The term ‘Twitter trending’ is quite popular among all of us. Whenever someone asks us, ‘what is this pound sign (#) flashing on the social media timeline?’, we usually jump up to comment, ‘Don’t you know hashtags? That’s strange!’ But what will be your answer to ‘what is the use of these hashtags?’
Most of the times, we flaunt our vacation pictures, moods, selfies etc., using a list of hashtags. But why is this list needed? What is the benefit of these hashtags? Am I using it to just look cool or am I portraying myself as a serious marketer? At some point in time, we all think about these questions but are lazy enough to find out the answers.
So, today I take the responsibility to solve some of your queries around twitter trending and hashtags. Here are the answers to 8 most common queries around Twitter trending and hashtags.
What is a hashtag?
A hashtag is a word or a phrase preceded by the pound sign (#) that helps to identify the messages around a certain topic. It is commonly used on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
What are the benefits of hashtags?
The 3 major benefits of hashtags are:
- It helps in making online searches easy. It quickly takes online users to the most relevant information that they look for.
- Marketers using/creating hashtags get benefitted due to easy searchability. With the use of right hashtags the campaigns often get noticed quickly and generate good results.
- It helps in finding influencers and professionals. It serves to be an effective tool for engagement too.
What does trending on social media mean? How is Twitter trending helpful?
As the name suggests, trending on social media refers to the most trended or popular topic circulated on a social media channel. Trendings flashing on various social platforms are easily noticeable. However, Twitter trending is considered to be the most relevant ones. Twitter’s algorithm recognizes the most popular topics circulating on Twitter using same hashtags and lists them as top 10 trends on Twitter’s homepage.
Can hashtags be used to join a conversation? If yes, then how?
Various organizations and corporate houses use hashtags for client interaction and engagements. Hashtags, thus, help users not just to connect but also interact with each other.
Example: Content Marketing Institute, a renowned content marketing, and training organization conduct Twitter chat every Tuesday at 12:00 ET using #CMWorld. This is a great example of the use of hashtags for conversations.
Will hashtag breaks privacy settings?
Often people have a misconception about privacy settings getting disturbed due to the usage of hashtags. However, it is a myth. Hashtags do not break privacy settings of your entire timeline. Your hashtag and post remain visible only to the group of friends/people with whom you wish to share and all those who are using that hashtag in their searches. The hashtag makes an update visible and not the complete timeline (or all the updates written on the timeline). Moreover, location plays an important role in breaking the privacy setting and it has nothing to do with hashtags.
Does capitalization matter?
Choosing capitalization in words or phrases preceded with hashtags does not matter. It will show the same result. For example, the result of #digitalmarketing will be similar to #DigitalMarketing.
Can I create a hashtag?
A hashtag does not require any approved database or registration. You can create an endless list of hashtags without a hitch. Creating unique hashtags for branding is common yet a successful practice. However, you should define goals while creating it. Creating hashtags with abbreviations like #KMPT can be misleading and won’t attract a huge audience.
How does hashtag help in promotion?
Creating unique and special hashtags to highlight an event or to do promotional activities is the most popular and common practice used by marketers. The use of these special hashtags in the context of an event helps in huge promotions. The hashtag, #WeMissYouToo used by Maggie for its comeback is a great example.
I hope this blog has solved some of the queries around hashtags. Do you have some more? Let me know by sharing your queries through the comment box below. I’ll be glad to help you. 🙂
Marketing Singh 