Today a friend sent me info on her event about hashtags and she inspired me to think about it and ponder its use. So let’s start with the definition of a hashtag, love this video by BootCamp Digital:
The more I think about hashtags, the stronger the belief in me that there’s more to it than brand awareness and generating a sense of community, because there’s power in them! Power of associating your brand and yourself with words, titles, job descriptions and your dreams! For example, you are a brand new business coach and you want to be seen as an expert, why not use the #expert? You are a blogger who would like to speak at conferences and share your knowledge, why not use: #speaker? You are an author and you just published a new book, why not use #bestseller? If you read or watched the Secret, you know there’s power in writing, the written word brings your goals and wishes to a more concrete stage.
So why not use Social Media, to amplify it?
“Words are potential weapons so use them wisely.” Joanne Moore
Here are some good tips on using hashtags:
- Don’t string too many words together with a single hashtag. If you tweet with a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your tweet.
- Don’t #spam #with #hashtags.
- Use hashtags only on posts relevant to the topic.
Here are some Platforms which support Hashtags:
Twitter is the biggest micro-blogging service worldwide. Hashtags originated on Twitter and there are thousands created each month. The hashtag talks about particular issues and stories where other online users can also upload content and tweet. Moderators will maintain the trending topic for several days or weeks depending on its popularity.
Google+ or Google Plus is a social network which was introduced in 2011. There are around 540 million users. The social network has also incorporated hashtags for users to group together according to specific interests and online goals.
Facebook: Facebook is newer to the hashtag game, introducing them in June 2013. Like Twitter, you can search for hashtags on Facebook and join in relevant conversations.
Instagram is a photo-sharing service where online users primarily share news and stories based on original images that they captured using mobile phones or devices. Hashtags are also used constantly to help others find the right topics and issues.
Tumblr is a social networking and micro-blogging site wherein users post and share content and multimedia in short-form blog format. Blogs can be followed and hashtags are also used on Tumblr to guide others to the right topics and discussions.
Pinterest is heavily focused on visuals, but they also have an algorithm that favors certain keywords. However, there are different opinions when it comes to hashtags, not everyone agrees that hashtags even matter. That’s because recently, Pinterest changed their algorithm so that certain hashtags aren’t searchable.The Pinterest experts suggest that in order to get repinned you must have a great image with key words in it, as well as keywords in the description!
So I have some very simple advice to share: use and choose carefully, as hashtags will shape your path in the uncertain Social Media Realm!
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