Twitter Hashtags: Which Ones to Use – and When

You’ve seen them on tweets, no doubt. The hashtags. They provide a way to group and organize tweets, to bring them front and center, and to enable one to participate in a discussion with the Twitter community at large.

In case you’re wondering about using some, but not sure which, I’ve compiled a list from which to choose. There are some specific to writing and tech writing, and many more general in nature. Try them out! I’ll probably add more tags to the list as time goes on; feel free to suggest others.

What I truly love about hashtags, though, is that you can make them be anything you want. Maybe it’s a one-time tag that’s very long. Maybe it’s a vent. Can be anything. As I noted in a tweet several weeks ago: #possibilitiesareendless.

Take a Break

Sometimes you just might want to take a few minutes and breathe a bit. Or think about something else for a moment. If so, these tags are for you.

#quotes
#haiku
#sarcasm
#notsarcasm

For Writers

A writer’s gotta write. Or talk about writing. Or read something creative or pensive or thought-provoking or anything at all. If that’s you, here are some good tags to peruse.

#writers
#story
#stories
#poetry
#haiku
#poem
#micropoetry
#nanowrimo

For Tech Writers

Technical writing (aka technical communication) is a specialized form of writing. There are rules and methodologies specific to the field.  These are some tags that tech writers might find useful.

#techcomm
#techwriting
#STC
#stcorg
#DITA
#ehow
#howto

Social Media

Here are just a few to use as a starting point.

#socialmedia
#Twitter
#Facebook
#LinkedIn

Tech

There’s always something to keep up with. Here are a couple of main topics you can search for.

#security
#privacy

Late Nights or Early Mornings?

There’s a huge difference between those that can jump up and run out the door by 5 am and those that function best in the evenings and are up to see one day become the next. I imagine that most people can put themselves into one of these categories. To find your kindred spirits, try out these hashtags.

#nightowl
#earlybird

How’s Your Day?

Whether you’re signing off for the day, or just getting started, or anywhere in between, you might want to check out these tags. One of my favorites before signing off at night is #goodnight.

#goodnight 
#goodmorning
#goodday
#today

Greetings and Good Wishes

Want to celebrate or congratulate? Try these tags.

#happybirthday
#happyanniversary
#congrats
#kudos
#goodluck
#woohoo
#smile

On the Flip Side

Not everything always goes according to plan. When that occurs, these tags are for you.

#darn
#ohwell
#thatslife

Not Good

I’m sure there are variations of this tag. I’ll look for more.

#fail

Who To Follow?

Who do you recommend? Follow Friday started it off, I imagine. Every Friday you can make your suggestions to your followers. Anytime, you can use the #women2follow tag; I’ll look for others as well.

#followfriday
#ff
#women2follow

7 Ways to Keep Up With Trends

Two facts: we have to try and keep up with all the changes in IT, and we don’t have much time, if any, to do so. What can you do? Here are some ideas. They’ve been working well for me. Hopefully they will for you as well.

Blogs

Bloggers are out there in the trenches: finding information, presenting information about trends, explaining things and providing tips on various subjects. It’s always worth your time to review blogs. A good resource to find them is:

Alltop – Tech Writing

In fact, there’s probably an Alltop page for any topic you’d like to view. Just select your topic of choice and go from there. I’ve included some for different topics in my lists of links on this blog.

You can also make a customized myAlltop page and put your favorite blogs all in one place.

Also, check Ivan Walsh’s list of tech writing blogs. He also includes international writing considerations, so that’s something not to miss.

Twitter

All hail Twitter! I can’t survive without it. I use it for work, primarily. I prefer to follow feeds that are packed with information and links to articles, or those that pass on information. It’s great to follow people that focus on a particular topic; their expertise comes through, as they have reviewed materials and chosen what they think matters most. So, I see it as expert advice delivered daily to my door. It saves so much time; I needn’t search high and low for information. An expert has done that already. All I need to do is review what they’ve posted. And boy, have they ever posted excellent information.

Twitter is my starting point for the day. It’s my morning paper, so to speak, and is a great way to jumpstart the synapses each morning. I enjoy perusing the articles and information that is posted.

eServer Technical Communication Library

Hello! This is a HUGE database packed with timely, thought-provoking articles. It is updated regularly. It’s a must-visit resource. I’ve signed up for their RSS feed , and try to check it each day, if possible. If unable to, I check it whenever I can. Sign up for the feed. Go there, go there, go there – and go there regularly.

eServer TC Library

LinkedIn

There are a number of writing and other IT groups you can sign up for. Actually, there’s probably a group for just about any topic you can think of. I’ve got some listed on my profile, but there are plenty of others out there. Join some groups, follow the discussions, and perhaps chime in once in a while. You can set it so you get daily or weekly digests of discussions sent directly to your e-mail address.

Websites

Surely you’ll find websites you’ll want to peruse from time to time for information. Mashable is one that comes to mind offhand. It’s an excellent resource. Also, the W3C site is a good site to review periodically. No doubt, there are sites that one should visit periodically, at least. Plenty to see out there on the Internet, is there not?

Mailing Lists

Of course, there are always good ‘ol mailing lists. No explanation required, I believe. 

RSS Feeds

This is, of course, another way to follow your favorite blogs and other items. It’s nice to have these in your back pocket. 

…………………………….

That’s all I can think of at the moment. However, as you can see, there are ways to quickly review quite a bit of information for many topics. Happy reading!

5 Reasons to Write Procedures in Twitter

Recently, I’ve been exploring the need for writing procedures in real-time, focusing on Twitter in particular. This is the fourth post in the series. In my last post, I was asked by Larry Kunz in a comment for thoughts on situations in which one might write procedures in Twitter. Five come to mind; I’ve described them below.

Push Information

The beauty of Twitter is that you can quickly disseminate information to a large, targeted audience. Initially, it would, of course, be followers of the feed in question. Retweeting then magnifies that distribution, possibly exponentially. In classic online docs (help, websites, knowledgebases, and the like), we wait for users to come to us. By using Twitter, we can go to them.

This puts an entirely different spin on the whole question of doc development. When planning a content strategy, consider this: what might you want to hand-deliver to your users vs. requiring them to come to you to find?

Quick Fixes

Let’s say, for example, that you have a procedure regarding a fix that’s needed immediately. If one user has a question about it and asks a question on a Twitter support feed, you can be sure that there are many that have the same question. So if a person retweets a procedure, it could possibly travel far. If there’s a negative comment (e.g., something along the lines of “this app doesn’t work, it’s awful”) it might compel a company to get out a fix or explanation, or a quick procedure to quell disruptions.

Example: late last year there were there hacking attacks that affected WordPress sites that hadn’t been upgraded to the newest version. Site managers that had not yet upgraded needed to act immediately to fend off an attack on their sites. News came through Twitter. It was retweeted everywhere. That’s how I found out about it. In such a case, you could write a quick procedure about the upgrade requirements as well as other information. Who knows how far a procedure might travel? I think that tweets pointed people to blogs and sites that had procedures or information about how to address the situation – which in itself is another excellent example.

WordPress is updated frequently. There are docs and blog posts in existence that describe how to upgrade to the latest version. It doesn’t matter what version; the same basic procedures apply to any upgrade. (That’s the beauty of WordPress. There’s so much information out there, and the open-source community is so helpful and collaborative. It’s wonderful.)

If you have an app that has regular updates (as WordPress does), or just has an impending release, why not have something written beforehand that you could point to when necessary? When I ran my Twitter procedure experiment on 12/29/09, Larry Kunz (@larry_kunz) made this suggestion:

“Also, and I know this is a lot harder than it sounds: anticipate the situation, and have responses pre-written, ready to go.”

This is exactly the type of situation that fits Larry’s suggestion. Anything that occurs on at least a periodic basis (such as app updates) should have some docs already written somewhere. Plus, said docs should be written in a generic fashion that would be applicable to any upgrade situation (content management in action) – not just one in particular. You can always address particulars, but have some clean generic docs ready at all times.

Product Launches and New Features

If a company has an app revision or new feature and wants to get the news out, a related procedure in Twitter might support marketing efforts. (As in, here’s our new feature; here’s how to use it.) It also never hurts a company to promote visibility of their products, keeping the company in mind. Pointing out features that would help users and save them time is always a good idea.  

Real-Time

People are growing accustomed to getting information right now. They may not have the patience to look through online docs to find it. I cannot emphasize real-time considerations enough. There’s also always the possibility that one of your tweets will be picked up and distributed immediately once it hits the airwaves.

Either put a quick procedure in Twitter, or put in one tweet that links to the appropriate location in online docs or some other location, such as a SharePoint portal. Help your users. Answer their questions before they know they need them. Fix their problems. Monitor support questions and get something out there once in a while. Why not put a short FAQ in your support feed, particularly if it’s asked regularly?

After all, excellent customer service is always a good idea. Given that tech writers must perpetually sell their worth to a company, it sure can’t hurt to help customers.

Go Where Your Users Are

If users are scanning Twitter regularly or using Facebook, that’s where some of your docs should be. If they’re reading your blogs, think about adding procedures there. You can embed Twitter feeds in multiple places: WordPress sites, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Wave. Also, in Facebook, people can leave comments for each tweet that becomes a status item in Facebook. Look at the Mashable page for an example.

Remember: social media is a primary mode of communication these days. Start using it, if you’re not already. If nothing else, mentions of detailed docs and links to them can easily be integrated into these locations.

If your users are all at Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and the like much of the time, why not go there? If not, you may find yourself standing at an empty storefront. 

Related Posts

Real time: it’s sooooo last second
My First Procedure Written in Twitter
Lessons Learned: Procedure Written in Twitter

Lessons Learned: Procedure Written in Twitter

Last week, I thought I’d experiment and write a quick procedure in Twitter. This goes right along with my thoughts that new methods should be used for creating docs. Given that microblogging is here to stay, as is real-time, I decided to give it a try. There were two main thoughts in play: see if it was possible to condense a procedure into steps of 140 characters or less, and test a real-time situation, as trending topics always appear in Twitter and it may be necessary to write something there. Plus, I thought it would be fun. Which it was.

Thus, my exercise in microblogging a procedure began – and evolved immediately into a real-time writing event. I learned plenty in the process, as you’ll see below.

Content Development

Twitter-Specific Considerations

- Read from bottom to top

- No bold, italic, or formatting of any kind

- Tweets might get interrupted by other tweets, as new ones come in continually. Hence, you can lose continuity.

Writing Approach

- Included numbers in all the procedure tweets. This included the title tweet to set off the series.

- Combined steps when possible

- Abbreviated content and used snippets instead of full sentences

- Wrote procedure immediately, posting one tweet as soon as the previous one posted. This was to limit the possibility of new tweets coming in which would break up the procedure.

- Wrote very quickly. I used an existing procedure written in more detail. Took the steps and modified content (as noted above) to fit in tweets. Did this on the fly; not beforehand. You have to edit as you go to fit steps into tweets and determine what to include in each.

Input from Users

I actively asked for input. First, it was when I initially published the tweets. I wondered what other tech writers thought about it, not really knowing what to expect. Then, I asked for comments as I went, and incorporated some and updated accordingly. I continued to ask for and incorporate suggestions as appropriate.

What was really great was the amount and depth of input that came in. That immediately changed the situation from a one-writer task to a collaborative effort of a makeshift team, in effect. It was as though an ad hoc team formed for a moment in time, discussed items, and then immediately disbanded. It was completely virtual, and people didn’t know each other, really. How cool is that? What potential there is. I suppose that’s the nature of virtual communication these days, but it’s still interesting on a real-time basis.

Of course, the flip side is that you may end up with too much input. That’s where triage mentality will come into play. You’ll have to decide what to include and incorporate right then and there. Also, you may want to address some items immediately, and others later. Some you may need to review more, depending on content and whether or not you think the input would be applicable or not. There will be many, many such decisions to make on the fly.  My thought is that you still want all the input you can get, even if you can’t get to it at the moment, or if it’s not something you’ll eventually integrate. If there’s too much, perhaps you could write a tweet that says something to the effect of “Addressing input as quickly as possible. Please keep sending comments.”  Then review everything when things calm down, or enter a revised procedure afterward.

Also, if you were in the midst of a rush to get out information, wouldn’t you want to know of anything you missed? If it’s critical, if it’s a negative viral situation, then you want to hear what people are thinking. And then you need to address it. Either you fix it right then, or write a new item for your FAQs and have a link to it in a tweet.

Just as there’s no such thing as a stupid question, there’s no such thing as bad input in today’s world. Ignoring input could prove disastrous. You have to be open to suggestion.

Managing the Process

If possible, I would definitely have an entire procedure already written, or at least sketched out. This enables you to input tweets one after the other (as noted above), editing as you go. It may not be perfect – there may not be time for that, but you’d have a base from which to work.

Deleting and Revising Tweets

You can’t really delete a tweet and rewrite it, or insert a revised one in the exact location. Well, OK – technically, you could delete one. However, you would lose continuity and break the procedure. Plus, the tweet is still there, archived somewhere, so could show up at a later date if someone looks for it.

This begs the question: when do you leave a tweet as is, even if not completely perfect or correct, and when do you rewrite the entire procedure? My gut response is that if it is not correct in a major way, then it must be rewritten. My belief is that accuracy is still the most important aspect of tech writing. That may be old-school, but it’s still my mantra. Makes sense to me. However, I’m all for lightening up a bit with the rules of tech writing. When you’re working in Twitter, I think you need to bend them once in a while.

Managing Input

I was very busy handling input from just several people. Also, I purposefully tried to address comments and update accordingly immediately, to put as much pressure on as possible to see what would happen. I didn’t want to think much; I wanted to react. That’s a situation I can envision occurring some day. However, I was sure enough of the procedure that I thought people would basically be able to figure it out. That was based on the audience; I assumed familiarity with using Twitter.

If the procedure had been more detailed, I would have:

- Posted a tweet that a procedure was being worked on at that moment

- Created a longer version somewhere and included a link to it in a tweet

- Put a bare-bones procedure in Twitter, as best I could

Posting Updates

I felt it was very important to provide status updates as I went. That was an important part of the exercise. It’s also one more decision to make on the fly: how often do you update people, and where do you do so? What information do you include in the update?

I added new tweets, and updated my blog post with new information for each update. After the first update, I added time information as well. There were two reasons for that: show that it was actively being worked on, and enable users to see what information they want to focus on, given the time of the update. That may prove critical in some cases, so I think I’d always include times in posts. For tweets, the timestamp is automatically included.

In my case, I posted updated tweets designated by “UPDATE” as the starting. Example:

UPDATE: Create Twitter List proc (12/29). New: step 6 > List created; add feeds by selecting in Followers list or searching (proc follows)

UPDATES: Create Twitter List proc. Update 2: fixes 12:45 pm. Update 3: thoughts 1:13 pm http://bit.ly/53eoe5

Conclusions – Recommendations

- Use Twitter for procedures in a real-time situation. Also, start using it frequently. People use Twitter to disseminate and find information. Docs should be there in one form or another. Either write procedures, or link to online docs.

- Keep the number of steps to a minimum. Keep in mind that you may need to add a step number to the title.

- Provide regular status updates.

- Set up internal processes for handling real-time situations.

- Set up a separate support feed for procedures and announcements.

- Do not even think of writing perfect procedure tweets when you’re writing something quickly. In some cases, that might be possible. However – always keep in mind that if you don’t post the tweets immediately, one after the other, they may get lost in between tweets from others. Just as it’s more difficult to follow a driver to a destination you’re unfamiliar with if a car gets in line between you and the lead car, it can be difficult to follow a tweeted procedure if tweets get in between posts.

In this situation, it’s also true that someone can select your feed on its own, and you’d see the procedure in its entirety as you intended. You can’t assume that, though. Are people likely to just switch over to your feed? Probably not at the particular time you’re writing. Later, perhaps. Don’t count on it, though. (This is another argument for setting up a separate support feed.)

Writing the Tweets

- If it’s a crisis – provide frequent status updates

- Update FAQs or base online docs simultaneously

- If it’s an immediate event, determine if a team response is necessary – or be ready for one if it escalates

Resources Required

I think that you need one or more writers to:

- Test and write tweets

- Update FAQs or main docs

- Update a blog, website home page, or other location for real-time status

- Monitor and answer tweets from users

- Line up reviewers to gauge response (per suggestion from Larry Kunz)

Plan

- Triage incoming tweets: which to address, and when?

- Triage updates: when, where posted? What if the format for each option?

- Who does what: (see Resources list above)

- Tech support coordination: set up processes

- Escalation plan: when to call in more resources or managers

That’s all I can think of at the moment. If anything else comes to mind, I’ll just update this post.

Notes

Would I do this again? Absolutely. It was fun, for one thing. There’s much to learn, for another. Finally, and most importantly, I think it’s here to stay, so we better determine how to microblog docs.

More >

To see the procedures and input, look at my feed for 12/29/09. You can also find additional comments by searching on @2morodocs.

Thanks to Larry Kunz (@larry_kunz), Julio Vazquez (@juliov27612), and David Farbey (@dfarb) for comments and offering input and suggestions real-time. That was fun.

http://www.twitter.com/2morodocs

Related posts:

Real time: it’s sooooo last second
My First Procedure Written in Twitter

My First Procedure Written in Twitter

All I’ve been thinking about the past week, it seems, is real-time and how it affects docs. Yesterday I wrote a post about it. Today, I tested it out. I wrote a procedure in Twitter.

Tech writers – take a look at it and let me know what you think. Tweets are from today, December 29, 2009. The first tweet is:

 1) Procedure: How to Create Twitter Lists

Note: This is the same procedure I wrote a few weeks ago on this blog, in as an abbreviated a fashion as I could muster. This cuts that even more. Looking at my procedure tweets, I think we can definitely do with less verbiage. What do you think?

twitter.com/2morodocs

Update 1: 11:50 am

In the spirit of real-time writing, as noted in my previous post (real time, soooo last second), I’m updating this on the fly. No time to think. Just have to get something out quick. Letting my thoughts spill onto the page and my fingers fly across my keypad.

Should have: included a bit.ly link to my original procedure blog post (Twitter List: Create) in the last procedure tweet. Would/could have more detailed info. General > specific.
Need to: create hashtags for procedures to use for searching

Update 2: 12:45 pm

Corrections: Based on input from users (in this case, tech writers), fixed glaring omissions. Added step 6 re adding feeds to list. Also, info re identifying successful completion of procedure. Also added new, more detailed partner proc re adding feeds to the list. Fixed up this post a bit. Applied heading styles and time reference updates.

Update 3: 1:04 pm

More thoughts: This started as an example/experiment in writing a quick procedure in Twitter. Evolved quickly into a real-time situation. I had immediate feedback from users (other tech writers), and I did my best to quickly address errors and omissions. Ended up adding correction tweets and another procedure. Got me thinking. Perfect example of handling emergency situation.

Let’s say your company has immediate need to fix something, tech support needs to respond, and you have a support feed in place. (You do have a support feed, don’t you?) You must get info out immediately. So, boom! I’d get one person quickly writing tweets, and perhaps another testing and writing details. Yelling over the wall if need be, depending on the emergency. Posting updates constantly, as it’s a real-time, highly fluid situation.

In this case, I’m pretending that my tweets are for a company, that the tech writers responding are customers, and that I better get info out quick.

I uncovered a few problems. How to handle corrections? Also, there’s always the fact that followers will also be getting other tweets by the second, so the updates may get lost in the lists. How do we handle that? I have no idea at this particular moment. Perhaps create a list for your company that includes support feeds? Encourage customers/users to follow that list? One idea. If I have more, I’ll add them. In the meantime, I want to post this. So off it goes.

History

All times are Pacific Standard (PST)
Posted: 12/29/09 11:30 am
Update 1: 12/29/09 11:50 am
Update 2: 12/29/09 12:45 pm
Update 3: 12/29/09 1:13 pm