How do you Tweet?

[bjornar]

Sorry about sounding like a noob, but what's a good way to share your comic updates on Twitter? I am sure that there are people here with way more experience than me that has found a good "template" to use for twittering.

This is what I am (typically) using now:

Today's #comic update is about : http://tapastic.com/episode/271472 (link to the episode) #webcomic #content #content #content
(and the episode thumbnail as an image)

I see many people post the whole page as an image and sometimes the image itself as a link. Do you usually post once about your update, or several times a day? Lots of questions here, any guidelines?

[Doubtcent]

I usually tweet through the site using the share button, then adding any hashtags later for reference or any personal things I have to say about it.

[bjornar]

Oh, duh, I didn't even think about that Thanks for the heads up!

[KreativeConfusion]

I generally do the same though I am wondering if I should do something "fancier" like I see some other artists do.

[shazzbaa]

Here's mine! I just recently started making the fancy update images; a friend of mine told me they made a noticeable difference in sharing her comic, and I gotta admit I feel really good about how tweets and tumblr posts look with 'em! :>

I find that for the comics I follow, reminders about "hey, did you miss this update?" are appreciated, so I do that too! It's easy for people's twitter feeds to move so quickly that they miss stuff, so you want to mention it a few times, whether that's morning/evening or even next-day reminders.

Something I've seen a lot of people do is reply to their own tweet rather than making a new one -- this bumps the original update tweet up to the top of your follower's feeds because of the way conversations work on twitter. And if you leave the "@" in it, people won't see those tweets on your profile, if that's something you care about!

To people who use hashtags: do those noticeably help? It's always felt weirdly impersonal and like..... desperate-business-y, but I also only recently started participating in stuff like #webcomicchat so there might be a whole bunch of people checking comicking hashtags that I don't know about!!!

[KaiJu]

This is ours. We usually start with the genre of our comic to give people a general idea. Example: LGBTQ Historical Comic / LGBTQ comic / Historical Comic. Then we post the link to the newest page, after that we add the appropriate tags followed by a screenshot of one of the panels.

On the day it updates, we post once in the morning and at times bump it in the afternoon. We also re-post on Saturdays in light of #webcomicchat. Usually to remind readers that two updates are available to read that week.

And yes the tags definitely helped us reach new readers. Don't feel bad about about being business-y. Monet was such a successful artist because he was a good business man as well. #Comictalk might be a good hash tag to add also.

[shazzbaa]

Monet was such a successful artist because he was a good business man as well.

"Good" being the operative word here! There's a big difference between being business-savvy and being a desperately out-of-touch brand trying to be #hip with the #youth!!! That former one I have no reservations about, but that second one I want to avoid, and that's most of why I ask xD

[winglesscomic]

using hashtags on twitter to me is like calling into the abyss

no one looks at that shit

unless its #webcomicchat or #comictalk

if someones looking for comics to read they're not gonna troll through the twitter hashtag "comics" or "content." theyre going to google "good webcomics" or ask their friends.

[KaiJu]

Yeah, It can be hard to discern whether something comes off as pushy or trying to target the wrong crowd. We tend to promote when it's asked for, for example, like when introductions are asked for before the discussion etc. We think that people who participate in discussions such as #webcomicchat or #comictalk, are more open to being introduced to new comics that they might find enjoyable. (・∀・) But we're no experts on this, we're also learning about promotion day by day~

[demthorshie]

I tweet somewhat similar to how you tweet actually, it does bother me at times looking at it but I gotta have the appropriate hashtags in there or else no one will see it :x. Twitter is like an endless void at times.

[jmhenry]

To people who use hashtags: do those noticeably help?

Comparing how well hastagging works in Twitter to instagram, it doesn't seem like it works as well. Using #'s like #ComicTalk and #webcomicchat seems to work better than just using #comic, #webcomic, #etc. though.

[AnnaLandin]

I tend to link to my main website (grassbladescomic.com) and tell people that early pages are available on Patreon, and also post a crop of a panel from the page. I find that tweets with images in them get more attention.

My last update-tweet looked like this:

As for reminders.... I update around 19.00 local time - which is about 10 AM PST - and then I bump it up/remind people before I go to bed a couple of hours later - somewhere between 22.00-23.00 local time. And then usually in the morning when I wake up. 3 times spaced out over that many hours seems reasonable - that way, I catch people in different timezones without being spammy and annoying.

ETA: Also, these days, I tag my updates with #ComicTalk - it's a popular hashtag full of webcomics-enthusiasts, so that helps! And since it's a hashtag that opens its weekly discussion with "Please promote yourself and your comic", it feels like it's alright.

[scythe]

I started on Twitter to get myself out there as a comic creator. All I do now is argue with idiots.

[marfivemai]

Your update picture looks amazing! I love how it looks.

[Doubtcent]

Oh I forgot. This is mine:
https://twitter.com/VincentPrendick

[allenthomas]

Pretty accurate on this, though you'd be surprised at who randomly comes across your comic through a hashtag. #makingcomic, #webcomics, and #indycomics actually got me a few subscribers last year. For the most part though you're right, no one really looks at hashtags.

[bjornar]

Does hashtags really do anything nowadays, or can you leave the hash out of it and people would still find your tweet? I think I read somewhere that, for example: "Check out this webcomic blabla.. #webcomic" would be redundant, yes?

[winglesscomic]

All right. So I'm going to say many thanks for the update image idea. I've been meaning to intercept my auto social media poster's way of tagging images forEVER and I finally sat down and cranked out some code to do that last night, after reading through your post. I was inspired by your cool preview image so after I was done coding I made a preview thumbnail as well, that will maybe make people not feel ashamed of sharing my comic because the attached image isn't shit anymore???! Anyway, thanks again, this is rad.

[bjornar]

Thanks for all the useful tips and examples in this thread! I decided to go the update image route as well. Here is what I am using now, not sure if it's a bit too wide at 600 pixels. I should probably test it on a few different devices.