Tag : social media

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Hashtags – why we use them, how we use them

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Mashable‘s articles on hashtags is definitely a must read for anyone who is trying to study (or is simply interested in) social networking.

When studying the whole social networking phenomenon (especially for business purposes) , I found especially useful the Beginner’s Guide to the Hashtag and 5 Ways Your Business Should Use Hashtags articles.

For those of you who are too busy to read the entire articles, I am going to make a summary, but I strongly recommend you read them.

Characters you can include in hashtags: basically any alphanumeric characters, but don’t you ever make the mistake to include spaces.

# vs @ while # turns any word or group of words that directly follow it into a searchable link, @ will Tweet at a person directly.

Platforms: twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pintrest, Instagram.

Essential steps for your small business:

• create an account for your business in order to consolidate your brand
• be relevant and consistent when using hashtags
• follow trends
• create your own hashtag (read 6 Successful Twitter Hashtag Campaigns to get an idea on how to do it)
• generate buzz (you can always do this by creating a contest, for example)
• seek business-related conversations
• organize your social networking dashboards by relevant hashtags

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Sources:
The Beginner’s Guide to the Hashtag,
5 Ways Your Business Should Use Hashtags,
6 Successful Twitter Hashtag Campaigns