I’ve been on twitter for several years now. I was the guy telling all his friends about this great new website that they had to get onto. When I first started seeing the # sign I was a little confused. We now see hashtags everywhere.
Hashtags (#) were first created to group conversations together. Chris Messina is credited for being the first one to propose using the #hashtag symbol.
He went to the twitter executives but they didn’t like them
and many thought they were ugly.
Regardless, the phenomenon caught on especially during the San Diego
fires of 2007 and during a session of Congress around that same time. (Gannes)
The hashtag is still used for its original purpose but its
use has expanded by exponential proportions.
Not only is it used as a metadata tag to group certain conversations but
it's also used by media outlets to promote conversations about live broadcasts or other
live events. Although its origin meant
to be used on twitter, it can be found all over social media including Google+,
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr.
It’s part of our everyday social media lives.
It’s often used to make funny, witty, or sarcastic comments. Almost every other Facebook
status I read has #some #sort #of #comment #that #includes #a #hashtag. It is even found in our everyday language as
Barney Stinson can show us:
(Darling)
The question now is how we can use hashtags to improve our
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and also help promote our businesses.
As social media becomes more important in SEO, it
is necessary to understand how to best use our social media platforms. It’s important to make sure our social media
posts are relevant to our business, align with strategic decisions of the
company and with other marketing promotions, and are posted on a consistent
basis. This all helps to improve our
search results. Additionally, we can use
hashtags to optimize those results.
According to Buddy Media, using a hashtag “provides a 21% increase in
engagement when used a maximize of twice in a post.” (Stalnaker)
Furthermore, using hashtags on social
media can help you to reach your target market and then to get your market to see your posts. If there is a trending topic, among your
target market, that is grouped by a hashtag, include that hashtag in your own post. That way you’ll get more of the "right" eyes on
your post.
You can also create hashtags of your
business name and try to start conversations on twitter about your
business. It’s important to have a
presence on social media in your particular industry, market, and with your consumers. Hashtags are one way to connect to them.
Also, use hashtags in your traditional
media campaigns. Include hashtags on
your billboards, TV spots, and mailers.
Don’t give your consumers the excuse that they didn’t know where to find
you. Twitter continues to grow. Make sure they can find you there
easily.
One last tip: Don’t be like Barney and hashtag everything
you say. It’s annoying and can easily
drive away your users.
References
Bethany (2012). http://blog.jibemedia.com/2012/12/14/4-simple-ways-to-integrate-social-media-into-your-traditional-marketing-campaigns/.
[Viewed January 14, 2013].
Cruz,
Ryan (2012). “Social Media Marketing” http://www.business2community.com/twitter/twitter-hashtags-for-seo-a-great-tool-for-your-local-business-0377653.
[Viewed January 14, 2013].
Darling, Meredith
(2012). “Evolution of Hashtag” http://www.socialmediadelivered.com/2012/01/30/evolution-of-the-hashtag/.
[Viewed January 14, 2013].
Fisher,
John (2012). “Maximizing Your
Tweets” http://www.fuseworkstudios.com/maximizing-your-tweets-infographic. [Viewed
January 14, 2013].
Gannes,
Liz (2010). “The Short and Illustrious History of Twitter” http://gigaom.com/2010/04/30/the-short-and-illustrious-history-of-twitter-hashtags/.
[Viewed January 14, 2013].
Stalnaker, Ashley
(2013). “3 Social Media Tips to Drive SEO” http://www.business2community.com/social-media/3-social-media-tips-to-drive-seo-0373913.
[Viewed January 14, 2013].
Good thoughts on this. Too often hastags become "slang" or are the sarcasm indicator. But they are a very useful tool that can be used to leverage twitter.
ReplyDeleteThe 2x engagement metric is a good motivator to use hashtags appropriately to drive engagement with my business via twitter.
Inspired by the post, I think I will repost my blog to twitter using a hashtag and see which tweet drives more traffic.
#awesome. Im not on Twitter, but I have seen the hashtag used a lot on other social media posts like Facebook and for use in slang during text conversations with friends and family. I realize now, after reading this post that hashtags really can be a useful business tool as well. I might just get a twitter account.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the hash tag used for a while now but I'm not a heavy social media user. I understood that people were trying to make a point or connect with another person or group, but his helped pull it all together. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteInteresting that three or more tags ends up actually hurting the post.
#greatpost #secondtagforemphasis