If you’re new to social media, you might be wondering what all the talk is about hashtags. You’ve probably seen them in Twitter and other social media sites. They’re those short links with the pound sign (#) in front of them. If you’ve ever wondered what they are or how to use them then you’re in luck. That’s exactly what this post aims to explain.
Twitter uses the pound sign (also called hash) to turn any word or group of words that follows into a searchable link. These hashtags are used to organize content and track topics.
We’ll start where hashtags first evolved – Twitter. When searching for a hashtag on Twitter, the results are organized six different ways. Pretend I want to find a great photo for social media news. How can we accomplish that? Begin your search with the hashtag character (#) followed by what you want to search on, without any spaces.
Check what type of object you’re looking for. You can search for any particular type or all of them (everything) if you want. I want photos, so I checked the photos option.
You’ll get all the images with #socialmedianews in their hashtag.
If I select the first image, you can see #sociamedianews was included as one of their hashtags.
What’s The Format for a #Hashtag
The rules are simple.
- Spaces, punctuation marks (commas, periods, exclamation points, question marks and apostrophes) and special characters (ampersand, asterisks, etc.) are not allowed.
- If your hashtag contains multiple words, group them all together. Letters and numbers are allowed as are, of course, are hashtags.
How to Use Hashtags in Your Business
Most major brands with Twitter accounts use hashtags to promote specific events or campaigns. If you want to use Twitter as part of your business strategy, try these ideas:
Follow trends: See which hashtags are making the rounds and if they apply to your business – use them.
Make up your own hashtag: If you want to create a special hashtag for an event or campaign, create one that hasn’t been used before and then ask people to retweet it. Be sure to include the hashtag in all of your promotional materials. Make it informative but short. For example, for a contest to promote the use of wearing bike helmets, try something like #UseBikeHelmets and #BikeHelmetsforSafety so cyclists can find you when they search on those keywords.
Generate buzz: Creating a contest, raffle or promotion is a great way to get some social media buzz, especially if we’re talking prizes! In our bike helmet contest example if you are offering a prize like a free iPad for the best picture of a helmet, something like this might work #WinFreeIpad.
Keep in mind, if you are using hashtags to increase your brand’s exposure, make sure your tweets are set to Public. Otherwise, only people you follow or follow you will be able to see your posts and you want to be available for the whole world to see you.
Still have questions? Use Twitter’s best practices for using and understanding hashtags.