Hashtags Scare Me

When I began my blog, I wasn’t even thinking about social media. I had personal Facebook and Twitter (yes, my Twitter-phobia out dates my blogging experience, Hugh!) accounts. While I keep close touch of my Facebook, Twitter is often neglected for months on end. The topic of using social media along with blogging presented me with a problem that is not unique to just me.

-How to use social media when you’re using a pen name……

FACEBOOK-

Originally I created a new account with my name- Kat Carpita… The only glitch. I didn’t have any friends that I could “friend” without giving away my name. One of my reasons for using a pen name was to protect Kris’s identity. Pretty quickly I felt like I had split personalities. I didn’t want to make up information because I’m me whether I’m using this name or that.  I was stumped. It’s kind of hard to say, “Hey, wanna be my friend? By the way, this isn’t my real name….. (I’m still stumped….and friendless.) Maybe there’s a special facebook group I can join for writers using pen names who want to make friends….. Anyone know of one?

So I set that aside and created a Facebook Page for Dandelion Fuzz. That has gone pretty slow because I can’t really promote the page on my personal Facebook- same problem…… Am I the only one who has a problem with this? Maybe that’s another group that I need….

PINTEREST

I LOVE Pinterest!! Absolutely love it. And since I love it, I figured I might as well create an account under my name. I’m sure it’s another avenue to get my blog out there. I just haven’t set aside the time to figure out how to do it. So until then, my Pinterest boards mostly have to do with writing, quotes, prompts and things along that line. My blog posts have not made it into the Pinterest world yet…. Is anyone using Pinterest? And if so, how do you use it in a blogging/writing capacity? I have no problem managing Pinterest on a personal level. I can spend hours pinning away.

dum de dum dum

TWITTER @katcarpita

I have a confession to make. Hashtags scare me. They scare me to the extent that I’m not even sure if they are one or two words. I thought they were one word but I see I have a zig zaggy red line under “hashtags” which tells me I’ve spelled it wrong?  So I really need to get a handle on the #’s. And yes, I don’t understand Twitter and I openly admit that I’ve spent more time complaining that I don’t get it than actually trying to get it.

For such a quiet person, I find myself exceeding the word limit most of the time and spending way too much time trying to re-word what I have to say. I seem to go in stops and starts. I know, I know. I can see you all shaking your heads, thinking, come on, Kat, it’s not that hard. You’ll have to trust me when I say it’s frustrating for me because I know I should understand it. 🙂 It’s causing me to have flashbacks to my high school data processing class that I nearly failed. (The ONLY class that I got a D in.)

My first step is going to be to go back to the beginning and read up on Twitter as if I had never seen it before. Then I’ll head back to my badly neglected Twitter account and try my hand at tweeting and hashtagging and interacting with the Twitting…..Tweeting world. (I will try not to drive Hugh crazy with a million questions, too!)

I’m going to take another look at Hugh’s – An Insider’s Guide to Planet Blog and More Blogging Tips From The Insider On Planet Blog . While I’m revisiting helpful blog posts, I’m also going to head over to Ronovan’s place to check out the archives in his Twitter Category. If you have Twitter issues, like I do, or are just looking for some good solid blogging tips, check these guys out!