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Judging from questions I get in my e-mail box, many people don’t understand hashtags or are just plain annoyed by them.

 Yep, they get over used. They can become part of an understandable sentence but shouldn’t intrude or take over. Aside from being irritating, though, they can be a real promotion plus because of a relatively new Web site, www.Twubs.com! If there are any keywords that would point to some of your own branding, you can use www.Twubs.com to “own” them. There you will get a page of your own including an opportunity to put your banner on the page, sort of like making a profile page. It's also a little like registering your hashtag or copyrighting your hashtag!. And it’s free.

So far some of mine look like this: #SharingwithWriters (which collected tweets I post about my #SharingwithWritings newsletter and this blog and the broader concept of when I want to share with writers). Another is #CarolynHowardJohnson (my name), #TheFrugalBookPromoter (one of my books in my HowToDoItFrugally series of books that connotes a lot of what I do), #TheFrugalEditor (for posts resourcing this second book in that same series).  

I also have some registered hashtags that are more general like #GreatBookReviews and #MovieReviews. I use the latter most often, I think, because I try to do 140 character Twitter reviews that include things we writers can learn from the particular movie I’m reviewing--and I see most movies that come out including indies.

Mindy Philips Lawrence, who does the regular “Itty Bitty” column for my #SharingwithWriters newsletter could get an #IttyBitty hashtag and then include my @FrugalBookPromo in the tweets she does about her column to prompt me to retweet to my 20,000 plus followers. You can do the same thing!  

Once a hashtag is registered, this site (Twubs.com) picks up anyone who uses your registered hashtag and puts it in the stream on that page!  There are tons of ways you can network with the info that gets collected on your Twubs page, too. Neat, huh? 

And anyone can use them in their tweets and elsewhere to expand the exposure of your social networking efforts. 

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson is the author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers including The Frugal Book Promoter (http://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromo) and The Frugal Editor (http://bit.ly/FrugalEditor).  Learn more about all her books from nonfiction on retailing to poetry at http://HowToDoItFrugally.com.  

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