How to use hashtags
Image by Andy Piper on Flickr
Hashtags probably cause more confusion than anything else on Twitter. Yet they are simply clickable keywords within tweets. What turns them into links? The hash symbol in front of the word – e.g. #xfactor. What happens when you click on a hashtag? You see a new timeline of tweets from everybody who has used that hashtag in their tweets. These appear in real time, though the most popular two or three tweets using the hashtag (judged as those 'reweeted', or passed on, the most) may appear at the top with the words 'Top Tweet'.
The X Factor may be a trivial example of this – but it is actually a good way to learn how to use hashtags. One thing people do on Twitter is watch TV together, 'live-tweeting' their comments and using the hashtag so others can find their tweets and join the conversation, whether it's #xfactor, #Spooks, #MadMen or #bbcqt (BBC Question Time). Some of these are so widely used that they become trending topics during the show.
In addition to television programmes, hashtags are often used to identify specific topics such as #socialmedia, to play word games, or to discuss and follow other real time events such as conferences.
You don't need to register hashtags anywhere – just make them up, and if there are different versions, the most popular will be adopted. It is a good idea, however, to pre-announce the hashtag for a conference, since it can be confusing if there are several different versions flying around until the most popular one emerges. Conference hashtags can be a great way to vicariously follow the action at conferences that you are interested in all over the world, as people tweet what is being said in the conference sessions from their smart phones or laptops. If you're attending the conference, it allows for an extra layer of discourse in the sessions, as people in the audience comment on what is being said and discuss it with each other.
At some conferences, real-time updates of these tweets will be projected onto a wall or displayed on a screen, as in the #ibmimpact example above. Sometimes a Twitterwall even appears behind the speakers on stage – though I have to say I just find this distracting. Twitterwalls can easily be set up with Twitterfall or ParaTweet. You can also use Twitterfall to follow one or more hashtags on your own computer, instead of having to keep clicking 'refresh' on Twitter.
If you're not sure what a particular hashtag refers to, you can look it up on What the Trend.
In addition, a number of hashtags have become popular for specific days of the week:
#musicmonday is used to promote bands and share music
#charitytuesday is used to highlight charities on Twitter
#writerwednesday is used to give a shoutout to writers, promote books or share writing tips
#followfriday or #ff is probably the best-knows of these, and is used on a Friday to suggest people to follow.
7 ways to use hashtags to promote your business
All very well – but how does this help you promote yourself? Here are a few ideas:
If you run public events or conferences, pre-announce a hashtag to engage attendees and encourage people to tweet about it.
Attend conferences relevant to your industry and tweet from them using the conference hashtag to provide a service to your followers, make your tweets more visible, and enhance your reputation as an expert in your field.
Use hashtags to join in with public debates and conversations relevant to your business. This again helps position you as an expert and reach your community of interest.
If you provide information on specific topics that people might search for on Twitter, include topic-based hashtags. An example is the tips I provide on the @getuptospeed account, which start with "#email tip:…", "#facebook tip:…" etc.
If there is a popular, trending hashtag that is relevant to your business, by all means use it. But don't hijack it! (See below.)
Use hashtags – or, indeed, any word or phrase – to search for information relevant to your business. Then you might come across a tweet asking for help, such as "can anyone recommend a vet in #TunbridgeWells?" If you are a vet in Tunbridge Wells, and you're monitoring those keywords, you can spot those tweets, reply and offer your services. You can save searches in Twitter, and also monitor them in real time using Tweetdeck.
Use #followfriday to recommend people to follow. Many people will reciprocate, or at least publicly thank you in their timeline.
How NOT to use hashtags
Don't hijack a hashtag. If you can authentically tweet about something that is a popular hashtag or trending topic – or, better still, blog about it and link to your blog post from Twitter – you can significantly boost your web traffic. But what you should NOT do is tweet: "Never mind #xfactor, buy one of our supermops! http://bit.ly/etc" Please, please don't do that. While it will get you into the timeline of #xfactor tweets, it is off-topic, you won't get any business from it, and it's just annoying. Not a good way to make friends on Twitter.
A more serious example of this happened in June 2009, during the Iran election crisis, when #iranelection and related hashtags were top trending topics, as Twitter became the main way to get news out of Tehran. UK home furnishing store Habitat suffered a social media backlash when tweets from their @HabitatUK account included updates such as "#Mousavi Join the database for free to win a £1000 gift card". They swiftly dropped a marketing intern and publicly apologized – but not before damage had been done to their brand. Keep your hashtags relevant, and you won't fall into that trap.
Find out more about Twitter in Get Up to Speed with Online Marketing, Chapter 13: "Tap into Twitter – How to use the power of the real-time web to build a following".
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