Tuesday Tips: Don't Make These #Hashtag Mistakes

Are you making these common mistakes in your Tweets?  Check this list out and try to eliminate some of these common mistakes from your Tweeting habits:

• Using too many hashtags.  There should be 1-3 hashtags per tweet. Tweets with one or two hashtags have been seen to receive 20% higher engagement, according to Passion Digital.
• Using inappropriate hashtags. This can kill your target audience if you aren't targeting with the right tweets. Be sure to check out posts similar to the hashtag you are using to be sure what you're posting is relevant and similar.
• Using a Trending Hashtag when your post has nothing to do with that trending hashtag. It might be very tempting to do this, but if your post has nothing to do with a trending hashtag, just don't use it. Pro Tip: Don't try to create a post about every trending hashtag either just to get noticed. It's poor marketing and Twitter etiquette.
• Use appropriate hashtags with your pictures! Some people, myself included, often forget to hashtag their photos when they share them.
• Don't hashtag every word in a tweet. Refer to the first point in this post - that would be using too many hashtags and is a sign of a novice user. Pick important, relevant terms and hashtag them.
• Check what other posts are listed with your hashtag(s). It's often good to see what other tweets and conversations are being had with similar hashtags. You might even learn a thing or two.
• Do not hashtag more than two or three words combined. More than that becomes obnoxious and annoying. In that same line of thought, hashtagging all capitalized words is also obnoxious.

Hope these tips help!

Tuesday Tips are a series of tips released on Tuesday each week regarding a hint or tip to help you manage and market your social media presence better.  You can find all the Tuesday Tips by clicking on the Tuesday Tips tag below.

Saturday Sharing: Everything You Need to Know About Hashtags

Over the past few years we've covered quite a bit on hashtags in a number of articles, including these articles:

• Friday Facts: The History and Power of #Hashtags
• Tuesday Tips: Don't Hashtag Every Word in Social Media Posts
• Wednesday Words: #Hashtags
• Tuesday Tips: Use Hashtags

I will, however, admit I may have missed some things. That's where the article I am sharing comes into play. Check out The Beginner's Guide to the Hashtag on Mashable found here: http://mashable.com/2013/10/08/what-is-hashtag/?crlt.pid=camp.Gxjj4sXBL6v0

While the article covers some of what I have covered above, it also contains other useful information to consider, especially if you are new to hashtaging and social media.

Check it out! You may find it useful.

Saturday Sharing: 10 Tips for Twitter Marketing

With more than 271 million users creating more than 500 million tweets a day, if you aren’t using Twitter to promote your brand, your book or your blog, the only question I have is why? Because of it’s size and the mass amount of content, using Twitter can be challenging to anyone new to Twitter, especially with being confined to 140 characters.

CIO Whitepapers offers an ebook titled “10 Things Marketers Should be Doing on Twitter” which promises to teach you what you should be doing to get more retweets, followers and business prospects as well as best business practices for Twitter.

You can acquire the 13 page ebook/whitepaper here: http://research.ciowhitepapers.com/?option=com_categoryreport&task=viewabstract&pathway=no&title=50414&frmurl=http%3a%2f%2fforms.madisonlogic.com%2fForm.aspx%3fpub%3d162%26pgr%3d977%26frm%3d1676%26autodn%3d1%26src%3d10873%26ctg%3d2%26ast%3d50414%26crv%3d0%26cmp%3d16778%26yld%3d0%26clk%3d6160158076151597188%26embed%3d1

Wednesday Words: Hashtags

Hashtags - a thing that used to be only for Twitter - has taken over social media and it looks like it's here to stay.

Hashtags, otherwise known to us older folks as the pound button (#) on phones, are a way for people to categorize certain things.  It is often a single word or a group of words sans spaces grouped together. It is a form of metadata tag. And look something like this (taken from one of my Twitter posts):

You can use Hashtags in almost every form of social media now, including Facebook and Google+.

Hashtags are important because if anyone clicks on a hashtag in another person's posts, a list of posts with the hashtag included will show up and yours will be somewhere in there.  This allows people who may not normally see your posts to see them and potentially favorite/like them and follow you.

Hashtags are easy to use.  You can put them just about anywhere in a post - just make sure they are relevant to your post.  Most posts from this blog that I post to my Twitter above have hashtags #socialmedia and then #facebook or #twitter or whatever one I'm talking about.  I've earned a few favorites and shares from this.  

I will admit that I am horrible about using hashtags.  It's something I need to improve use on for Facebook and Google+.  How do you remember to use hashtags in social media?

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media.  These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media.   You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.

Learn more about hashtags here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashtag