If you’re already using Twitter for business purposes, or for that matter for personal purposes, you’re likely to be aware of hashtags.
If you’re not, in a nutshell, hashtags are used to stream the millions of tweets that happen each day into categories. For example if you click on the link #smallbusiness or #SMB you’ll be taken through to any tweets using that hashtag, and the hashtag has been included because it’s geared to attract the attention of anyone interested in small business.
Therefore reaching a wider audience.
Hashtags can literally be used for anything. There are famous sporting ones such as #worldcup, #superbowl2013 and #wimbledon, to #ff for a bit of fun on a Friday.
But in terms of using hashtags for your business, think of your sector and find tags that are relevant, for example I tend to use #virtualassistant and #smallbusiness or #SMB when doing my own social media.
So here are 3 ways to use hashtags to help your business:
1. Add a hashtag to promote your business or event. For example if you run an online fitness class and want to spread the word, add #fitness or #ILoveStayingFit or #specificexerciseyoudo to the end of the tweet. People who are interested in fitness will be aware of it whether they’re in your network or not, and it’s a great way for people to spread the word to their network.
2. Find people to follow. As a small business in a specific sector, you can find others also within or interested in that industry sector by using hashtags. So for example you’re a small business in the technology sector and are looking to find people of authority in that field, or perhaps people you’re keen to learn from, or quite simply to find new business opportunities. Add #technology and #SMB into the search field and anyone holding discussions using those terms will appear. Whatever your reason for following them, a hashtag can be a quick and easy way to find them.
3. Find conversations to get involved in. If you’re an expert in your industry, or simply want to be involved in any discussions related to a specific topic, enter the hashtag in the search field and as above when finding people to follow, their conversations on that topic will appear. If there’s something being discussed that you feel you’d like to be a part of (assuming what you have to say is relevant and useful to the discussion) then this is a great way to jump in and have your say. It will show your own expertise in the industry, and if done well will boost your follower numbers which could lead on to future business opportunities.
With Twitter having over 500 million users, tweeting over 340 million tweets per day and who knows who many hashtags being used, it can be a useful, free market to tap into.
Here’s an interesting infographic from Envision Media 360 that delves into those social media stats a little more.
Brought to you by Envision Media 360
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