What Are Twitter Hashtags?
You’ve seen ’em. You’ve probably typed ’em. But are you using hashtags correctly and effectively? Hashtags are one of the most basic tools of twitter that get used incorrectly all day long. For those of you who are brand new, hashtags are the words or short phrases with no spaces preceded by a # that are used to categorize and tag your tweets.
Can You Give An Example?
For example, if I was sharing a video of a fashion show and used the hashtag “#fashionshow,” my tweet would be added to the live feed for #fashionshow and anyone who searched for that hashtag could potentially see your tweet. In the twitter world, one of the ways people have conversations is by using hashtags so it’s easy to find all the tweets surrounding a particular topic. So they’re a great way to join conversations and to help get your tweets in front of more eyes.
How Will This Help Me?
Adding relevant hashtags to your tweets and being consistent will definitely increase engagement and could potentially get you some new followers if you’re offering tweets with content of value along with the hashtags you use. You can and should also create your own hashtag(s) surrounding your brand. Even if you’re just starting out, you’ll want to start using a branded hashtag as soon as you can so that down the road when your name and blog start gaining traction and people want to search Twitter for tweets about you, all of that will be easy to find by searching for your branded hashtag.
Another trick you should use is to pay attention to the top trending hashtags each day. These are obviously the most used hashtags at any given point and it’s a dynamic (constantly updating) list. Since they’re trending you know they’re popular and currently being talked about by tons of people, so you should try to join those conversations. BUT only craft a tweet with a hashtag if it makes sense for your brand — never force it.
One note of caution: Make sure you research any potential twitter hashtags to make sure they’re not already used. It’s pretty messed up and looked down upon to jack someone’s hashtag or to try to hop onto another person’s hashtags to get more engagement or views.
To learn more on how to build up your brand like a pro, check out my blogging tab.
