5 Rules for Super Effective Hashtags on Twitter

Want to get noticed on Twitter? Use hashtags! Using the right hashtag(s) in your tweets will bring you the relevant audience and exposure. This is also with those that you will be able to follow conversations known as chats.

How to use hashtags efficiently? How many is too many? Let's have a look at hashtags best practices on Twitter.

1. More than 3 is too many.

Social media professionals all seem to agree that 3 is the maximum number of hashtags that you should include in one tweet. Don't overwhelm your followers with too many hashtags. Instead, choose them well, the more relevant the better.

2. Stay away from irrelevant popular hashtags.

Yes, they are widely used for a reason, and you'd like to jump on that wagon. But if your tweet has nothing to do with the hashtag you use, as trending as it is, you or your brand will become instantly irrelevant to both your current and potential followers.

3. Size does matter.

When it comes to hashtags, the shorter the better. First, it will save you space in your tweet. 140 characters are not a lot, so don't use half of those for your hashtag only. Two to three words are enough, no need to make a full sentence out of it. Use capital letters for each words so it's easier to read.

4. Go specific.

Stay away from hashtags that are too general. Using #marketing or #business in your tweets won't bring you more exposure as they are widely used words. Target specific conversations instead with hashtags like #TwitterTips or #NativeAdvertising, depending on your topic. Creating a hashtag for yourself or a specific campaign is tempting. It has to be well advertised and shared though so you are sure it is used correctly... or used at all!

5. Do a pre search

Search the hashtag on Twitter first to see if it is used and by who. What kind of conversations does the hashtag trigger? Is it where you want to go?

How to Effectively Use Hashtags for Maximum Engagement

Hashtags. When used properly, they are a kind of glue that can hold your social media marketing campaigns together across networks and bring you new business. When used improperly, they can be the most annoying thing about social media, period. So what are the right and wrong ways to use them? The first thing you need to understand is that simply placing a hashtag in front of words doesn't make those words any more powerful. In fact, it can make them less powerful in some situations. There aren't many hard and fast rules for using them, but data suggests that there are a few guidelines you should definitely follow if you want to increase your SMM success rather than be #completelyannoying.

A Unifying Force

The beauty of hashtags is their simplicity and their ability to unify your campaigns across social networks, your website, TV advertising, and more. Almost every commercial you see on television today has a hashtag displayed on the screen somewhere, which is a way for the brand to let you know that if you search for that hashtagged phrase online you will find out more information about whatever they are promoting. That could be a product, a service, a fund or donation drive, or just about anything else. While the hashtag started on Twitter, it has spread to every other social network and well beyond, becoming a staple of modern marketing. 

Twitter: The Originator

It started on Twitter and it continues to be a driving force there, with trending topics almost always beginning with #. Although it's now been cited more times than some can count, the research on Twitter hashtags can't be overstated. According to it, tweets with one or two hashtags doubles the chances of engagement. Be careful though, because if you exceed two hashtags in a tweet your chances of engagement actually drop by 17%. There's a fine line between 2 and 3 with Twitter hashtags. It's also important to note how "engagement" is defined in this research. Only 22% of engagement with a brand's tweets are replies. However, 78% are retweets and a whopping 92% are link clicks. So if you include an appropriate hashtag or two in your tweets as a brand, you are massively increasing the chances of exposure and click-throughs on the site. Going from 10 to 20 - in retweets or link clicks - is a huge deal. Surprisingly, only about one quarter of the tweets they measured included hashtags in them. Now that you know the research, you'd be foolish not to implement it immediately. As a side note, Pinterest uses hashtags the same way that Twitter and Facebook do. There isn't much else to say about that, except that they are the second largest social site in the US in number of users and the highest revenue-generating social site for businesses hands down. Probably worth remembering...

Facebook: Proceed with Caution

Facebook is another story entirely. Yes, they allow hashtags and yes, people use them. Way too much. In fact, three months after adopting the practice research that used EdgeRank information found that Facebook posts with hashtags had less engagement than those without.

Further studies from earlier this year show that, similar to Twitter, less hashtags mean more engagement. This means that using hashtags on Facebook is like a double-edged sword, and requires testing out your practices to see how your target audience responds. Concluding that you shouldn't use them on Facebook at all is probably not the best answer, since you lose the cross-network cohesion that will serve you better in the long run. Just keep them to one or two, just like Twitter, and use them wisely and purposefully rather than just for the fun of it.

Google+: #blackops

I know that there are probably some out there who are tired of hearing me prattle on about how great Google+ is. Especially since you don't hear much about it other than the standard line that "no one uses it but Google employees". Get over it. The key point is still, and always will be, that it is slowly but surely becoming the center of Google's universe, which makes it the center of the internet's universe, user count be damned.

Let that sink in a second. If you post on G+, even if you don't use a hashtag, your post is automatically assigned a hashtag and made searchable through the largest search engine in the world. Are you really going to disregard that?Google does more behind the scenes than they do on stage in front of everyone, and the same is true of G+. With hashtags, they are working overtime. Even if you don't use a hashtag in a post on Google+, Google assigns at least one to your post using the post text and the headline of the link if there is one. Then they organize hashtags by category and add them to Google's searchable database, as well as using them to compile trending topics like Twitter and Facebook.

Instagram: Keep 'em Coming

Instagram is an outlier when it comes to hashtags. While the other sites give you a diminishing return if you use more than one or two, on Instagram the rule is the more the merrier. You can load up your pictures with an infinite number of hashtags, and the more you use the more likely you are to get them noticed, liked, and shared. The posts with the highest number of interactions have 11 or more hashtags attached, so go crazy. Go figure.

Choosing and Tracking Hashtags

You don't want to just pick any word or phrase that comes to mind and create a hashtag from it. It's best to know what hashtags are already in use and in what context. It's very possible (it's happened more than once) that you could use a hashtag that you think fits your business or campaign perfectly, only to discover later that someone else has already been using it in a completely different context. Then you've wasted an opportunity.

There are several tools you can use when deciding on a hashtag. Hashtagify.me and RiteTag are good places to start. You can also browse the Twubs hashtag directory to find ideas and what is already in use. If your business benefits from local traffic, Trendsmap will tell you what are the most trending topics in your geographic location. To optimally use hashtags across the social spectrum, nothing is more helpful than a good social media management tool that will give you a single platform for distribution as well as a way to track and analyze your campaigns with reporting.

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3 Things You Didn’t Know You Can Do on Pinterest

Have you found yourself paying more attention to Pinterest lately? This network, which many discounted, has now become the third most popular social network in the United States. Below are three valuable, yet little known Pinterest tips.

Tag People in Comments

Pinterest may not be the most popular when it comes to direct communication between consumers and brands, but it is still worth your time to respond to and engage with your audience. When responding to a comment or commenting on a Pin yourself, Pinterest allows you to tag a user (as long as you’re following them). Of course this feature is not new or unique, but on Pinterest it’s not as commonly used.

Use Hashtags for Exclusivity

I hear this question all of the time, “Can you use hashtags on Pinterest?” The answer is yes, but there are a few stipulations. Pinterest does not support hashtags the way it once did, which means they are still clickable, but search results will include other pins. Those pins will have the same words in their description, link address or file name. To make the most of hashtags on Pinterest, the best approach would be to make one that is unique. Whether it’s for a campaign or exclusive promotion, Pinterest hashtags are best for exclusivity – if you’re more interested in SEO, keywords are the way to go.

Pinterest Source Tool

With Pinterest’s Source Tool, you can easily see what people are pinning from your website and from your competitor’s (or any website for that matter). All you have to do is type inhttp://www.pinterest.com/source/WEBSITE _DOMAIN_HERE and a list of pins will show up. This tool can help provide some basic insight into popular products, image styles, and Pin content consumers prefer.

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Using Hashtags in Social Media Marketing

Hashtags are increasingly important in social media marketing campaigns.

They enable content marketers get in front of their target audience and identify social media conversations that are relevant to their business. Only 24% of tweets include hashtags, but those that do receive twice the engagement of those without them. When used well, hashtags can be powerful tools that drive brand recognition, increase reach, build community, create buzz, and positively impact customer loyalty.

What are hashtags?

Hashtags are labels for content. They are a way to track topics on Twitter and other social media platforms. Anyone sharing content can add one to their messages and posts, and they help people quickly find information on that same topic. The syntax is a word or phrase preceded by the hash sign (#), such as #contest and #sweepstakes. Each hashtag is clickable and redirects users to a page that displays all messages and images that use the same hashtag. The use of hashtags enables people to wade through the fire hose of social media posts and interact only with the content they find relevant.

Platforms that support hashtags

Twitter

If you use Twitter, you know that the use of hashtags there is prevalent. They can help you organize your tweets and use your voice to deliver targeted brand messages. You can view trending hashtags on the sidebar of your Twitter page and at Hashtags.org. It’s easy to join in a hashtag conversation by clicking on one in your own tweets or those of others. You can track hashtags to see which ones resonate most with your audience.

Facebook

Facebook added hashtag support in June 2013, and their use hasn’t really caught on. Every hashtag on Facebook has a unique URL, and clicking on one will redirect you to its feed. You can also click on hashtags that originate on other services. You can search for hashtags from your search bar using the syntax#Yourhashtag or by typingfacebook.com/hashtag/Yourhashtag into your browser. In each case, replace Yourhashtag with the tag you’re trying to find. You can also create posts directly from the hashtag feed or search results.

Pinterest

Pinterest uses the same hashtag approach as other platforms. You apply a tag that represents the topic of the post so that people can find your content in related searches. The hashtag is bolded slightly in your post, and it becomes a search link that forwards users to pinterest.com/search/?q=Yourhashtag. When people now run that same search by clicking the hashtag on someone else’s profile, they’ll discover your content in the mix.

Instagram

Using hashtags on Instagram can help maximize your reach and create a network of influential brand followers. If you don’t employ hashtags on Instagram, your photos effectively remain private, making it difficult for your target audience to discover you. Instagram photo challenges contain a unique set of hashtags. For example, #ThrowbackThursday encourages users to post retro photos. Try to use at least one hashtag per photo to maximize shares.

Google+

Using hashtags is a good way to get your Google+ posts noticed in search engine results. When users click on a hashtag in Google+, the search results page (SERP) includes the original hashtag as well as posts with similar tags and keywords. Users can choose to arrange hashtagged posts chronologically or see the “Best of” posts at the top of their streams. Google+ will also intuitively add hashtags to posts if it thinks that they are relevant.

Don’t overuse hashtags

Make sure to use a maximum of two hashtags per post. Including too many will leave the impression that you are spamming your followers. 

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5 Brilliant Ways to Use #Hashtags in Social Media Marketing

Hashtags were a user-innovation that was later adopted by Twitter as an actual feature when Twitter decided to hyperlink hashtags to search results. The rest of the socialsphere followed in its own pace, and Facebook, my wife's go-to social destination, only recently decided to give in and add hashtags as a feature. It's no surprise that for the masses over the age of 30, hashtags are still a novelty.

So whether you're in that group, or just want a short social history lessons, here's the brief history of hashtags. Then we'll look at a few recent examples of brilliant marketing uses of hashtags.

A Brief History of Hashtags

There seems to be a consensus on the origin of hashtags and most people attribute the proposal to use hashtags in tweets to Chris Messina, through a tweet dating back to August 23, 2007.

But the first time a hashtag was used extensively as a way to categorize tweets and was adopted by the public was during the San Diego fire on October 23, 2007, when Nate Ritter used Twitter to report on the fire and included the hashtag #sandiegofire.

On July 2, 2009, Twitter officially embraced hashtags and hyperlinked them to search results. Tumblr was one of the early adopters of hashtags when it launched hashtags on August 18, 2009. A few months later, on March 30, 2010, in another homepage redesign, Twitter moved Trending Topics to its homepage, formalizing hashtags as a conversation driver on Twitter.

As Twitter users adopted hashtags as a normal part of the Twitter conversation, in a typical fashion to Twitter, hashtags stared in popular culture like TV shows, celebrities' promotions and mainstream media.

The pop-culture adoption of hashtags helped push hashtags into other social networks. Instagram adopted hashtags on January 27, 2011, Flickr added hashtags on March 17, 2013 and Facebook finally broke and adopted hashtags on June 12, 2013.

Hashtags Adopted as a Marketing Tactic

An analysis of the Interbrand 100 list (the world's top 100 brands) and their activity on Twitter, reveals that the world's top brands have adopted the use of hashtags almost completely. In Q4 of last year, 97 percent of the brands posted at least one tweet that included a hashtag. Out of the 34,707 regular tweets (tweets that don't include an @ reply or a retweet) that the Interbrand 100 companies posted, 45 percent included at least one hashtag and more than 67 percent included one or more hashtags.

1. Drive Engagement: # + Link = More Engagement

These companies have realized that hashtags help drive engagement. When compared to Tweets without a hashtag, tweets with hashtags showed 12 percent more engagement (RT, favorite or @ reply). Tweets that included a link anda hashtag, showed the highest engagement rate of any other type of tweet.

2. Test Your Messaging: #SOTU

During the last State of the Union address (#SOTU), the White House media team prepared content and tested 26 different hashtags.

1. #SOTU
2. #StateOfTheUnion
3. #OutOfManyWeAreOne
4. #OpportunityForAll
5. #CollegeOpportunity
6. #MadeInAmerica
7. #ActOnClimate
8. #ActForOurVets
9. #RebuildAmerica
10. #ActOnJobs
11. #InvestInSTEM
12. #ActOnCIR
13. #ActOnUI
14. #ActOnPreK
15. #ConnectED
16. #EqualPay
17. #RaiseTheWage
18. #ActOnTenTen
19. #GetCovered
20. #ACA
21. #PeopleOverPolitics
22. #RightToVote
23. #ActForOurKids
24. #SaluteOurTroops
25. #Iran
26. #TeamUSA
27. #ActForOurTroops
28. #SOTUChat

The next day (January 29) the White House focused on only seven of these hashtags and the vast majority of its tweets promoted the top three hashtags:

1. #OpportunityForAll
2. #RaiseTheWage
3. #EqualPay
4. #ActOnJobs
5. #ActOnTenTen
6. #CollegeOpportunity
7. #MadeInAmerica

They did so because those hashtags resonated the best with audience on Twitter.

As evident by these charts, the White House team used Twitter to test the messages in the president's speech and the following day applied their lessons to emphasize and reinforce the ones that stuck.

The #SOTU campaign is a master class in digital media campaign management, and this was one of the best lessons from it.

3. Tie Activity Across Multiple Channels: #SB48

During #SB48, ads included more hashtags than any other social signal including Twitter handles and Facebook account names. Brands used hashtags because of their cross-channel nature.

Since most social media channels adopted hashtags as an identifier, brands can now run cross-channel campaigns with one common identifier, virtually making hashtags the global connector of the social web.

4. Create a Story: #eurancesave30

Following the Super Bowl, Esurance ran an ad promoting the hashtag #esurancesave30. Within minutes, the hashtag got tens of thousands of mentions and within an hour it racked over 1.4 million mentions. With a simple, albeit expensive, campaign, Esurance created a story that was featured the next day on media outlets, blogs, and last Wednesday on TV.

The hashtag brought to Esurance more than just attention, it gave them a list of people who actually engaged with their story and brand.

In the minutes following the ad, the Esurance Twitter account added more than 40,000 followers, more than doubling its followers in a matter of minutes. And in the days following the ad, the account added more than 250,000 followers, almost 10 times it's audience size prior to the ad airing.

5. Track Results: #Whosgonnawin

Leading to the Super Bowl, the NFL and Verizon created a campaign to allow fans to vote on who they think is going to win the Super Bowl. By tweeting the team's name with the hashtag #WhosGonnaWin fans voted for their favorite team.

Verizon and the NFL created a special website to track the results in real time http://www.whosgonnawin.com/ every day a new question was posted and fans voted using Twitter. By the end of the day, the team with the most mentions got to light up the Empire State Building.

Summary

Hashtags have become more than just a way to categorize posts or add a narrative to your updates. Marketers have found new, innovative ways to use hashtags as a mean to drive conversation, harness the public support, and garner attention to their brands.

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How to Run a Successful Multi-Platform Hashtag Campaign [VIDEOS]

Now that pretty much every social media platform supports hashtags, more and more companies are running campaigns either centred around a hashtag, or featuring one. Brands feature hashtags at the end of adverts, TV shows feature hashtags during the credits and celebrities use hashtags to advertise their appearances. In every instance, hashtags are used to drive conversation about a particular topic, but they can be used for a plethora of other reasons.

Hashtags can be used to advertise new products and campaigns, to run competitions and contests, to ask fans for their input about a company development, and to associate a brand with a popular news item. The best thing about hashtag campaigns, however, is they can be completely free. Of course, the more you (strategically) spend on a campaign, the more you will reap its rewards. Here are a few pieces of advice to follow when planning your hashtag campaigns.

Promote It:

• If you’re about to run a hashtag campaign then make sure the public know about it. Feature your hashtag in print and media advertising, or run a larger campaign with a featured hashtag. By promoting your hashtag as widely as possible, you can make sure that people will start talking about it.

• Make sure that you promote your hashtag campaigns across all the hashtag-compatible social media sites. Even if you’re running a hashtag competition on Instagram, you can still drive conversation about it on Facebook and Twitter, even if people cannot enter the competition from those sites.

• Of course, in the case of hashtags, Twitter started it all. If you’re planning on running a large hashtag campaign on Twitter, it’s a good idea to take advantage of some of the site’s advertising features to ensure a wide audience.

Make It Interactive:

• Use a hashtag that will encourage debate – a phrase that invites the public to give their opinion or make a joke. For example, Edge Shave Gel ran a campaign on Twitter asking users to say what irritated them using the hashtag #soirritating. The hashtag trended on Twitter as hundreds of users wrote quips and comments.

• You don’t even need to get involved in the conversation: Matalan advertised the hashtag#MatalanSummerTips on Twitter recently so that fans could exchange tips and hints on the site.

• You could run a picture or video campaign across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Vine, asking fans to post content around a specific hashtagged theme. Ben & Jerry’s ran the#CaptureEuphoria campaign on Instagram, inviting fans to post pictures of themselves enjoying ice cream. All the pictures were posted on a devoted microsite so that fans could view them.

• You can even engage with tweeps in innovative ways, gaining a wider audience in the process. A few weeks ago, Honda responded to a number of tweets containing the hashtag #WantNewCarwith Vine videos. the campaign was very popular, catching the attention of a number of social media influencers in the process.

Be Topical:

• Create a hashtag campaign that is themed around a big event or news story. During Wimbledon, for example, sports brand adidas introduced two hashtags into the Twittersphere: #AllinforMurrayand #Hitthewinner, the latter of which was also used by entrants for an online competition. #AllinforMurray was tweeted over 20,000 times during the weekend.

• People tweeted the #Hitthewinner hashtag in order to enter a competition: Murray’s fans could use the hashtag to play a real-time game during the match. To play, they had to first select an area of the court where they thought Andy would hit a winner, then tweet their guess before each set. Millions of people watched the tennis match, so, by providing fans with a way to interact during the game on Twitter, adidas ensured a large userbase.

Give Them An Incentive:

• Create a competition where the applicants have to use a specific hashtag to enter, or one of a number of hashtags. Vodafone Netherlands recently launched #HashtagHolidays, rewarding followers with one of eight different holidays, each one based on a trending hashtag.

• Nissan recently ran a campaign which was interactive and gave competitors an incentive. Nissan asked fans to create micro-videos using the hashtag #VersaVid. They then featured some of the videos in a TV commercial, rewarding the makers of these videos with a $1000 Amazon Gift Card.

• You don’t always have to offer a big prize; instead, you can reward the best content by featuring it in a larger campaign. The best #CaptureEuphoria photos, for example, were featured on billboards and in magazines. Wendy’s is running a promotional Twitter campaign at the moment. The restaurant is creating videos featuring singer Nick Lachey and posting them online. Fans of the restaurant brand are being asked to tweet the hashtag #PretzelLoveSongs and Lachey is then incorporating these tweets into love songs about the new pretzel bacon cheeseburger.

• You don’t always have to come up with your own hashtag either (though I suggest that you do). JELL-O recently ran a campaign using the popular hashtag #FML. The company gave small prizes to selected people who used the hashtag on Twitter. It is, however, difficult to tell how much JELL-O’s campaign permeated into the Twitter consciousness: with such a commonly used hashtag, it’s unlikely people would have associate JELL-O with #FML.

Conclusion:

Every month, companies are thinking of new, innovative ways of using hashtags to promote their brands on social media. If you haven’t used hashtags yet, then I advise you start: introduce a hashtag to a campaign you are running currently, or incorporate a hashtag into a campaign you’re planning at the moment. If you’re new to hashtag campaigns, make sure that you experiment a little first by trying out hashtags on various platforms. A number of campaigns have gone awry because people didn’t check their hashtags, the most famous being, of course, Susan Boyle’s #susanalbumparty. The most important thing to remember, however, when you’re running a hashtag campaign, is to use the right hashtag: one that is relevant, catchy, unique and not too long.