News at 11: Prose.
Writers,
Seattle Refined did a remarkable spot on us. From a bar in West Seattle to the downtown offices of Prose., this three-minute piece came out nice and clean. Link is below.
We hope your sentences are hitting the page lean and mean, and to see more of your work across this spectrum words. Thanks for being here.
Go to minute 14:00.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fm-uquSrxSI&
The Art of the Hashtag
Since the dawn of Twitter, hashtags have been steadily increasing in popularity. They’re everywhere, even in memes and on clothing apparel. But are they just the trend or do they have a value to those of us who want to increase our exposure across a multitude of social networks?
To answer that question broadly, yes, they do have a purpose. But not everywhere, and that’s the problem. Unless you know all things Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, G+, Tumblr, You- you get the gist. Unless you are ‘in the business,’ it’s likely that you’ll have no clue exactly how to use hashtags to maximise your exposure. You’ll probably be unaware of the fact that each platform has the optimal amount of hashtags to use, and be warned, on some social networks that figure is zero.
While hashtags are cool and most definitely do help increase your exposure, overuse of hashtags on certain platforms decreases your exposure to lower than if you didn’t use any. Sit back, and take heed. We outline the art (or not) of using the love-it-but-hate-it hashtag.
Given that each social network behaves very differently when it comes to hashtags, we are going to look at them individually and give you the low down. The question we will be answering is: to hashtag or not to hashtag? (Yes we thought that was a really cool question!) We will also be giving you some of the most popular hashtags out there to use, that are also relevant (that’s a real key word there) and will maximise your chances of being heard amongst the social buzz.
It’s only right that we start with the founder of the hashtag. Twitter. We all get around to tweeting at some point, even if you don’t Tweet now, I bet you will soon enough.
Twitter’s hashtags are the most simplistically beautiful of them all, they would be, they made them right?
Just because hashtags are available doesn’t mean you should use them. If in doubt, leave them out. You are building a brand for yourself and using hashtags just because they are popular makes you look like an attention whore. Yes, it does. If a hashtag is popular and relevant to your message or link, use it. Otherwise, save us all the agony and don’t.
No one wants to see a whole tweet that is full of hashtags. #Do #not #hashtag #for #the #sake #of #hashtagging. Seriously, look how rubbish that looks. As a general rule of thumb, between three and five hashtags are more than enough, or just one doozy of a hashtag.
For all writerly types, there a couple that could be used, nay, should be used if relevant.
#amwriting #amreading #amediting – does what it says on the tin, use them where possible as these ones are a popular bunch on Twitter.
#MondayBlogs #SundayBlogShare #writerwednesday #throwbackthursday #mondaymotivation – all day specific, but use them correctly and they’ll help you reach more people.
#IARTG #ASMSG – These are groups attached to a profile on Twitter. If you’re not willing to share the tweets of others within this group, don’t use them because they won’t work for you. BUT, if you are an indie author / writer, using these hashtags can help increase your reach hugely.
#micropoetry #haiku #vss (very short story) #flashfiction – all of this are type specific but again, get searched on Twitter, a lot. Use them when relevant, don’t use them otherwise.
Facebook only recently began integrating hashtags and there has been a lot of speculation about the benefit of using hashtags. In recent social media studies, and from our own observations, using hashtags on Facebook actually decreases post interaction and engagement so use at your own peril.
Instragram
Instagram has taken the hashtags to another level. It is the only platform where the more hashtags you use; the better reach your post will get. So, use them lots, make them relevant to whatever you’re sharing, and remember, there is a maximum limit Insta will let you share of thirty. Be warned that if you type up a lovely cpation for your post and it contains more than thirty hashtags, Instagram (kindly) will not post your caption and you’ll have to start all over again (insert expletive)! Here are a bunch that are all relevant:
#amwriting #amreading #mondaymotivation #Monday #writerwednesday #fridayfeeling #inspo #words #photooftheday #socialmedia #writersofinstagram #writersofig #poetsofinstagram #love #ink #bibliophile #igworld #instamood #webstagram #poetry #competition #indieauthor #igers #instagood #like4like #app #android #launch #upgrade #iphonesia #writingcommunity #qotd #igers #beautiful #follow #nofilter #instalike #instalove #awesome #love #instaquote #qotd #instaquote #quote #wordporn #books #book #booknerd #booknerdigans
Use these to your hearts content and feel free to comment and share the ones that you use that we may have missed.
LinkedIn is a social network for professionals, it’s all about networking and finding the next big career move, are hashtags relevant here? No they are not. Don’t go all fancy and use them, it won’t make you look good at all.
G+
G+ (GooglePlus) is an anomaly to us all when it comes to the social rules and etiquettes within. It’s a community that is unpredictable and one that we are all still learning about. We tend to adopt the general rule of Twitter here and only share up to 3 hashtags per post. That being said, hashtags do not seem to have a profound effect on your reach whatsoever, so use them or not, it’s not going to make too much of a difference either way.
Hashtags are unimportant here, but linking to your brand elsewhere on the internet is. Caption your photos and always link. That’ll be of better benefit to you here than the old hashtag will.
Tumblr
The ‘rules’ for Tumblr are pretty much the same as Instagram, although hashtags on Tumblr allow you to have spaces in between words.
A couple of extra hashtags on Tumblr that go down a treat are spilledink and spilled words.
Have at it, and get tagging!
I hope this helps you all on the art of the hashtag. Prose caters for hashtags and we are looking forward to seeing you guys adopt some of the better known ones here, along with creating your very own hashtags. We will be sharing more information about social media and how to market yourselves as writers very soon.
Until next time, get hashtagging, or not.
Sammie.
Prose Challenge of the Week #21
Good morning, Prosers,
We find ourselves embarking upon week twenty-one of the Prose Challenge of the Week, and this week it’s another partnered challenge with @pssms otherwise known as The Micropoetry Society.
Last week’s challenge saw a huge amount of entries, where you all wrote a three sentence story about desire. Is it us, or did you guys turn the temperature up a notch or two?
Before we announce the winner of last week’s passionate prompt, let’s take a look at this week’s micropoetry challenge:
Prose Challenge of the Week #21 in partnership with The Micropoetry Society. Use the following word to create a piece of micropoetry: “Lines.” The winner will be chosen based on a number of criteria, this includes: fire, form, and creative edge. Number of reads, bookmarks, and shares will also be taken into consideration. The winner will receive $100, the runner-up will receive $25. When sharing to Twitter, please use the hashtag #poetheme and #micropoetry.
That’s right, get writing your lines now.
Back to the winner of week twenty. We have read all of your entries and thoroughly enjoyed every single one. There can only be one winner, however, and that person is @RichWithey with his piece “Longing.” Congratulations, Rich! We will be in touch shortly to arrange transfer of your winnings.
That’s all for this week so get scribbling and filling our stream with your words!
Until next time, Prosers,
Prose.
Prose Challenge of the Week #19
Good Afternoon, Prosers,
We hope this challenge announcement finds you all well.
Week nineteen is upon us, and what a week it has been. The Prose Challenge has been growing week by week and we are so happy to see so many of you participating.
Before we announce the winner of the murder challenge, let’s take a look at this week’s challenge:
Prose Challenge of the Week #19: In no more than 50 words, write about guilt. The winner will be chosen based on a number of criteria, this includes: fire, form, and creative edge. Number of reads, bookmarks, and shares will also be taken into consideration. The winner will receive $100. When sharing to Twitter, please use the hashtag #ProseChallenge
So, get out your sack of guilt, and get entering the challenge, write now.
Now, onto the winner of last week’s challenge. It is the only time that murder is acceptable; when you write about it. We poured over every entry and loved the pieces you purged onto our desks. There can, however, only be one winner, and that person this time around is @clouseau with a piece named “La Boucherie.” Congratulations! We will be in touch shortly to arrange transfer of your winnings.
That's all for now, folks. Get scribbling.
Until next time, Prosers,
Prose.