Hashtags come and go. It probably takes a long time on Twitter but I’m almost positive there are many hashtags that have gone by the wayside to vanish into the black hole of cyberspace. I like using hashtags. It’s an easy way for me to identify what I write and gives me an uncomplicated way for me to find what I want on Twitter.
When I first started using the hashtag #weekendcoffeeshare, I was a hard-core coffee-holic. It didn’t make any difference what time of day it was; I was drinking coffee. I got into sampling the international coffees once in a while just to take a break for the straight black slug. It was my drink to have at my side no matter what I was doing.
A couple of years ago I started noticing a discomfort in my stomach so I cut down on the caffeine a little, having coffee only until 3:00pm. It helped but not to the point where the uneasy feeling in my gut was completely gone. So… I started using creamer. That took care of the tummy problem but I wasn’t enjoying the brew as much.
I switched to tea, green tea to be exact. It gave me the lift I needed to get my motor going but the jitters I sometimes would get with coffee never appear. I did have to change over to one of the green teas with another flavor in it though. Green tea as it is is a little too harsh for my taste buds. At this point, I can’t decide whether I like the ginger or the mint best. Lemon is all right but it isn’t quite as good as the other two.
I’ve always thought of the #weekendcoffeeshare posts as being ones that were more on the personal level. I was first writing about writing when using it but I soon changed, making the posts more about me at a personal ranking and usually didn’t concern writing. After all, I was thinking of it as a chitchat or a bull session.
Soon after that, I made my own hashtag, #thepersonalside. This meant I had two posts every month, one right after the other, that wasn’t about writing. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I was starting each month with #writingcraft and usually ending with #amwriting.
I’ve been pondering on these hashtags for a few weeks now. I like having them because they bring readers to my blog from Twitter. Even though I wish they would subscribe to my monthly newsletter that has the list of posts in it or subscribe to my posts through WordPress.Com via my sidebar, I know some like to do the hit or miss approach, which Twitter can provide for them. All in all, the hashtag being part of the title of each post has served me well.
Except for my blog, I’m not published anywhere anymore. I used to write articles for newsletter put out by an organization that helps people with disability. However, that was years ago. I knew I should find a way to up my skill at this part of the writing craft and move on to getting published. Coming to this conclusion, I decided to do away with the #amwriting hashtag and replaced it with the #takeonnews one in order to motivate myself to write more like a journalist [actually more like a columnist].
Getting back to the #weekendcoffeeshare hashtag now that I’ve digressed a little…
So what am I going to replace the #weekendcoffeeshare hashtag with? I’ve settled on the hashtag, #writerslife. It’ll still be a grab bag of topics but not as broad as #thepersonalside. Sometimes it’ll be gripes. Sometimes it’ll be discoveries. Maybe there will even be some successes. I’m not at all sure about that last one. 😕
Then there are those months that have five Thursdays in them. In the past, I’ve been winging, making a tossup as to what I’ll write about. That may be an okay way to handle that week but so I get more practice with fiction, I’m going to re-enter the #amwriting hashtag and plan on presenting scenes and sketches for that week. I might even use it to sometimes ask for help from you, my readers.
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Anyway, you are going to see the following themes from now on: #writingcraft, #thepersonalside, #writerslife, #takeonnews, and sometime #amwriting. Are you doing any changeups with your blog for the new year?
“Don’t focus on having a great blog. Focus on producing a blog that’s great for your readers.”
― Muhammad Tabish
A Scripted Maze 
Glynis, I think, blogs, like everything are evolving, changing with our lives, project. You seem to have got a hang for these hashtags…I’m terrible with remembering to use them although I’ve been tempted with #amwriring! This coming year my tag line if nothing else has to change…as my son reminded me, I have after all published a book!
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I really don’t know what I’m doing with these hashtags. I saw how Jeri Walker at Word Bank Writing & Editing [https://jeriwb.com/] was using them and just followed her lead. Yes, blogs do develop a life of their own stemming from the person or people who write posts for it. Some get more specific while others, like mine, expand in topics.
Now you have me curious as to what your new tagline will be. 😉
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This sounds like a good approach. I wish I thought more about the hashtags I use. I usually only use hashtags to support a prompt I am following or for my blog. On twitter, I use the to say something, like #noWayToRunaRailroad
I think I’ll let my blog continue its slow evolution to whatever state it’s moving toward. I tend to be governed more by what I feel like writing.
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I looked up your hashtag, #noWayToRunaRailroad. The posting I found got me confused. Some were about the railroad, which makes perfect sense but there were others that were about other topics. A weird hashtag. 😕
I go by what I feel like writing too on my blog. Notice how I never have a poem there? I just don’t like writing them… so I don’t. The #takeonnews hashtag is my way of giving me a ploy to expand my writing horizons and stop being a coward about publishing. 😛
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Oh my, I never expect anyone to follow the hashtags I use.
That’s just an old expression applied to anything that is mismanaged.
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I like the personalized #hashtag idea. Sure, it’s good to use a well-known one (like #amwriting) but you do get lost in the noise. In my grad school classes, we use a completely unique hashtag so class members can search by the hashtag and find only tweets from class members. Make the whole thing very personal. Try #mti562 — you’ll see what I mean!
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That is a cool idea, Jacqui. I especially like this idea because I am not a fan of Facebook. This gives me a whole other way to keep in touch with friends and family. 🙂
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I started my blog in total chaos, knowing next to nothing about blogging and pretending to know something about writing. I do know about my writing journey and my style, what works for me. I don’t use hashtags, or at least I don’t think I do. My blog allows me to choose categories for each post, which I do, and I’ve added a few that suit my blog needs. You’re on the right track for you, Glynis, and I hope I’m on the right one for me. If it doesn’t work, CHANGE – a great plan for anyone. (There I go again, pretending I know what’s good for everyone.)
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Shari, you’re not pretending anything. You are expressing where you stand on the “issue”. I started my first blog at LiveJournal not knowing anything. Since then, I’ve had several blogs. I still have some of them but I’ve made them private while I decide what to do with them.
Hashtags aren’t for everyone. Mine are there to help me keep my ducks in a row, As for what they do for me on Twitter is just a bonus.
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My big change for next year is discontinuing the author interviews. It’s been a great run of posts, but now that I’m only posting twice a month, I’m going to focus on only four categories: editing, writing, publishing, and marketing. It’s freed up a lot of time to devote to my creative nonfiction. I’m still not doing a ton of creative writing, but I am getting some done on a weekly basis, and that’s more than I’ve done in quite some time.
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You’ve gone through so much this past year, Jeri. I’m surprised you were even doing the two posts per month. You had said someplace along the way that you were going to do your memoirs. Is that still in your plans.
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I will unpublish the Gofundme posts a few months after I do the last one. Then I will start revising the posts to submit to magazines and journals. That’s the best way I’ve heard of to build interest in a memoir, especially if seeking traditional publication in the end.
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I’ve never considered using hashtags in blog posts, extra hard work thinking LOL.
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They just give me a starting point for the topic of my posts. 🙂
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well, this was an interesting post. as my account with twitter has just been born – which i was advised to make to promote my book – hashtags is something i understand in a general level, but am actually having trouble figuring out. i did catch the part about you and a society for people with disability?
as i’ve been blind for the past decade, those societies are something that interests me. can you tell me some more about it?
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The organization I worked for was a locally bases one in Cookeville, Tennessee. Most of the client had a mental disability of some sort, although mine was from a stroke which left me paralyzed on the right side. There was a young man who was deaf and a young woman who had a disability that several compromised her vision, forcing her to wear orange-tinted glasses and need special equipment to do her work as a secretary. The organization was under the “umbrella” of ARC and the March of Dimes.
If you want to see what is on Twitter for disability, just put the hashtag, #disability, in the search box at the top of the site.
BTW, it’s wonderful to know that there is someone else out here in cyberspace with a disability who is interested in writing. 😀
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it is. i’ve reached out to a few people with disabilities, but for some reason, most ignored me.
you say a stroke? i’ve been working on an article lately about oxygen therapy. have you ever looked into it?
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When I had the stroke many years ago, they put me on oxygen for the first week I was in the hospital. My mother tried to get them to keep me on it when I was moved out of ICU but they wouldn’t do it.
One thing about the internet is some people with disability want a certain level of awe, or they don’t want anyone knowing about their problems. The ones of us floating somewhere in the middle want people to know but not make a big deal over it. It gets a little complicated out here in cyberspace.
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that’s not what i meant about oxygen treatment. check out the HBOT – heperbaric oxygen therapy.
and i don’t mind people knowing, though i remembr being embarrassed back on the days when i first began losing vision. i don’t like the sympathy and pity, and i tend to stay away from people who think they should lavish me with it.
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