They Call Me 'Hashtag'

If content is created on the Web but no one can find it, does it really exist?

 

Content creators know that developing content online is only half the battle—unless your audience can find that content, it may as well not exist. Articles, video, images, and, yes, tweets must be searchable. Sure, you have followers on Twitter, but unless you are the only entity they follow in their feed, your tweets will get pushed down faster than a meek single gal in a bridal bouquet toss. Enter Twitter's solution for keywording tweets: the hashtag.

A hashtag is simply a way of indicating a keyword in a tweet by typing a "#" in front of that word. Doing so makes the keyword searchable in Twitter, and is a way of aggregating tweets about a certain event or topic (e.g. a conference). 

I manage social media campaigns for several media entities, and my propensity for using hashtags has earned me that rather unfortunate nickname. (It smacks of the name "Hatchet-Face" in John Waters's film, Cry-Baby.) So-called social media experts warn against the overuse of hashtags because too many in one tweet may seem spammy, or render the tweet difficult to read. I agree to a certain extent, but done correctly, hashtags and other keywording tools can yield strong traffic to your website and a multitude of Twitter followers.

As with any newer technology or practice, my opinions here are up for debate. But, the following tactics have delivered results in the campaigns I manage:

Space out your hashtags. 

While limiting the number of hashtags in a tweet is a good rule of thumb, don't let it deter you from reaching everyone you need to reach with your message. Spacing out the hashtagged words can ensure that a tweet is still readable, as well as being searchable to everyone you want to reach. For example:

#Video ads allow publishers and #advertisers to take advantage of #mobile engagement levels http://bit.ly/xxXXxx

Notice that I could have placed a hashtag in front of the second word, "ads", but instead spaced out the hashtags while still targeting Twitter users interested in advertising.

Use those characters.

Twitter gives you 140 characters to convey your message, but thanks to URL-shortening tools such as bit.ly, we often don't use them all. Take advantage of extra characters after your message to slip in some hashtagged keywords. For example:

#Video ads allow publishers and advertisers to take advantage of mobile engagement levels http://bit.ly/xxXXxx #iPad #smartphone

I didn't want to clutter up my tweet with hashtags, but I wanted to make sure that users interested in various mobile devices could find it, so I placed relevant keywords at the end of the tweet, after the link. It may not be pretty, but it gets the job done while ensuring that my tweet reads smoothly.

Sub in Twitter handles.

Hashtagged words aren't the only searchable terms in tweets—Twitter handles get just as much attention, if not more. If I want to minimize the hashtags I use in a tweet, but still want to get the attention of an entity, or draw attention to a writer, I use their Twitter handle rather than their proper name. (Simply do a search on Twitter to find any handle. They are indicated with an "@" symbol.) For example: 

.@iPad engagement levels can be taken advantage of by #publishers and advertisers with #video ads http://bit.ly/xxXXxx

Note that I placed a period (".") in front of the handle to remove its natural filter. When placed at the beginning of a tweet, "@iPad" would filter the tweet so that only my and @iPad's followers see it—the period breaks that filter for greater reach.

And another thing...

Remember that activating a term in your tweet with a hashtag or @ symbol activates all characters in that term, so beware of making a hashtagged term or handle plural or possessive, or placing a punctuation mark such as a comma after the word. This could alter the term and may limit its searchability. I get around this by placing a space between the term and the additional characters. For example:

.@naomireiter 's tweets are searchable and awesome!

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