How to Use Hashtags on Twitter: A Simple Guide for Marketers
Posted: April 24, 2012
Using hashtags is a great way to promote your brand or event, but there are some things you should know before you get started. How to Use Hashtags on Twitter: A Simple Guide for Marketers gives you great tips and best practices for using hashtags.
Using hashtags is a great way to promote your brand or event, but there are some things you should know before you get started. How to Use Hashtags on Twitter: A Simple Guide for Marketers gives you great tips and best practices for using hashtags.
Every time we host live webinars (and as this long list suggests, that is quite often), quite a few attendees get confused about what to do with the hashtag we provide. What is it? What does it do? How do you create one? Let me explain!
What is a hashtag?
A Twitter hashtag is simply a keyword phrase, spelled out without spaces, with a pound sign (#) in front of it. For example, #inboundchat and #ILoveChocolate are both hashtags.
What does a hashtag do?
A Twitter hashtag ties the conversations of different users into one stream, which you can find by searching the hastag in Twitter Search or by using a third-party monitoring tool such as HootSuite.
So, if Twitter users who are not otherwise connected talk about the same topic using a specific hashtag, their tweets will appear in the same stream. In that way, Twitter hashtags solve a coordination issue and facilitate a conversation. Popular hashtagged words often become trending topics -- topics so many people are talking about that they are a "trend."
Hashtags are great for centralizing conversations around live, in-person events or conferences, live webinars, or other marketing campaigns you're running.