Nimble Quotes

Inspirational Quotes on Twitter for Your Business

5 Ways Twitter Hashtags Help You Get Noticed

5-Ways-Twitter-Hashtags-Help-You-Engage-and-Get-NoticedIf you’re on Twitter, then you’ve probably already noticed the hashtags many people put on their tweets (e.g. #FunnyTweets). I’ve already spoken about what they are and the basics of how to use them, but today I’d like to talk about why to use them.

A lot of entrepreneurs don’t really use Twitter hashtags or understand them, despite being active and having lots of tweets. But hashtags can be a great way to get your messages read by other people and, even better, find conversations that you can use to engage the community. Here’s how:

Helping engagement

Follow events and discussions. Many people add a hashtag to associate their tweets with a specific topic or event. If they end your tweet with #FIFA2015, for example, other people who follow that hashtag will be able to see the tweet and respond to it. You can take advantage of this by following a hashtag and participating in the discussion.

Just remember that your message has to be appropriate to the hashtag and contribute something to the conversation, otherwise people will get annoyed at the obvious marketing ploy!

Research. You can using hashtags to get a quick look at what people are saying online about a particular topic. This is great for researching popular trends that you might want to jump in on, or for monitoring fields of interest. You can even create lists of hashtags to follow to keep tabs on new developments.

But what about when you’re the one doing the tweeting? How do Twitter hashtags help you get noticed or get better responses?

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Use with links to drive engagement. If you’ve got a blog or something else to share on Twitter, adding a hashtag to the end of the tweet is the equivalent of putting an ad on TV. It helps spread the link around and get it in front of people who don’t normally follow your Twitter feeds.

Just be careful not to overdo it, though! Only use one hashtag per tweet (or two, maximum). Too many hashtags can be very annoying, so restrain yourself!

Provide context. It can be very easy to get misinterpreted online, so hashtags are a great way to provide context for your tweets. This is also if you’re quoting someone and relating that quote to a particular theme or topic.

Emphasis. Hashtags can also be creatively used to provide additional emphasis to a statement—or as the punchline to a joke (E.g. “Spilled wine #BadFirstDate”). A sharp contrast between the hashtag and the actual tweet can give an entertaining sense of irony. In this case, the hashtags aren’t there to organize or categorize the tweet, but to make the tweet itself more interesting and shareable.

So try incorporating a few hashtags based on my suggestions! Take a look at how other brands are using tweets, too, and adopt some of their best practices. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to hashtag with the best of them!

Nimble Quotes includes default hashtags with each quote category choice, and the option for your own custom hashtags. Learn more and sign up for your 30-day trial.

Is Tweeting for Fun an Effective Social Media Strategy?

Have you ever heard the saying “all work and no play make Jack a dull boy?” That’s as true for Twitter as it is for kids. Many business accounts I see (and even those of entrepreneurs I talk to) take their social media strategies way too seriously.

Yes, tweeting about promos, sales and marketing content has its place. But if that’s all you’re doing, then you’re not using Twitter to its fullest advantage. If you want to connect with the Twitterverse, you have to introduce some fun into your stream.

Mixing it up keeps things fresh

Have you ever had that one friend who only talked about work? His work? It might be interesting at first, but you’d get pretty sick of that pretty fast. Your followers might feel the same way if the only thing you do when using Twitter for business is tweet self-promotional things.

Mixing it up with other kinds of content—whether it’s your own or from other people—is a great way to keep things fresh. You don’t have to share cat videos if it doesn’t match your social media strategy or brand image. Try sharing informational articles, interesting statistics, or poignant thoughts.

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What’s the most important social media metric you should be tracking? Nope, it’s not followers or likes. It’s engagement.

If you want to get traction with your social media strategy, you have to both engage people in conversations, and put out content that encourages conversation, too. Show people that you’re not just throwing out link after link on your Twitter business account. Talk to people and get to know each other. That way, you’ll forge stronger connections with the online community and people will see you’re not a mindless robot.

Brand building is more than just “work” tweets

The word “brand” now has such a stuffy and serious connotation. But really, “brand” is just a fancy word to describe your company’s personality. And remember what I said before? A person who just talks about work has a dull personality. Commenting about your industry or sharing a quote from an industry expert furthers your brand just as much as tweeting about a sale.

So don’t be dull. Dare to be interesting. Dare to express yourself. Dare to be—god forbid—funny. Not only will you connect with people online better, but you may even start enjoying yourself on social media.