Understanding Twitter #Hashtags for Business

It is not far from the truth to say that Social Media sites like Facebook and Twitter play a large part in what we read and see online.  Whether it is a celebrity scandal or breaking news from around the world, people find that they get their information about what is going on faster by seeing what their friends post and tweet about rather than conventional news sources.  As a small business - it's important to understand how you can make these two 'tricks' work for you as well....don't worry - it's easy!

#Hashtags in Twitter

What is a hashtag?
According to Twitter: The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.

What do they do?

• People use the hashtag symbol # before relevant keywords in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets which are more easily displayed in Twitter Search
• Clicking on a hash-tagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets in that category
• Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet
• Hashtagged words that become very popular are often labeled as 'Trending Topics'

Example: In the Tweet below, this person added the hashtag before the phrase "thankyousteve". The word is now a link to search results for all Tweets containing "#thankyousteve" in the message.

 

How do I use hashtags?

• If you Tweet with a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your Tweet (obviously this means that people looking for your type of business could find you)
• Don't #spam #with #hashtags. Don't over-tag a single Tweet. (See Twitter's Best practices which recommend using no more than 3 hashtags per Tweet.)
• Use hashtags only on Tweets relevant to the topic
• Don't use spaces between words. The hashtag will only attach to the word attached to it so if you want to tag "landscape design" - use #landscapedesign or if you want to tag your business name "ABC Fitness" - use #abcfitness.

Further Discovery and Reading

• The third party site hashtags.org offers an overview of popular hashtags used on Twitter. Find out about trends, look at small, pretty graphs, and search to see which hashtags related to your business or industry exist.
• You may also want to read this article about hashtags, which appeared in The New Yorker Magazine

While it may feel foreign at first to include hashtags in your business tweets - you'll soon find that it is quick and easy to type these short tags which can mean big things for your business in the social media world.

Check out our Blog on http://qlixite.blogspot.com/2012/01/understanding-facebook-tags-for.html