Last month, we used Social Media Monday to discuss the Twitter search function as a way to join the conversation. This month, the discussion leads to hashtags and how they can be used effectively to grow your business.
Twitter tells us that hashtags are used to mark key words and topics. They help to categorize tweets and make them more accessible. Hashtags should be kept short and simple so they’re easier to post. These are common hashtags you’ll see on Market America and SHOP.COM tweets:
#entrepreneur
#ShoponSHOP
#MAWC2013 (we’ll be using this one more often as World Conference approaches!)
#MarketAmerica
#UnFranchise
#Cashback
#ShopBuddy
By using hashtags, our tweets will readily appear when someone searches any of these key terms. This allows our tweets to reach a larger audience.
When you tweet for your business, be strategic with the hashtags that you choose. Using #business will allow your tweet to appear in search results to a large, global audience. #UnFranchise is a term specific to Market America, so you’ll be reaching an exclusive audience by including it in your tweets.
Including hashtags for current events also helps to boost how many people see your tweets. You may have noticed that we’ve been using #holiday in many of our recent tweets. A search for “#holiday” on Twitter yielded an average of one new tweet every 15 seconds- that’s pretty popular! This tells us that #holiday is a good hashtag to be using to expand our audience.
Lastly, here’s a little tip from us to you: Capitalization doesn’t matter when it comes to hashtags. #Entrepreneur will yield the same results as #entrepreneur, #MarketAmerica the same as #marketamerica. Do a few Twitter searches to see which hashtags are popular right now that relate to your business. Begin to include them in your tweets and see if your Re-tweets, replies, and followers are increased!
Which Twitter hashtags do you commonly use? Leave a comment and let us know! Or better yet… tweet us!