Leveraging Hashtags for Campaigns and Traffic

Put simply, a hashtag is a word or phrase that's prefixed with the hash (#) symbol. It derives from the early days of Unix where the '#' symbol was used to mark comments or metadata in code. Today, however (unless you are a programmer), the hashtag is used more commonly to mark short messages in microblogging and social networks (like twitter and Google+) to denote discussion topics. For example, #Wikipedia is the hashtag for Wikipedia discussions, and searching for the string #Wikipedia using search engines or on Twitter will cause that word to appear in search results. Such tags have to be a single string of characters (no spaces) and are case insensitive, though they are often written in mixed case (known in programming circles as CamelCase) to make them more readable (eg #HelpCeltnetRecipes). Use of hashtags has a long history. They began on internet relay chat (IRC) networks in the 1970s as a means to label groups and topics. They were also used to mark individual groups as being on a particular topic or of being of interest to a specific group. This inspired Chris Messina, the open source advocate, to propose that a similar system could be used for Twitter. Indeed, it was he who published the first Twitter feed to incorporate a hashtag in 2007. It was only in 2009 though that Twitter produced a search system for hashtags. This, of course, made them much more useful and began the explosion in their use that we see today. Because the twitter search system is public, you can add hashtag searches in your own web pages. To add a hashtag search to your web page, simply use the url: http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23xxx (replace the xxx with the text of your hashtag, but do not add the hash sign '#' itself). For example #HelpCeltnetRecipes would be http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23HelpCeltnetRecipes. Because search is a navigation tool within the Twitter platform, this functionality became yet another way that people could discover new and interesting Tweets outside their immediate group of followers. And, because adding the # at the beginning of a word flags it as a searchable string in both Twitter and Google+ feeds it means that you can start a new discussion yourself with a hashtag, or you can point users to a discussion topic based around that string. When a user clicks on this #hashtag keyword in a Tweet or searches for it in the Twitter searchbar they see a real-time stream of Tweets that include the phrase. As a result, hashtags allow users to watch threads and tweets that are discussion based. You can even add multiple #-linked keywords in your tweets. It's best not to add no more than three, though, or it can start to look like spam. For optimal results it's best if you can fit the hashtags into the text of your tweets it saves space. For example: Follow #CeltnetRecipes and see how the #HelpCeltnetRecipes campaign is performing on #Twitter. You can also search for multiple hashtags as well as single ones. This is an excellent marketing tool, as users who specifically search for your #hashtag keyword combination are guaranteed to be interested in your keyword subject. It also allows fine-tuning of hashtags down to a very specific discussion. Given that tweets are basically free, you have room to experiment with keywords. Indeed, when using #hashtag keywords you’re likely to find it’s not easy to predict which words or phrases will attract your audience so try some out. Test broad keywords and also more specific words. You have nothing to lose. When you find one that works, stick with it. When a hashtag becomes popular it is 'trending' and is put on the front page of twitter and on Google+ pages. This potentially gives you lots of people. Of course, you never know which keywords will trend. Trending is a double-edged sword and if your hashtags are too general they will not be seen in a mass of other tweets and posts. But if your hashtag is too specific no-one will look for it. Experimentation is key, but if you crack it, traffic will flood into your site. If you want to see if your hashtag is original or not, then you can use hashtags.org. This is a very valuable new marketing tools. Start using it now!