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Health & Fitness

Mary's Marketing Minute: Twitter Hash Tags Explained

If you use Twitter and every wondered what those # symbols are, check out this blog post from Mary's Marketing Minute!

What exactly are Hash tags?

If you use Twitter at all, you may have noticed “hash tags." They look like this symbol: #

Hash tags are used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet, and were created by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages. Hash tags can help you find interesting Tweets, or help you market to your targeted audience.

 • People use the hash tag symbol # before relevant keywords in their Tweet to           categorize those Tweets

    • Clicking on a hash tagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets in that category.

    • Hash tagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics.

You can use hash tags in your social media marketing by finding people with shared interests. Just go to the top of your Twitter page for the search button, and type in your topic such as healthy cooking# and you will see all tweets related to that subject. You can then “follow” all those people who share your interest.

Hash tags can also be used as a way to receive feedback from your customers You can create an individual hash tag that is unique to your business and ask your customers to use the hash tag in their communications with you. This can be a good way to answer frequently asked questions. Just be sure and stay active on Twitter while doing this so it is effective.

When choosing which hash tags to use for your tweets, it’s important to think about your target audience and which search terms they may be using.

Some Hash Tag Etiquette

 * Don't #spam #with #hash tags. Don't over-tag a single Tweet. (Best practices recommend using no more than 3 hash tags per Tweet.)
* Use hash tags only on Tweets relevant to the topic.

Conferences and events often put the hash tag system to use in order to track the conversation regarding speakers and after parties via a hash tag.

If you’re about to put on an event or are looking to take your event to a new level, here are some useful tips for hash tag organization:

    - Choose a single hash tag early: This may seem simple, but it is vital to get right. Choose a simple hash tag that represents your event or brand. If your event is the Business of Healthy Cooking Conference, don’t use #businessofhealthycookingconference as your tag. Use something short like  #healthychef instead.

Happy Tweeting! By the way, if you follow me, I will follow you:
http://twitter.com/yourbizpromoter

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