Owen Jones

Tweeting and Hashtags

Hi, my name is Owen Jones and I am a serial writer. I just can’t stop and since not many people have asked me to, I am still doing it, as you can see. By the way, that was not an invitation to ask me to stop either.

Now, I first got into writing because I needed good, trustworthy content for my web sites, but when Google cancelled my account, I started writing books instead. I now have quite a few, but that is neither here nor there, what I am getting at is that I have always needed to advertise on line – first for my 140 web sites and now for my books.

Advertising on line is cheap, but difficult, it its rawest form. For example, you can throw an ad together and put it in the classifieds in your local paper and you can guarantee that someone, maybe even dozens of people will read it, even if they don’t want to buy what you have to sell.

However, the same cannot be said for online advertising.

Advertising in the local rag will cost $40 or so and sort of guarantee you those dozens of readers, but smart advertising on line costs nothing, although the kicker is that it guarantees you nothing too, because of all the millions of people globally who are trying to do the same as you – that is, sell something and make money without paying anything up front.

I know, because I try to do that every day and have been trying for the whole of this millennium so far 🙂

Anyway, joking aside, there are things that a free-loading, on line advertiser has to take seriously and they are the best media to use, and the best format of advert to put there. Simple stuff, or not?

So, which are the best media? For me as a writer, there is no question in my mind that it is Facebook and Twitter and of the two, Twitter is the better for me.

Don’t forget that I am a writer and that they are the best for me and my style. You may be an evangelicising missionary and in that case something else may suit you better.

Let’s deal with the easy one first.

Facebook, write what you like, within their guidelines and hope that Facebook puts it before your friends. I think that they usually do, but who knows? You need to be on there anyway, so just do it.

Then there is Twitter. I think that Twitter gets me more sales than any other medium.

So, how should one design the perfect Tweet advert?

Think of it, you are scanning down dozens of Tweets: RT this; #that;  owly.something-else…

It all means nothing, does it?

Surely, the opening word if not the whole line should grasp your readers’ attention? Whatever language it is in, it should make sense, surely?

The first line is your hook into your target audience’s attention rt @wpo1408 or #rmnb does not do that! I read hundreds, several hundreds of Tweets every day that I know cannot work, and I feel sorry for their creators because they are trying. However, they are trying to be sellers and not reading as buyers.

This is the bog-standard blueprint:

1] always compose your message in Twitter, no matter what you do with it after that, because Twitter will tell you if your hashtags are worth using, and that changes often
2] write your message first, because that is your hook
3] then your link to your site, shortened if you want
4] now your rt @ if you want one
5] and FINALLY hashtags! Some say 2-3 at most. OK, if your message is good you won’t have room for any more anyway.

Don’t waste your time thinking like a writer, write like a thinker.

by +Owen Jones