What Are Twitter Hashtags And How To Use Them For Online Business
As a social media user, you have most likely seen a multitude of Twitter posts with the hashtag sign (#).
Unless you are living under a rock, you have heard thousands of people talk about it, and seen millions of Twitter users take advantage of this sign.
Can This Trendy Sign Help Online Marketing Campaigns?
There are benefits that can be obtained from using Twitter hashtags, specifically when used in a strategic fashion.
From increasing user interaction to improving communication to developing brand awareness using hashtags in Twitter social media marketing campaigns can boost your efforts in many different ways.
What Are Twitter Hashtags?
A Twitter hashtag is a phrase or word that is preceded by a # sign.
- It is used to organize tweets under a particular umbrella category or topic.
- People use it before a relevant phrase or keyword (with no space) in their tweets, in order to categorize them, help them show up more easily in Twitter’s search results and to better organize vast amounts of tweet data.
- With a hashtag sign, you are turning any word or phrase into a searchable Twitter link.
Examples of Hashtags Used For Online Marketing Topics
#makemoneyonline
#affiliatemarketing
#startups
#marketing
#workathome
#socialmediamarketing
#webdesign
How Hashtags Benefit Marketers
Adding hashtags in your tweets can be beneficial to you in a variety of ways.
- Tweets with these signs normally get more engagement than posts without them
- They can help improve your reputation and gain more followers on Twitter
- They help your target audience find your relevant information in a faster, more convenient and more efficient manner
- Reach a targeted audience for a higher ROI
- Use hashtags to track conversations, track and follow influential participants in your niche, review hot topics, and pinpoint hot trends
- Increase brand awareness and brand relativity to specific topics, products and/or services
- Hash tagging allows you to effectively launch new campaigns, get feedback from recent offers, spread the word for upcoming events, and introduce new products
- You can create your own brand name hashtag as well that can further develop brand awareness and engagement
- Relevant Leads: With Twitter hashtags, you are encouraging relevant users to join your conversations and tweets. This, in turn, gives you quality targeted leads that are actually interested in buying your products or subscribing to your newsletters
- Get found in SERPS: hashtags get indexed in google search for another valuable opportunity to be found online
- Use them to introduce new products and services
How To Use Hashtags In Online Marketing
Many of today’s renowned global brands have Twitter accounts, and most of them are taking advantage of hashtags to promote specific campaigns and events. In addition, smaller online businesses are using hashtags to increase their following, build their brand, and generate more leads.
Searching For Appropriate Hashtags
Hashtagify.me is an advanced hashtag search engine site where you can find popular hashtags, search for those related to your topics by keyword, review usage patterns, in-depth intelligence and find top influencers.
Choose hashtags relevant to your niche or industry and your brand name to improve your visibility and engage a targeted audience.
Before you implement your own branded Twitter hashtag, it is essential to find out what type of # makes sense for your objectives and brand.
Don’t Spam
As with links, Twitter hashtags, when over used, will appear like spam. As an Internet marketer, you should have a maximum of three hashtags per tweet.
Moreover, avoid hash tagging the same phrase or word twice like this:
#Hercules is an amazing film! Everyone go watch #Hercules, it is simply #redundant.
Analytics And Resources
Talkwalker and Hashtracking are popular and efficient tools that gather Twitter hashtag data like gender distribution, demographics, reach, as well as, sentiment analysis on a variety of hashtags.
These analytic tools can come in handy, for analyzing the results of your Twitter hashtag efforts.
Bottom Line
Using hashtags in your Twitter campaigns is essential for many reasons; take advantage of this technique as it that can propel your social media marketing efforts forward.
It’s #elementary.
Social Media Marketing Tips For Small Online Business
Social media is important for any business and small ones or start up is by no means excluded. Social media can be the difference that makes a small online business successful, or unfortunately, fail very quickly. As social media marketing is so influential, there are a few tips that small businesses should be aware of.
Pick Your Platform Carefully
There are many different avenues for social media now and picking the correct one(s) can be critical. If the audience you are aiming for focus on one website, you need to focus on this too. There is no point spending precious money on marketing in a place where few people who might buy your product will go.
For example, fashion ecommerce finds great success on Pinterest, while Twitter is often touted as a top platform for finding business niche followers. This is not to say that Pinterest does not work for business, but since 85% of all Pinterest users are women who often buy as a result of Pins; this makes Pinterest a viable resource where women shoppers are the target audience.
It will take some in-depth research and testing to find those platforms for your target audience and niche, but it is well worth your while.
Be Available
Businesses with a physical presence are available on the phone and in person for their customers; online businesses are no different. If you don’t have a store or phone number for customers to contact you on, you must be available on social media. This means answering tweets, and comments that you receive.
Track Your Social Media Sites
Ensure you have some kind of way to track the number of visitors, comments, retweets etc. on your sites. This is the only way you will know which aspects of your marketing strategy are working. If no one is commenting on certain types of posts, it may be time to rethink these, as they are clearly not as effective as others are. If there are few visitors being sent from Twitter updates, you may want to re-think Twitter or even the followers that you are attracting to your profile.
Start Small
Do not try to master all the different social networks in one go; you will end up with half decent profiles, which is an ineffective strategy. Instead, focus on the one or two key sites that your intended audience will use most. Spend time building these up gradually, and only move over to another one when you are sure you can manage the increased workload, and that it will be worth it with the increased audience. Master one or two, and then move onto another.
Learn Automation
Certain sites have features that can be automated, such as following people when they start to follow you. Invest time in understanding these features, as they can be crucial to saving you time later. However, technology is no replacement for a human so make sure you check that it is working correctly from time to time.
Be Interactive
There is enough content on the internet that requires people to simply read. You need to make your website stand out from the others and interactive features are one way to do this. This could be simply having a weekly or monthly poll, small competitions or asking people to send reviews of your products. As people engage with your site, it will spread across social media sites thereby increasing exposure to your business.
Make Call To Actions Easy
A call to action is whatever you want your audience to do. For example, buy your eBook, buy products from your ecommerce site, signup to your email-marketing list, or buy an affiliate promotion.
Whatever your call to action, the whole point in any marketing strategy is to increase their conversions, so make this as easy as possible. Have links in your posts to your site and minimize the amount of steps people have to take to complete the Call To Action. Be clear in what you want them to do, have large buy buttons on your sales page and prominent opt-in forms that are not buried among other content.
You could also offer discounts and vouchers that are only available on your social media sites to encourage interaction, such as ‘10% off for those who share the post’. Not only does this give you an extra sale, but also it ensures the customer is also promoting your business to all their social media contacts.
Hire A Specialist
If you are new to online business or new to social media marketing it may be well worth your while to hire a marketing specialist who is an expert in social media. You really only get one chance to make a first impression with the social audience, and since social media marketing is an intricate balance of building relationships and promotion, an expert can be your best asset in creating and managing an effective social media campaign that will take your business to new heights of success.
Is Your Brand Social Media Marketing Ready?
Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+ have become the new destinations where consumers gather to “hang out.” While they are visiting these sites and using them with staggering frequency for social purposes, they’re also in a prime position to make purchasing decisions, seek out reviews and recommendations, and ultimately purchase and consume.
In fact, Facebook recommendations have become a prime source of buying decisions by consumers. Even if it’s largely subconscious, they’re ready to absorb without much objection when they’re in their relaxed, social space.
To fully exist online, your brand must have an online presence and appear frequently on social media in a unique and interesting way that will encourage people to share and recommend your services or products. But your brand has to be ready to stand up to social scrutiny, and become a recognized and trusted part of your target customers’ lives.
Before you bring your brand fully to fruition on social media, make sure you’ve completed all the steps below to make sure your launch is a successful one for your business. Social media marketing is a strategy, it takes thoughtful planning, testing and implementation to reach your and connect with your target audience. It is a delicate balance between promotion and building relationships, with the latter being the key in improving your bottom line.
Do Your Research
Prior to picking a brand name and logo and putting it out into the social media channels, you need to do your research. Begin by understanding what people are already saying about your brand online, and also see what’s being said about your competitors as well.
You should also immerse yourself in social media, and see what kinds of content, information, reviews, products, or services your target audience is talking about, sharing, and recommending. If you align your posts, messaging, and promos with what people are sharing and posting about most in your field or industry, then you’ll make a bigger splash with your brand by immediately delivering things your social customers want and crave.
Validate Your Name And Logo
Having consistent and recognizable marketing messaging on all fronts begins with a brand name and corresponding logo that people will be drawn to, and remember. If you already have a name, logo, and existing customer base who are familiar with both, it’s a great move to ask what they think through a survey. Often times, you’ll be prone to get stuck in an idea or logo that just isn’t working, and one of the best ways to understand if you’re being remembered by the people you’re seeking to interest, is to ask them.
Make A Plan
Wandering into the land of social media with no plan or direction will likely cause you to get lost in the masses of information already abundantly infusing the online social scene. However, if you go in prepared with a solid plan identifying all the objectives you want to achieve, and how you’re aiming to accomplish them, you’ll avoid being swallowed up.
Writing your goals down is a great, and often underutilized tactic for making a social marketing plan, so give it a try, and see if it helps manifest your success more quickly.
Additionally, testing conversions and results from all channels that you plan to use is important to avoid wasting time on venues that are not meeting pre-set goals. Not all social media sites will be effective in all industries and business models and testing allows you to weed out the winners.
Collaborate…And Listen
As you’re brainstorming ideas, and making plans for a thriving brand on social media, remember that collaboration is essential. You should work within your team, or bounce ideas off a trusted and knowledgeable colleague to make sure you’ve covered all the vital aspects of your market research, and leverage the power of sharing ideas and solutions toward a common goal.
And don’t just throw your ideas out and hope they stick. Really listen to all the feedback, ideas, and objections you receive so you can make your brand and your message even stronger.
Test, Review, Improve, Repeat
If you’re unsure on a new logo design, or a marketing idea, sleep on it. But don’t take too much time tinkering or picking at unimportant details either. Social media evolves rapidly, and testing out your ideas, and improving and changing along with it will keep your brand fresh.
