Search
Practicing what we preach
Latest from Twitter
- Women comprise a large percentage of social media users. If women are your target audience, know the tools you... http://t.co/16LGiseM More »
- Non-profits are turning to social media to help with donations. Need help organizing a campaign? 757-499-1990 http://t.co/HhepVaUG More »
- Can changing your Twitter handle affect your business and followers? Let's see if Demi's new name sticks. http://t.co/keVNTftY More »
Hashing Your Way Through Twitter
Posted in: Blog, Twitter by SpiderWriters on July 15, 2009
Recently a real estate client offered a listing through their Twitter account, providing a few words description and a link. Later that day, though no inquiries had come about the house, they did receive two responses from other accounts informing them their listing was posted to their sites. For future listings, they were told, they needed only to use a specific hashtag in their posts.
What is a hashtag? In Twitterspeak, the hashtag is a specific keyword used to grab attention via Twitter on a grand scale. It is always preceded by the pound sign (#) – if you visit the main Twitter search page you’ll find there are listed a number of popular searches, or trends. Users discussing the death of Michael Jackson, for example, may use #mj or #michaeljackson in their posts, allowing others searching for information in Twitter search to find their posts easier. Practically any word can be adapted into a searchable hashtag for the purpose of finding content or followers to your account.
A novice to the social network may think, why bother with the hashtag when you can use regular key phrases in each post to attract readers? In theory that does work – consider how often you find new additions to your follow list after posting content. However, the hashtag has the advantage in setting apart specific words the require attention. Let’s say you use Twitter to advertise cars for sale. The keyword “cars” may be sufficient in search, you believe, but a search on “cars” could muddle results with irrelevant results, including words that contain the word combination of “cars” within. Using #cars can help bring more concise listings for users who may be more apt to click through to those posts.
If you are not sure which hashtags will work best in attracting traffic to your account, and consequently to your main Web sites, experiment with different words and phrases relevant to your work. Keep track of new additions to your list of followers and look for spikes in traffic via Twitter. You may find you can hash your way through Twitter and leave a remarkable impression.
Kathryn Lively is a freelance writer specializing in articles on website copywriting and PPC management services.
