How writers can engage on Twitter aka the Best memes for writers #authortoolboxhop #writerwednesday #writertips #writerslife
If you spend any amount of time researching how to market your writing or yourself as an author, you’ve undoubtedly read that you should not only BE on social media, but you must ENGAGE on social media. I don’t know about other writers, but I struggle with this. Big. Time. My twitter feed is full of tweets of people shouting, ‘Look at me! Look at me!’ How in the heck am I supposed to engage with that? And then there’s the sheer speed with which the feed refreshes. My eyes glaze over, and that’s it. I’m done.
One way I counteract these problems is with hashtags. A few times a day, I’ll go on twitter and search #amwriting, #amreading, #writerslife or some other hashtag related to being a writer or reader. To be honest, though, these hashtags are often abused by writers pushing their novels. Obviously, there’s nothing wrong with pushing your novel once in a while, but writers should really adhere to the 80/20 rule in which only 20% of your social media postings are pushing your own work.
Thankfully, I’ve now found a way to interact on twitter, which is fun and seems to work. Yeah! What am I talking about? Memes ~ weekly hashtags or blog share days. These memes are hashtags, which are only used one day of the week and are often trending. If used correctly, the tweets related to these hashtags are interesting and shareable – a great way to connect!
Here is a list of those I’ve found most useful:
Monday:
#MondayBlogs was started by author Rachel Thomspon as a way for bloggers to share posts and connect with other bloggers. Blogs do not have to be about writing or books – they can be about anything. I often find fun articles to read. For more information and the rules, read this.
Tuesday:
#TuesdayBookBlog was started by Rosie Amber. Rosie Amber runs an awesome book review team. They created a hashtag for book posts only. This is a great way to share anything book related, but please do follow the rules.
Learn more here.
Wednesday:
#1linewed is the meme which got me started. This meme was started by @RWAKissofDeath and has a HUGE following. It’s also tons of fun. Each week a new theme is presented. Here’s today’s theme:
I also participate in #WFWed and #WriterWednesday. Wednesday a busy writing day!
Thursday:
I just discovered and fell in love with #ThursdayAesthetic. As the name makes clear, this meme is all about aesthetics. Even if you don’t fancy making an aesthetic, you should follow just to see the beautiful graphics writers create about their work. For more information about #ThursdayAesthetic, check out this blog post from creator Jessica James. Your work doesn’t have to be awesome, just look at my first attempt:
Friday:
I don’t have a Friday meme in which I participate, but for the purpose of this blog, I went on the search and discovered #WFfriday. @LibbyFeltis provides a weekly theme. Here’s last week’s theme:
I’ll definitely be trying this on Friday!
There are tons more memes than those I mentioned above. Check out the @writevent for more ideas. Before deciding to join in a meme, you may want to check that it’s still popular and not being abused. Also remember – no matter what meme you decide to join, follow the rules. Now, go forth and ENGAGE. You got this!
~~~
This blog post is part of the #AuthorToolboxBlogHop. This is a monthly blog hop hosted by @raimeygallant. Make sure to stop by the other author blog posts in this month’s blog hop to fill up your author toolbox!
Many thanks for the shout-out. Lots of these other memes are new to me, so I will check them out.
You’re welcome. It’s a great meme!
I’ve just started using most of these as I’m struggling with engaging on social media.
I need to be more active on Twitter. At the moment I’m only on Sunday, promoting my own writing prompt game. I used to love #FlashFicHive on Thursday, and I really want to get back into it.
Monday blogs sounds great. I think I’ll add that to my list to check out 🙂
It’s a lot of work – being active on Twitter. I mostly shut down on the weekend to get a break from social media, etc.
I’ve seen many of these and I love them! They are definitely a great way to engage and connect with new friends on Twitter, and the prompts are super helpful in providing you an common speaking ground! 😀
I’ve read that too; but honestly, I’d rather be writing. For fiction writers, I’ve read several publisher/agent posts and they vary from have a presence to you can build it later. So I follow my heart…
Anna from elements of emaginette
I don’t do much of anything on Twitter; I’m reluctant to jump into more social media. But this post makes the whole seem more palatable. I guess the key to any social media use is to winnow down the community so it’s not as overwhelming.
Omg! I love this blog post and am super appreciative of this list of great memes. I’ve observed a few of these for a while but didn’t really know how to engage with them. Thanks for sharing!
If I told you there was only about 1-2 author memes a day a year ago, would you believe me? Now there are so many, I can’t keep up! Great post!
Reblogged this on DSM Publications and commented:
Check out this post from D.E. Haggerty’s blog on how writers can engage on Twitter.
Thanks!
My pleasure.
Thanks for the hashtag list. I use some of them, but didn’t know all of them.
This is great! I use to be more active on Twitter, particularly with #1linewed, but haven’t been too good about it lately. I’m excited to participate in #Thurdayaesthetic, because I love aesthetics.Thanks for sharing!
Reblogged this on Anna Dobritt — Author.
I love #MondayBlogs!
I hadn’t heard of #TuesdayBookBlog, but I write and publish reviews so I’ll definitely check that out! And I usually publish a post about writing each Wednesday, so I really should do #WriterWednesday.
I also participate in #FirstLineFriday, although I think it’s more of a blog meme than a Twitter meme. I post to both!
Thanks for stopping by. I’ll check out #firstline friday
Thanks for sharing, this is such a good resource for writers wanting to engage on Twitter! I’ll definitely check out some of these memes, I’ve also wanted to join in with #ThursdayAesthetic, I’d better get creating some beautiful aesthetics of my WIPs 🙂
I LOVE #thursdayaesthetic. Once you start playing around with it, it gets easier. Although I’m no pro! I use canva to great collages. Works pretty well.