “Why I Still Won’t Follow You on Twitter”
The need to keep your social media presence accurate and viewable is increasing every year. Optimizing your profile pictures and sharing the best quality layouts goes a long way to representing you and your brand.
Social media platforms are constantly evolving. It’s difficult to keep up with all the changes to profile pictures, timeline rules, and Tweet specs. A few weeks back, we received a request for updated cheat sheets for the major platforms. We haven’t compiled this information since 2013 and a lot has changed since then.
So, here you are … the 2016 updated Social Media Platform Cheat Sheets for image size and general rules. Today we are focusing on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. Each downloadable cheat sheet (just right click and hit “save image as”) gives you an overview of the best image sizes for each social network. Continue reading “2016 Social Media Platform Cheat Sheets”
Imagine a bunch of friends and acquaintances all in the same room wandering around yelling out random short remarks (maybe where they plan to go out to dinner or that they love their spouse) while others are screaming. Add other people waving a handful of pamphlets in the air, yelling “read this” or screaming “buy my book” or some other attempt to sell something. Occasionally another person will shout out a response to one of those questions. Sometimes people will grab half of those pamphlets and run to an adjoining room to try passing them out there or to repeat one of those remarks or questions for the people in the other room.
To be fair, most of the people above are polite; everyone takes their turn and doesn’t talk over the other guy. But even so, keeping track of all the things being said and the multiple conversations that interest you is tricky. It’s heaven (or maybe hell) for someone suffering from ADHD. I’m not so sure it doesn’t cause it in others.
This, in a nutshell, is Twitter. Continue reading “How to Use Twitter for the Complete Newbie”