Getting the Most Out of Twitter - A "How To" on #hashtags

Nicole Hurdle - 10.22.2009 3:00 PM

As social media takes the world by storm, many are feeling left in the dust. Social media continues to influence the world of marketing, and it can be very overwhelming trying to keep up. From a business standpoint, it seems to be difficult to stay ahead of the game.

There are many ins and outs to social networking sites which can help you progress in the realm of social media marketing.

One of the Websites that continues to remain in the forefront of social media is Twitter. Twitter has created a way to tag your tweets and group them together easier. Much like tags on other social networking sites (i.e. Flickr), hashtags add additional context and metadata to your tweets. To create a hashtag, prefix a word or multiple words (no spaces between) with a hash symbol (#). The words you choose to follow the hash symbol should be rich and relatable to your content.

For example: Webolutions has created the hashtag #socialmarketingagency to associate with their tweets. This hashtag will not be used on all of Webolutions tweets, but mostly those related to social marketing and the company.

History of hashtags:
Hashtags were originally used to keep people updated on the status of the San Diego forest fires in 2007. A user on Twitter created the hashtag “#sandiegofire” to identify his tweets that were related to the fires.

Useful tools associated with hashtags:
To check if a hashtag is already in use on Twitter, visit http://www.hashtag.org. On this Website, you can search hashtags that are already in use, as well as determine what is available for your tweets. If you are looking for tweets on a certain topic, this is a great resource as well. 

You should use hashtags because…

• They are useful for your business to create a better online presence
• By using representative words, they can help your business’ search-ability
• They help to keep track of your specific tweets and group them together easier
• They can also give you insights as to who else is interested in your topic, and discussing it
• They allow you to participate in the conversation that is surrounding your business

Tips & suggestions for using hashtags:

• As with any content you put out, provide value to your readers in association with your hashtags. Adding hashtags into every single tweet will likely lead you to less followers and/or interest in what you have to say. 

• Only add in hashtags to the content that is relatable to it. If you are producing tweets that are not relatable to your hashtag you will once again, lose followers and interest in your tweets.

• Focus on your tweet first, the most important thing is developing valuable content. If your hashtag is applicable to the content, use it; if not, don’t!

• The point of a hashtag is to create a following, therefore do not use different hashtags for every tweet. You should stick to one or two main ones and use sparingly. (Remember, you do not need to use them every time.)

• When considering what words you would like to follow your hashtag, it is a good idea to do research through Google Keywords. Check into what keywords are being used frequently that are relatable to your industry and tweets. 

Try it out! If you have read this blog post, log onto Twitter and let us know by using #socialmarketingagency.

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