Step 5. Searching and using Hashtags
Twitter hashtags can be a powerful tool, when it comes to letting your ideal follower know you exist and allowing you to find quality people to follow.
Surprisingly, a recent report released by Business Insider Intelligence on factors affecting follower growth cited the use of hashtags (along with tweeting negative emotions and talking about oneself) as one of three factors adversely affecting account growth.
We’ll qualify that, and specify “don’t over-use hashtags”.
Hashtags can be a powerful tool when you use them in a focused way for a specific purpose (e.g. alerting all the members of a forum to the weekly Google Hangout; letting interested readers know there is fresh news about your upcoming book: “How to Speak Orang-Utan”.)
Who overuses hashtags? Anyone who inserts more than two in a post – and uses hashtags in every post. Two hashtags should be the maximum you ever use in a post.
Where do you find potent hashtags? Look for them everywhere!
- Blogs
- Blog posts
- Author Profiles
- Social network Profiles
- Social network posts
- Third party sites
- Signatures
- YouTube (and other rich media sites)
And if you still haven’t found what you’re looking for, make sure you visit Hashtags.org. (This is also where you should register hashtags you create, although that still doesn’t prevent someone else from using the same one.)
Many organizations use hashtags for their conferences and events. As a business owner, you may not be able to attend every event, so following the hashtag will help you learn what’s being talked about, as well as making new connections while the event is going on.
Conclusion:
Twitter is fast, powerful, streaming – and a goldmine of information, if you take the time to mine its gems.
More in this series: