How To Use Twitter Hashtags to Help Your Business

On Twitter, hashtags are used to categorize tweets into specific topics and conversations, or to label tweets for easy discovery in the search tab.

Hashtags that are frequently used over a short period of time become trending topics, showing up in the Trends sidebar on the Twitter homepage.

Use hashtags to promote your business and follow conversations concerning your industry. Here is what you should consider when Using hashtags to raise your business’ profile on Twitter:

1. Keep it Short

Make sure that your hashtags are short and precise. Use an acronym if one exists or an abbreviation – like #SmallBiz for small business.

Don’t be excessive with your hashtagging. You only really need a couple of hashtags per tweet, three at a stretch. Too many will appear spammy and can alienate followers.

Hashtags are best placed at the end of a tweet, but if there is a keyword part way through which could be hashtagged, such as a brand or product name, then hashtag it.

2. Enter the Conversation

If certain hashtags that are specific to your industry are trending, you can use them to get a wider audience for your tweets.

For instance, #uksnow is currently trending on Twitter, so DIY store B&Q have used it to promote a competition.

You can also include frequently used hashtags in your tweets, such as #marketing or #socialmedia, to categorise your tweets into specific conversations.

Search for more tweets relating to your industry using hashtags and reply to, retweet or favourite the most relevant.

3. Start a Trend

Use Hashtags to promote certain deals or events your company has on Twitter. If you are running a competition on Twitter, ask users to feature a specific hashtag in their tweets if they want to enter.

For example, Domino’s ran a nationwide campaign last year promising to cut the price of their pepperoni passion by 0.01p every time someone tweeted #letsdolunch between the hours of 9am and 11am. 85,000 tweets later the price had dropped from £15.99 to £7.74.

4. Have Some Fun

Twitter is a service centred around the idea of instantaneous, personalized communication between people worlds apart from one another.

Use hashtags to make your company more personable: tweet a topical joke, poke some fun at yourself or just be irreverent. Add an ironic hashtag at the end of an embarrassing story, such as #eggonmyface if you have done something silly.

5. Follow Friday

Every Friday on Twitter is Follow Friday. #FollowFriday, or just #FF, is the day of the week when people are encouraged to follow others and, more often than not, get followed themselves.

Use the hashtag #FF or #FollowFriday every Friday to promote your business on Twitter.

Have you used Hashtags to help your business? How did it go?

Twitter Updates Mobile App, Enhances Search And Web Browsing

Twitter has improved the Search tab on iOS and Android devices, as well as on mobile.twitter.com. Improvements to web browsing and the autocomplete suggestions feature on iOS devices have also been made.

Results in the search tab will now be headed by a “Top Tweet” which, according to Twitter’s announcement post, is “the best match for your query based on relevance and engagement”.

Two further improvements have been made to applications on Apple devices: when a link is opened, the tweet containing it will be displayed at the bottom of the screen and the number of autocomplete suggestions has been increased.

[The improvement to web browsing] provides additional context to the page you’re viewing, and makes it easy for you to retweet, favorite or reply to the Tweet as you’re reading an article or watching a video.

To close the tweet, simply tap the page or pull down the tray icon. Pulling up the tray icon will reveal the tweet.

As users compose tweets, more hashtag, topic and username autocomplete suggestions will be displayed. The suggestions for trending topics will also be updated more frequently.

The Search tab’s autocomplete has also been improved and support for traditional Chinese has been added.

What do you think of the updated Twitter app?

Foursquare Updates Explore Tab On iOS App

Foursquare has updated the Explore section of its mobile app for the iPhone, increasing the number of results shown on the screen to make comparing them faster and easier.

In the Explore tab, users are able to discover the best places to visit and eat, each with a rating out of ten, a list of friends who have visited them, special offers and recommendation quotes. Clicking on a result takes the user to a screen with more information such as directions and items on the menu.

The update, version 5.5 of the app, has suggestions for the best places to go in the area, as well as places that are trending or that have just opened.

The recommendation system uses a proprietary algorithm based on how many check-ins and ‘likes’ places have, as well as using sentiment analysis to rank businesses.

According to AppleInsider, an unadvertised “Turbo Check-in” feature has also been included in the update. Users can now press for an extended period of time on a point of interest to automatically check in without having to click through to the businesses page.

“Whether your go-to brunch spot is too crowded, or you’re walking around looking for dinner options after a movie,” reads the announcement post on Foursquare’s blog, “it’s great to be able to find places quickly.”

You can purchase the update here.

What do you think of Foursquare for iOS v5.5?