How-To Take Charge of Your Hashtags

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Not sure when to hash and when to del?

You’re not alone.

The reasons are clear because the ‘rules are vague.

Let’s wip your hashtags into high-performance super agents for your #Social #Media and #Business #Marketing #Efforts.

Hashtags are All about Context

I think.

Because hashtags add meaning and context to your updates.

Hashtags are simple and easy, yet their power is far-reaching.

Hashtags are links and therefore searchable.

No tweet, conference, speech or webinar is complete without a hashtag. The ‘#’ binds a community together through a series of memorable quotes.

But hashtags are still not a #SilverBullet for your business.

#Tweets with Hashtags get 2X more #Engagement than Tweets without #Hashtags”

The Deal With Hashtags

The big deal with hashtags is the power, versatility and ubiquity they provide.

Power because they are searchable and discoverable.

2.1 billion Twitter searches per day happen on Twitter.

Versatility comes from the many different uses for hashtags.

Surprisingly:

“Only 25% of all tweets use #Hashtags #opportunity #Social #media”

Ubiquity because every social network uses hashtags.

Hashtags have become part of daily life.

Hashtag Add Life

A definition so we’re having the same #conversation.

👉Content for the awareness stage includes guides, press releases, informative articles (lots of these), quizzes (quiz funnel!), games, and competitions.

👉Content for the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey includes demo videos, reports and white papers, ebooks, case studies, your about page, ‘us vs them and buyer’s guides.

👉Content for the conversion stage includes events, webinars, checklists, product features lists, customer testimonials, reviews and ratings, product or pricing pages, contact pages, sales pages, and comparison tools.

From Twitter: Hashtags mark keywords or topics in Tweets

A definition from Wikipedia (not always the definitive information source!) hashtags is a form of metadata tag. Short messages on social networking services (that) tagged by putting “#” before important words.

Hashtag is a Conversation

For example, the hashtags #Mobile #Marketing is clickable and discoverable.

Clickable therefore your tweets become discoverable. Very useful.

Twitter Hashtags
#Mobile Hashtag Search Results From Twitter

Twitters Trending Topics as Hashtags

Trending topics are an insight into what people on Twitter are talking about.

Twitter displays these topics as Trends. The results depend upon who you follow.

“Trending Topics” on the Twitter front page, displaying hashtags/phrases that are popular ‘Trending’.

Hashtags Trending
Twitter Homepage Showing Trending Topics including Hashtags. Results are User Specific

How To #Hashtags like a Pro

“Tweets with 1 or 2 hashtags have 21% higher #Engagement than those with >3 hashtags”

Here are 9 hashtag tips the pros use.

  1. Write – Write before you Hashtag – compose your tweet, then insert your hashtags.
  2. Length – Keep the length of your hashtags short for easy reading #marketing #whalefail, #SMM,
  3. Spartan – not the Greek warriors – but with the number of hashtags you us, Twitter suggests 2.
  4. Branding – pick your Hashtags carefully – you don’t what your carefully crafted tag becoming high jacked.
  5. CapitalCase – Capitalize the first letter of each word. #ForReadibilityAndSanitySake
  6. Monitor – not far away is the monitor man, set alerts to monitor your newly created brand Hashtag. And have a contingency plan in place if it gets high jacked by trolls.
  7. Hijacking Hashtag   bad manners and bad Karma. #JustDon’t
  8. Expectations – New to you hashtag will probably not trend on twitter and go viral.
  9. Cross Pollinate – Onto other social channels and offline. Seasoned Pros are doing that already.

Hashtag Abuse

Spam is undesirable addition to life, Twitter and hashtags.

This is Twitter’s official stance on hashtag abuse. There’s more at stake than PR backlash.

It is possible to abuse Trends. Of course, this is against the Twitter Rules. The following behaviours and others like them could cause your account to be filtered from search or even suspended:

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

Here are more Hashtag reading and resources:

Tweetchat Wiki with List of Tweetchats
Twitter Chat Schedule
Hashtage.org
Hashtag Tracking
Hashtag.me Advanced Hashtag Search
Image Credit
Take Charge of your Hashtage
Did I miss something? Offer a suggestion in the comment section.

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