Hashtags, #whatdoesitallmean

If you have watched TV, been on a computer, or seen any form of advertisements in the last year, you will have seen them. Lurking at the bottom of the screen, mentioned in an advertisement or even spoken on the radio, whether we understand it or not, Twitter has well and truly penetrated many aspects of our lives. The latest change has come in the form of hashtags, which are now well and truly cemented in the format of the social networking site.

What started organically by users tagging relevant content, to ease searching on the site, was added to Twitter as an important feature listing the most popular and commonly used hashtags as ‘trends’ on the home page. During the 2007 San Diego fires, the Twitter hashtag system was deemed extremely important and a major reason for the increased knowledge about the disaster.

Users can change the location of their trends from worldwide, individual countries to specific towns and cities allowing people and brands to find out and monitor what areas are most commonly discussed.

The possibilities opened up by hashtags are set to be extremely useful for brands, businesses and individual users, however before we go into all that, we need to make sure that we understand from the off, what a Twitter hashtag is, and how you use it.

“A hashtag is a way to unite global tweets around some particular topic. These tags help those who seek similar content to discover your tweets”. Is the party line.

Hashtags can be created by anyone to mark an important topic of conversation and can be anything from #marketingnews to #zombies. They can increase your tweet visibility and add value to different topics. Hashtags are tracked by people searching for relevant tweets, so make sure that they are relevant when you tag them, so as not to irritate people.

Hashtags can also be used to publicise an event, many people and businesses decide on their relevant hashtag and then use it to promote their event by including it on any, or all relevant tweets.

Television shows have seen the benefits of the hashtag, and have been seen to use a relevant phrase at the beginning and end of the show.

Popular American sitcom Glee is one of the many to jump on the bandwagon and create their own official hashtag in order to aggregate mentions of the show on social networks. Previously viewers have created their own hashtags, leaving Glee tweets spread around the internet, but introducing a standardized hashtag means that all tweets can be monitored, complaints dealt with and positive comments used for recommendations.

Although it can seem intimidating when you join Twitter to not only fill your 140 characters effectively but also see @s and #s everywhere (you wouldn’t be on your own in feeling nervous 60% of new users quite not long after joining).
@ mentions simply reference a name in a tweet. So don’t let yourself be put off this exciting network with so much potential. Embrace the fear and let it power your magnetic tweets and great use of the hashtag.

Some of our favourite shows and even our national events have had their own hashtag to track and receive feedback and views on the event/show.

The shows that used the development of hashtags to their advantage were ‘The Only Way is Essex’ which used the tag #essex to encourage users to tweet by reminding them at advert breaks and reading the best comments out. Other tags that have been popular on our TV screens have been #royalwedding, #hollyoaks, #xfactor, #scd, #frozenplanet, #bbcqt and #apprentice.

So how can you use hashtags in your business? Here are 8 quick tips, to help you, with the information that we have given.

1. If you run events that are open to the public, you could tweet about it, pre-announce the hashtag to avoid confusion and encourage engagement.
2. Attend a conference and tweet from the event, using their hashtag, providing a service for your followers who might not be attending.
3. Use hashtags to join in with debates about your industry, helping to position yourself as an expert in the field.
4. If you’re providing information on specific topics, use your hashtag so that people can find it.
5. If something is trending and relevant, use the hashtag in your tweets to get attention, but make sure it is always appropriate.
6. Use hashtags to search for people who may be in need of your services, e.g. if you were a plumber, you would search for plumbers in your area.
7. Use follow Friday hashtag (#ff), which is extremely popular to recommend people, and getting your name into useful contact’s news feeds.
8. Most importantly, keep constantly relevant and don’t hijack popular tags that have nothing to do with you, as this will become extremely irritating to fans!