How-to find Hashtags on Twitter and Boost Your Brands Visibility

How-to-Find-Hashtags

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Boost your visibility on Twitter and learn to use Hashtags on Twitter.

Get seen by more people.

Find more customers?

Yep! Hashtags on Twitter are the magic little helpers you’ve been looking for.

UPDATED NOTE: February 2021, This post was updated for content, readability, speling, gramer, syntext, context and the continuous updating and understanding of Digital Marketing.

But, where do these hashtags on Twitter, the magic little helpers, come from?

Does one simply grab some hashtags from thin air or ‘steal’ from others?

Finding hashtags on Twitter is not difficult.

Brainstorm a bit, do a bit of research, a bit of testing and a bit of testing and like magic you’ve got your little helpers.

Don’t worry, I am Urban Renström, there is always science and research involved in everything I talk about, teach, and demonstrate.

What Good do Hashtags Create?

How-to-find-hashtags-Twitter

Hashtags add value to Tweets.

Value by being meta; they add context and reach as the unseen magic little helpers. Twitter hashtags aid discovery, inject feelings and emotions as the visible. Yep, that’s a lot of magic.

Context: If I Tweet “How Now Brown Cow”, you immediately identify the nursery rhyme. But, it has no meaning in the firehose stream of normal tweets. If, however, I add the hashtags #SickChild #DaddyDayCare, then, context is magically added and the story emerges; an inferred story — ‘I’m at home nursing a sick child and reading children books.

Hashtags are meta. Metadata is more info about the subject. #SickChild #DaddyDayCare is more info about the “How Now Brown Cow” tweet. Hence meta.

Twitter Hashtags extend the reach of your Tweets into the 500+ million active users month territory.

Discovery, because a hashtag is a link. A link connecting your tweet to every tweet with the same hashtag. Connections imply discovery.

Hashtags add feeling and emotion, not easily expressed in 140 280 characters of a Tweet. #Pleased #GotPointAccros

How To Find Hashtags on Twitter

Strive for 4-6 hashtags. 1-2 are for brand building and 3-4 to help you ‘join the conversation’ in your niche.

Using a simple case study. David James Studio specializing in wedding, portrait, and baby pictures. Let’s locate David James Studio in Dublin.

Branded Hashtags should be simple, memorable, and connected to products and not in use. #NotATallOrder

Using the 1-2 branded hashtags as the guide, make both variations of his name.

Definition: The # symbol, called a hashtag, (in old money the pound sign) put before a word or phrase is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet and used to identify messages around a specific topic or category of interest.

The finding Twitter hashtags are ‘easy said and easy to do — all you need is a bit of brainstorming, use a few tools to check availability and popularity and compare against what the influencers in your niche, are using. Do that, then select or reject.

1-2 x Branded Twitter Hashtags

Let us combine the artists’ name, David James and a modifier — like Studio or Photography.

#DavidJamesStudio or #DavidJamesPhotography.

Both are long. Shorter option are #DJStudio or #DJPhotos or #DaveStudio or #DavePhotos

Branded Hashtags on Twitter using a Location

For example #DavidJamesStudioDublin, #DavidJamesStudioIreland, #DavidJamesDublin #DavidJamesPhotoDublin, #DavidJamesIreland, #DavidJamesPhotoIreland. All these are long.

Shorter versions are: #DJStudioDublin or #DJPhotoDublin or #DaveStudioDublin or #DavePhotoDublin

Product Hashtags on Twitter with and without Location

For example: #WeddingPhotos #WeddingPics #WeddingDayPhotos #WeddingDayPics #WeddingDayPhotographs #SpecialDayPic #SpecialDayPhotos #BrideGroom

Product hashtags with location are:

#WeddingPhotosDublin, #WeddingPicsDublin, #WeddingDayPhotosDublin, #WeddingDayPicsDublin,  #SpecialDayPicDublin, or #SpecialDayPhotosDublin.

Refine your choices, research availability, then begin experimenting with hashtags in your Tweets.

Select Your Twitter Hashtags Carefully

Hashtag abuse happens. Twitter defines hashtag abuse as :

…posting multiple unrelated updates to a topic using # (hashtag), trending or popular topic, or promoted trend

Selecting your own hashtags on Twitter prevents abuse and sets your brand up for success.

Hashtags on Twitter Research Availability with Twitter Search, Twitter Ads & Hashtagify.me

The best tools are the Twitter advanced search, Twitter Ads and Hashtagify. me.

Both Twitter search and Twitter Ads tools are FREE to use.

All other Twitter tools, Hashtagify.me, TweetReach, hashtracking.com, Twubs etc. have limited free features and expansive paid features. The paid features sometimes reduce the time spent researching.

Here is how to use the free tools.

Here is How to Use Twitter Search to Find Hashtags on Twitter

Use the web version of Twitter. Enter the “#weddings” hashtag into the Twitter Search box…

How-To-Find-Hashtags
Twitter Search Bar (Advanced Search is Desktop Only) — Enter your Hashtag and begin Searching

…and the resultant is…lots of results…

How-to-find-hashtags
Screen Capture of #Wedding Search showing Top tweets (based on who I’m following, etc) Live, Accounts, Photos, Video and More option. Plenty of #Wedding infor to fill your idea box

Looking across the top we see – “Top, Live, Accounts, Photos, Video More option”

Each ‘tab’ open up more #wedding Hashtag information. Don’t go down a rabbit hole as you want the answer ‘Is this hashtag being used?’

The ‘Twitter Search’ is perfect to learn the “is this hashtag being used” and “who is using the hashtags”, but, not the question of how often is this hashtag being used. Try this article for more info on using Twitter Advanced Search functions.

Here is how to use Twitter Ads Tool to Research Hashtag on Twitter

Just like the Google Adwords Keyword planner, the Twitter Ads Tool is the resource to provides a sense of ‘Volume of Tweets’ using a hashtag.

  1. Go to ads.twitter.com, from your account
  2. Click on your Photo/Twitter Ads
  3. Create new campaign and Tweet engagements
  4. Fill out some of the information, but, don’t worry as you won’t be posting from here not paying for an ad.
  5. Scroll down to Targeting Section. Select the keywords in our case Hashtags for targeting.
  6. Add Hashtags. The size of blue circle corresponds to the popularity of the hashtag
  7. Write down the most popular hashtags and target them when creating posts

This article on keyword targeting has useful suggestions.

How to use Twitter Ad Tool to Research Hashtags Volume

As you can see the #Wedding hashtag is used in 10K-100K daily Tweets range. The #WeddingDay hashtag is in 1,000-10k daily Tweet volume. I think, the UK, is the region for this search, even though the wording is ‘Recent global daily volume…’

Hashtagify.me Search for Hashtags on Twitter and Related Words

How-To-find-hashtags
hashtagify.me Allow Searching in Graphically way, Offering Simple and Fun Exploring.

The best feature of Hashtagify.me? It offers related hashtags in a fun graphic way.

[#lollololol. Bad choice of names. I just remember David James was a goalkeeper for the soccer team in England. And is now bankrupted. #ExampleFail.]

Entering your ‘Branded Hashtags’ and ‘Branded Hashtags with Location’ into all three tools. A ‘zero result’ for my ‘branded hashtag’ tell me no one has used that hashtag. Not a surprise as my example is a fake business.

To be clear about hashtags:

‘Free and Available’ does not grant exclusive ownership to a hashtag. No one ‘owns’ a hashtag. Worse, hashtags can be high-jacked and spammed #HashJacking #WordofWarning.

Perform the same search using the other hashtags on your list. Testing your hashtags is a simple process of putting them into the three tools, viewing popularity, usage and then deleting candidates which don’t match.

Super Sleuth — What Twitter Hashtags do Influencers use?

How-to-find-hashtags-Twitter
Hashtag Research, Person, Hashtags, and Frequency of Use

Your own Twitter hashtags are cool, you proved that. But, a reality check against what hashtags influencers are using it will give you a leg up on your research.

I am not suggesting Hijacking #Hashtag influencers. This sleuthing is done to get a sense of what hashtags on Twitter people are using and responding to. Simple competition research.

A good tool is Twitonomy. The tool has loads of fantastic features including charts, graphs, and bells and whistles. But, you need the bells and whistles version to quickly analyze influencers #Hashtags (and bells and whistles cost $20 USD for one month).

My super-secret super-sleuthing old school method of Hashtag research works perfectly. It starts with a paper and pencil or excel sheet or word doc.

Write the Twitter handle and name, of your influencer, in the first column. Hashtags in 2nd, and frequency in the third column. Then go once through their Twitter stream to a) get a feel for the Twitter hashtags they’re using, b) their writing style, and c) what they are tweet about.

Now, with the 2nd pass through their Twitter stream, write down the wedding-related hashtags in the 2nd column. Then, the 3rd pass through, count and note the instances of each hashtag, using tally marks.

You’ll end up with a sheet-like picture. However, don’t scroll far enough to get a sense of what hashtags they are using.

Sleuthing Hashtags from influencers is not difficult and it only takes a bit of thought and time investment.

Hashtag Like a Pro – Secret Rules and Covert Tips to Tweet Like a Pro

Now you know the secret language let’s be proactive and protect from the less desirable corners of Social media and Twitter

Twitter Hashtags Hijacking, Spammers and Disaster Planning

Twitter is going hard-line tackling trolls, spammers, and abusers and updated the Twitter rules reflecting their stance:

…we believe that users must feel safe on Twitter in order to fully express themselves.

Further, Twitter says you are abusing Twitter hashtags if you:

  • Add one or more topic/hashtag to an unrelated Tweet in an attempt to gain attention in search, or
  • Repeatedly Tweeting the same topic/hashtag without adding value to the conversation in an attempt to get the topic trending or trending higher, or
  • Tweeting about each Trend in order to drive traffic to your profile, especially when mixed with advertising, or
  • Listing Trends in combination with a request to be followed, or
  • Tweeting about a Trend and posting a misleading link to something unrelated

Do any of these and your account can be suspended. #Ouch

Twitter Hashtag Hijacking is like Car Jacking – Just Nobody Get Hurt

Twitter Hashtags hijacking is when someone uses a hashtag for a different purpose than originally intended. Hijackers are usually attention seeker or often campaigns gone wrong.

Attention seekers — are ‘people’ who jump on someone else hashtags to promote their own ‘click my junk’ offers (‘hey want some cheap Ray-Ban sunglasses?’).

Did you know you can report spammers? Just click the 3 dots…

how-to-find-hashtags-twitter
Click the 3 buttons on a Tweet to Report Hashtag Spammers on Twitter

The campaign went wrong The, #McDStories, was the idea people would share their good hamburger stories. Instead, people shared their food horror. #Ouch #Fail

Or, the #myNYPD hashtag, a campaign by New York City Police Department, NYPD. Create with the intend to show the softer side of police interacting with people. Instead, the #myNYPD hashtag #BadViral when people uploaded photos of police brutality and abuse. Oops #PRdisaster

Or the #Susanalbumparty? In 2012 Susan Boyle’s PR team made quite the mistake when they launched that hashtag. A Susan Album Party is better. #Opps

This is Twitter’s official stance on trending topics and hashtag abuse. #JustFYI

Twitter Hashtags Disaster Planning and Social Media

Natural and man-made disasters happen.

Immediate. News. On. Twitter. Hashtag. Be. Prepared.

#BePrepared is having a written social disaster plan in place.

Written so you can act and not ponder or discuss or flowchart.  #BePrepared

A crisis is when hashtags go bad viral. Or is bad hijacked. #WhatToDo #Scared #PRDisaster #Argh just #DeepBreath and #BePrepared

#BePrepared Before the crisis and follow a few simple rules and all will be ok. I promise.

The shortest version of what to do when the crisis hits is turn off your scheduled tweets and posts, monitor your hashtags with Google Alerts, then be Quiet, AND. JUST. LISTEN.

Download the full Crisis Averted: 3 Step Action Plan to Stop Social #PRDisaster.

CTACrisisAvert

Hashtags on Twitter Are Your Magic Little Helpers, But, You Want a few more Techniques to be a Pro

A few Twitter hashtags help your tweets get discovered and extend your reach. But, you need more.

  • So, expand your Twitter knowledge with these 29+ Twitter definitions to get You inside the Twitter ropes A few hashtags and definitions help, but,
  • Brevity and abbreviations let you dance at the Twitter party. However, brevity does not mean curt:
  • Tiwtter Etiquette, the please and thank you still rule the roost.
  • Keeping up the Twitter momentum means you avoid these 20 Twitter disasters.
  • All social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest) are masters of email marketing. And being a master is why Twitter sent my (then) 7 year old emails.
  • Twitter moves fast and a Twitter list slows the speed of Twitter so you can chat with people who matter the most to your business.

Putting How-to Find Hashtags Together

Without Hashtags, you are missing half the power of Twitter. Your reach is small and your discoverability is zero.

Hashtags are an integral part of social media. Hashtags filter all the tweets and provide a simple way to a) help your Tweets get discovered, and b) help people find your Tweets.

Context and discovery are the roots of Hashtags.

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4 Comments

  1. What a very in depth tutorial Urban,
    Even though i know what hashtag is, this is the first time I’m reading a well detailed post on how find and use it.

    We all know that hashtags are an important part of using social media to market ourselves and businesses but the truth is that most people don’t make use of it properly, either they don’t believe in it or they simply do not know how to use it and that’s why this post superb.

    I’m going to share it right away.

    Thanks for being awesome Urban.

    BTW: A very nice looking blog you’ve got here :).

    1. Hey Theodore,
      Thanks for stopping by and reading.
      You are so correct. We see hashtags bantered about on TV, newspaper, and social, yet so many are not using Hashtags to drive business results,. e.g. Branding, exposure, networking.
      Thanks againg for commenting and sharing the post.
      Urban

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