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In June 2013, Facebook announced it now supports something that had up until now been exclusively part of the Twitter world -- hashtags. Many of my Facebook friends who were familiar with them from Twitter were delighted by their arrival. Other people who had only dabbled in Twitter reacted to the information with scepticism. But most of opinions I read on Facebook expressed mystification. What ARE hashtags? What do they mean? How do you use them? Why should we care? WHAT IS A HASHTAG? If you're amongst those who don't use hashtags, here's a quick overview. A hashtag is a word or term preceded by a 'hash sign', i.e. #. There can be no spaces between the hash sign and the word/term, and there can be no spaces in between words if you are using a term. When you assemble a tag in this way, it automatically makes a clickable link. If people click on the link, they will find all the most current Tweets or Facebook posts from anyone who has used that hashtag. That means making a hashtag is simple. Just put a # sign in front of anything and you've made one. But knowing what makes a really good hashtag and how to use them effectively needs a bit of expertise. Here are five important and helpful ways to use hashtags on both Twitter and Facebook. MUST-DO #1: FOLLOW REAL-TIME TRENDING TOPICS Perhaps the most frequent use of hashtags is to follow news about a story that's taking place in the moment. Trending topics tend to be about entertainment or breaking news (example: #Wimbledon #XFactor). Sometimes they have to do with a natural disaster, such as Hurricane #Sandy in 2012. Clicking the hyperlink on a trending hashtag will give you a stream of related remarks and stories. This can often supply you with a rich resource of relevant information on specific topics in which you may be personally or professionally interested. MUST-DO #2: CONNECT WITH PEOPLE WHO LIKE TO TALK ABOUT A PARTICULAR SUBJECT While some hashtags are on transitory 'trending' topics, others are on long-term areas of interest. One example is the hashtag #SocialEnterprise or its frequently used shortened version #SocEnt. It stands to reason that people using this hashtag are interested in the subject of social enterprise. So if you're interested in social enterprise and you're looking for new, relevant connections who share your interest, click the hashtag and you should be able to find loads of them. MUST-DO #3: CREATE A BRAND IDENTITY If you're a business owner, it's helpful to make a hashtag that identifies your trade name. If you're in the media, you can similarly make up hashtags for titles of books, radios shows, magazines, films, newspapers or TV shows. While the apparent advantage of creating a brand hashtag is that it strengthens brand identity, the more valuable benefit is that if people click the hashtag they will find all the Tweets and updates you OR your customers and fans have posted about your business. This means anyone can instantly find out more about your company or product without even having to go to your website. And, obviously, if your updates include links to your blog or website, they might click to find out more if their curiosity is aroused. MUST-DO #4: SET UP A HASHTAG WIDGET ON YOUR WEBSITE Once you've set up a brand hashtag, you can use it to your advantage by bringing your hashtag stream onto your website, blog or sales page using a 'Twitter widget'. To create a widget for your hashtag, log into your Twitter account, and click 'options', 'settings' and then 'widgets'. Create a new widget for your brand hashtag (be sure to use the #). This dynamically updated widget will display all Tweets (not just yours) that are using your brand hashtag. This tactic can arouse the curiosity of your web viewers, so they will want to find out more about your product, your book or whatever is being promoted. It also makes the subject seem vibrant, as visitors see real-time activity around this subject. MUST-DO #5: TRACK A MARKETING CAMPAIGN Without a doubt the most helpful use of hashtags for online marketers is tracking and analysis. Whenever I am organising a marketing campaign for one of my clients, I set up a unique hashtag for that occasion. If you want to be effective and accurate, this hashtag has to be prepared with care, so it is not likely to be used for other purposes by someone not connected to your campaign. For instance, to guarantee uniqueness when using a hashtag to track one of my book launch clients, I typically take a keyword from the book title and combine it with the date of the launch (e.g.: #AlchemyJan23). Note: Hashtags are NOT case sensitive, but sometimes using upper and lower case can make them easier for your followers to read and recognize. Uniqueness is important, but try not to become too cryptic when you invent tracking hashtags. I've seen some hashtags that look like code, offering me no clue as to what I'm likely to find when I click the link. I believe this is a missed business opportunity to bolster brand identity. Invest a little time to make your tracking hashtag a really good balance between length, keywords, brand and uniqueness. Always be sure to TEST your hashtag before using it, to see if other people are using the same tag for a different purpose. HOW TO TRACK YOUR HASHTAGS Using hashtags to track your campaign is easy, but the methods for Facebook and Twitter are different. For Twitter, you can easily track your campaign by creating a column (stream) for it in a program like HootSuite or TweetDeck. This enables you to see which of your partners are Tweeting the most, and which Tweets are receiving the most response in people's favorites, comments and ReTweets. For Facebook, the best method for tracking your campaign is to type the hashtag (don't forget the # sign) into the search on top of your Facebook page. That way, you can read the most recent posts by you and your partners that included your hashtag, and see how many likes, comments, shares, etc. they are receiving. You can comment on posts by your fans and partners, and participate in threads you might not have discovered had they not used your campaign hashtag. PLEASE, DON'T OVER-DO IT! There are a few very important things you should remember when using hashtags: - Overuse of hashtags might be really irritating to your friends and followers. I see some people put them at the #beginning #of #every #word. That's just plain pointless.
- Overuse of hashtags can occasionally get your Tweets filtered from search results on Twitter. I'm unsure about Facebook.
- Some people try to get 'noticed' by pinching other people's hashtags, or by stuffing popular but irrelevant hashtags into their Tweets. On Twitter, this is likely to get your account suspended. Again, I don't know about Facebook as it's early days, but I hope they have a similar policy.
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS You might say I'm a geek, but I really like hashtags. I welcome the introduction of hashtags on Facebook and consider them to be a great example of how new systems can cross feed one another and make a superior product or service. So be bold. Be imaginative. Use hashtags with confidence. Have a blast with them. But always be an ethical marketer by using them appropriately, respectfully and wisely. In this way, they'll work FOR you, not against you. ### LYNN SERAFINN is a marketing consultant and author of award-winning books The 7 Graces of Marketing and Tweep-e-licious! 158 Twitter Tips & Strategies for Writers, Social Entrepreneurs & Changemakers Who Want to Market Their Business Ethically. One of the Top 20 Marketing Authors on Twitter, she is also Founder of social enterprise 7 Graces Project CIC. Lynn's book Tweep-e-licious! has an entire chapter on using hashtags on Twitter, along with a wealth of information on creating compelling content, finding ideal followers, building relationships, monetising on Twitter and much more. Click the link to buy the book and get instant access to Lynn's free 90-minute Twitter audio class. To find out more about Lynn, the 7 Graces Project and to receive twice weekly articles about ethical marketing, social media tips, social enterprise and new paradigms for business, visit the 7 Graces of Marketing blog.
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Facebook, Twitter, Hashtag, Hash Tag, marketing, tips, brand identity, marketing campaign, tracking,
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