How Small Businesses Can Increase Their Social Media Reach With The Twitter Hashtag

 I think hashtags are a bit confusing for beginners but as a small business you need to use them. In fact having your own hashtag can set your business apart so let’s first talk what are they and then how to use them successfully. 

The Twitter hashtag is the # sign used to indicate that a particular word or phrase has meaning on Twitter. They are great ways to see all conversations about a single topic and can show up in searches both in Twitter and on Google. But many small business owners who do their own social media are still groping in the dark as to how a hashtag is used and what is it really for.

I bet, you just do it because everybody’s doing it, right?  At a certain extent, right, but you may be missing out on its efficiency to boost up the rate of your social media engagement efforts. Let’s say you are a dog groomer use that tag or others in your posts so potential customers can find you is the easy thing to remember but what if in the same posts you had your business hashtag too? 

The big idea of online marketing is that you need to be found by your potential customers in the vast web universe.  In Twitter universe, the hashtag serves like a tracking device.   Tweeps (slang speak for people or users of Twitter) are often in search of topics they are interested in so that they could interact.  If you want your topic or business keyword to be found, put a # so Twitter could index your keywords and feed it to those Tweep searchers.

 

7 Effective ways to get started with the Twitter hashtag:

 

1.  Keep it simple.  Use short keywords. Hardly anyone searches using more than 3 words.  Don’t put a  hashtag on every word! Overdoing it would only make you look silly and desperate — not a good image for your business, right?

2. Use hashtags as well to keep you updated with trends around your business or industry. What I am talking about here is you can search on hashtags and find out what your competition is doing, meet people looking for your services, or discover other hashtags to use. 

3.  Organize the hashtags you follow on your social dashboard. Sites like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck provide such functions. I use tweetdeck simply because I like the interface and it’s free. Hootsuite’s free edition isn’t as user friendly for me. For posting we use Buffer and schedule days out on some tweets and add in posts real time. 

4. Create your own hashtag.  If you’ve established enough traction or engagement, your very own hashtag can help create buzz around your business. If you are a local web designer you can do #nyctopwebdesign.   Or perhaps you’re an up and coming fiction writer, #latenightfiction might describe your Kindle romance novels. 

5.  Do promos and give incentives for the use of your hashtag.  If you can give a relevant and interesting prize, a Twitter contest that would require the use of your hashtag would be a great way to attract more followers.

6. Hosting a Tweet chat is a another way to connect with your followers.  It’s a real-time chat with your audience.  How to get it started? Check our related article here.  This is something that is easy to do though it requires planning. 

7.  Join a tweet chat, yourself.  This is a good way to learn the ropes from others and a chance for you to network with other professionals.

 

All small businesses whether you’re online or a local business should be on twitter. It is a great way to help the public see you. Because most searches are now done for local by mobile not using twitter makes you look outdated. If you’re business is an online marketing venue from your home then twitter keeps you looped in. The point is use hashtags, and make your own business hashtag now!

 

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