Twitter Hashtags and Why You Care

If you have been using Twitter for more than just the occasional glance to see what your friends are up to you, there is no doubt that you have seen a hashtag. As a matter of fact now that I say that you may not even know what I mean by the term “Hashtag”.

Let’s start there. A hashtag is nothing more than a word, maybe two with the “#” symbol attached to the front of the words. To make it even easier for you to get an understanding of which hashtags may currently be trending, login into your Twitter account and you will see a list of current hashtags listed in the right-hand column of your Twitter account. For example at the moment the top listed hashtag that I am seeing is “#nowplaying”.

By default your account will be showing hashtags that are trending on a worldwide scale, but you can narrow that down to your location or a location of your choosing.

Ok, so who cares?

If you are spending time on the Internet to make your living or at least supplementing your income, you care. Hashtags are nothing more than a way in which you can catalog or categorize your Tweets, so that they are more easily found by the people that are interested in your chosen topic. Additionally, due to the fact that hashtags tend to spread very quickly it is highly likely that your Tweets will be found by people that are not currently following you.

Trying to build a large following of Twitter users?

Do you have a specific event or marketing campaign that you are trying to promote?

Are you working to build some buzz around a new product launch?

The short answer is that hashtags are your key to building a large Twitter following, increasing the size of your blog subscribers, and as I would assume most business owners would be interested in, improving your bottom line.

And, now for the bad news: As with everything on the Internet, there are people that have begun to abuse hashtags and surprise, they have become a vehicle for spamming. If you want to maintain your reputation and build a reputable following online, never ever use hashtags in a Tweet that does not pertain to the content of your Tweet. This is nothing more than maintaining proper etiquette, integrity and plain being honest about how you conduct yourself on the Internet.

So, for those of you who are thinking ahead and asking yourself how you can leverage current trends to give your following, marketing and/or website traffic a boost, let’s discuss that option. You’ve done some research and found that there are a number of current hashtags that are trending and you are wondering which ones you can leverage. The simply answer to this question is that it totally depends on how you are using your Twitter account.

In my case, I happen to read a lot and absolutely love quotes from people in all walks of life and in many cases they make me laugh, give me new ideas or simply provide inspiration for the day. As such a large number of the Tweets that I send out are quotes that I have come across and feel that there is someone else out there that might enjoy the quote as well. Additionally, I spend a lot of time helping entrepreneurs and small business owners leverage the power of the Internet and Tweet on subjects related to this endeavor.

As such it would make NO sense for me to be Tweeting on the latest trends in the entrainment world, Tiger Woods or any subjects like this that are totally unrelated to my primary theme. Additionally, do NOT use hashtags in every Tweet that you send out. Use your common sense. When in question, ask someone that has more experience than you and simply be smart about how you are using your Twitter account.

Lastly, please, please make sure that to the best of your ability you are providing value to the people that are going to be searching on the hashtags that you are using in your Tweets.

While this is in no way an exhaustive discussion of how to use hashtags in your Twitter account and the Tweets that you are sending out, I think you get the idea. If you have additional questions please feel free to leave me a comment and let me know how I can help.

Have some great success in using hashtags to grow your business, please take a moment to leave a comment and share with us all. I personally, always look for tips, tricks and ideas for people that have more knowledge than I.

As always: To Your Success!

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