What the Hashtag is this? Part Two – What’s trending?

Now that you have a ‘handle’ on what a Hashtag is and what it can do, it’s important to know the differences between them, and how it can help your own small business marketing. The #Brand Hashtag: A brand hashtag is a way for users to let the social community know what they think about your company. Instead of just sending you a message, they’re speaking to their followers and other users who look for tagged posts. These are very useful, so it’s worth creating one for your business. You can build a discussion around your brand, encouraging the online community to learn more about your products and services while promoting them. Ideally, consumers will also follow links you share. Those using the hashtag will also draw attention to their posts, possibly earning more followers. You can also use it to run a promotional contest. For example, the person who creates the most-shared post using your hashtag will win a prize at the end of each month. Just watch engagement steadily rise! The ‘Trending’ #Hashtag. The dream of everyone that writes online is to be responsible for a ‘trending’ piece. When many users pass on messages online by using a trending’ hashtag, it’s spread is sudden, and wide enough to make the list of trending trending topics on each site. Now, complete strangers, and those that never shared your original content amplify the message to even more strangers. You can suddenly gain Millions of users. Of course, you can also help the spread of existing trending topics. Twitter’s left sidebar display trends, and Facebook ‘s top-right corner shows their most popular trends. By entering the conversation, you are opening your invitation list to huge numbers of people that didn’t know you before then. Of course, when you see a trend that relates to your business, jump into it with relevant content. Your audience potential is limitless and, if that post is witty, original or informative, the shares it generates will further boost impressions and comments. The #Chat Hashtag Popular on Twitter, chat hashtags are a popular way to discuss a topic with users who are interested in the subject matter. There are many industry- and audience-specific chat hashtags. A quick search using key terms should reveal one. We suggest  using https://top-hashtags.com/ to see the most popular hashtags on any given subject. Imagine twitter charts during live sporting events, or TV Reality shows. It’s ‘live’ appeal makes it a wonderful magnet for tweeters to agree – or fight with – like-minded individuals that may live in a completely different geographic location to them. You could start your own chat, promote it, and give your brand more exposure. A tip, though, is to make sure the hashtag is short. Encouraging meaningful conversation is important, remember Twitter’s 140-character limit, and leave everyone enough space. A popular chat hashtag appealing to a lot of people, mean that an audience is already established and waiting to talk.  People want to talk about topics they’re passionate about, so Twitter chats can give you access to a receptive audience. Contributing to a Twitter chat using a chat hashtag is a way of informing them about your ideas, as well as your products or services, demonstrate your expertise on relevant topics, and spark meaningful conversations. There are many more hashtags, too: Those that reflect content, and are calls to action. By using the right kind of hashtag for your purpose, and when you identified the right time, you can attract many more prospects to your business. Do some research on how household names, or giants in your own business niche, use hashtags, and join in with the crowds!