For the [would-be] twitterati...

[Marc Joan]

For any Luddites like me who struggle with social media in general and the whole raison d'etre of Twitter in particular, I saw this on FB -- seems quite useful:

44 Essential Twitter Hashtags Every Author Should Know | Author

 

[Bernard Stacey]

Thanks for sharing.
#GoodToKnow

 

[Marc Joan]

#Lol

Think I'm getting the hang of yoof culture...

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Thanks for sharing that. I've printed out the list to pin up over my desk. Working on my hashtag literacy.

 

[Kitty]

That's really useful. I'm only just starting to get my head round this whole hashtag thing. I already follow quite a few Litopians but if you want to share your twitter handles I'd be happy to follow if I'm not already!

 

[Marc Joan]

Not on Twitter yet; still getting to grips with the swamp of vitriol and abuse that is Facebook...It's not all like that of course, but there is a lot of shouting from entrenched positions going on; I keep well out of it.

 

[Luciferette]

I LOVE Twitter...hate Facebook, though. Have to say, hashtag mania annoys the hell out of me. The odd one's ok if it's pertinent, but people who follow every post with a trail of inane babble (usually starting with - sorry to say - #amwriting) soon get dumped by moi. There's a great writing community on there: just a case of finding your niche.
I'm @lucybrooke5 by the way. Feel free to ignore me if you spot any of my posts with more than one #

 

[Robinne Weiss]

Not on Twitter yet; still getting to grips with the swamp of vitriol and abuse that is Facebook...It's not all like that of course, but there is a lot of shouting from entrenched positions going on; I keep well out of it.

Yes, I'm afraid I've had to block members of my own family from my FB feed because of their vitriol...and I find Twitter even worse--who can possibly have a civilised conversation in 140 characters or less? It's like catching every 5th word of what someone's saying on the other side of a crowded room. I do it because I 'have' to (and every once in a great while, I come across something useful through FB and Twitter), but it's a chore.

 

[Bernard Stacey]

Whilst on Twittter, I rarely tweet but use it to follow a few people who post or retweet amusing stuff, and also some news feeds. My basic rule is if someone continually posts more than two or three tweets a day then I'll generally unfollow them as it just clutters up the timeline. That said, I can go weeks without checking anyway. I've also noticed that more and more ads are creeping in unwanted.

Facebook? Last time I checked, hell hadn't yet frozen over.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

#Lol

Think I'm getting the hang of yoof culture...

ROFL

Actually, my 22 says these are passe.

Gotta say YOLO.

You only live once.

Or do you....

 

[AgentPete]

I LOVE Twitter...hate Facebook, though.

My feelings too. However, the comparison between Facebag and YouTube as revealed by our recent prank video is hard to ignore. 140k views on the tube vs nearly 6m now on Fb... it's a *powerful* marketing tool, no question. (But I still don't like it, personally).

 

[Emurelda]

I have to remind myself that it's up to me what I ignore and what I interact with whichever social platform i use. This outlook tends to keep me in a sunny disposition. Sure, sometimes i will spot someone goading me to interact with them but they soon give up when they realise they've unsuccessfully pulled me into their negative world.

And i tend to use facebook for personal friends, family, i prefer to decrease the number of connections there than increase.

 

[Carol Rose]

The hashtag thing gets old very quickly. It also has become meaningless because people now make hashtags out of too many things. I have everything I post from my Facebook author page and the two group blogs I'm on set to post to Twitter automatically. The only time I'm on there manually is to thank people for tweeting something about my books, or for retweeting a blog post I've sent there.

I'm on Facebook a lot, but even that I have down to a science. For example, it's rare you'll see me post about whatever I'm eating, and I try to keep the drama down to a small roar, when it's there at all. I've unfollowed several friends since November because they post nothing except political crap. Yes, it affects me as a US citizen, but I'm so sick to death of it that I can't even read the legit stuff right now, let alone all the questionable stories.

People who are constantly on social media baffle me. Don't they work? Don't they have to do things like clean their kitchen or run to the grocery store? I'm on a computer all day long at work, and I'm on this laptop the rest of the time. When I come home after work, unless I have a release the next day or just received a new cover, I don't want to touch a computer or my smart phone. I need to unwind and relax.