Have you ever wondered how a company builds community around their brand? In this presentation discover: = How to find hashtags to use to attract your niche = How to use hashtags = How to expand a hashtag you've created Use hashtags to build community, market your business & followers of your business.

1. Hashtags

2. Hashtag Basics
• Word or short phrase prefixed by the pound (#) sign
• Aggregate, track, and identify content across social media
platforms
• Not just promotional tools, more like a search filter
• Used to carry on a conversation with multiple people, not just
for fun
• Can help distinguish you, your company, or your community
from competitors
• Allow people who don’t follow you to see what you’re saying
• Most popular will start ‘trending’ for you to see and join in on

3. Examples
• #NavyYardShooting
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Send any information regarding shooter directly to Navy
Updates on President Obama’s reaction & response
Shared with every newspaper & article written about it
Public reactions (most common for all hashtags)
• #PrayForBoston
– Updates on injured and deceased from Boston officials
– Links for ways to help the victims
– Information on candlelight & other remembrance services
• #RoyalBabyWatch
– Continuous guessing and polls about what the baby’s name would be
– Pictures and videos of royal couples every move
– Source of congratulations and celebration

4. Hashtags vs. Phrases
• Hashtags are better because they automatically group your
post with others who used the same hashtag
• Example:
– If I tweeted ‘Woo! Excited for New York!’ that could have various
meanings
• Am I going on vacation there? Moving? School? Did the Jets win? The Giants?
– But what if I tweeted ‘Woo! Excited for New York!’ followed by the
hashtag #MissAmerica
• This time it is clear I am referring to Miss New York winning the Miss America
pageant
• Hashtags will give you a wide range on information on a
topic, not just the general facts
– If you want those, just search Google

5. Dominating Your Niche
• Hashtags let you join a conversation instantly and address the
audience directly no matter where they are in the world
– @ someone specific with the hashtag to spark a separate discussion
• Make sure hashtag tweets are relevant and engaging
– If you make an effort to be heard, you will gain exposure beyond your
followers list
– If you just add to the white noise, you will continue to be ignored
• Establish yourself as an expert of a ‘business-relevant’ (niche)
hashtag
– Showing off your knowledge will get audience to start recognizing you
and waiting to see what you have to say on a topic

6. Examples
• #AZshortsales
– Add to any tip, advice, news, updates, and success stories you have to
share about short sales in Arizona
– Groups all your work together into an easy accessible collection
– The more you use it, the more it will showcase you as an expert
– Creates exposure and opportunity for you and your business
• #StagingTips
– Add with any picture, video, or tip about how to successfully stage a
home
– Shows you are expert, but also here to help
– Makes you a go-to for design/staging tips
• Value is not in whether audience understands why you used
the hashtag, but that it helped you group and brand yourself I
their eyes

7. Hashtag Search
• search.twitter.com
– Will give you the latest chatter about topics interesting to you
• hashtags.org
– Follow @hashtags to get your hashtags tracked by this site
– Search hashtags and their trending popularity
• Search #business, and it will show times of day/days of week that it is most popular
• Also shows latest tweets including that hashtag
– Lists topics and related hashtags (help you get more specific)
• #business leads to #consumer #networking and #marketing
• WhatTheTrend.com
– Gives insight on the top used hashtags and why they are trending
– Can narrow search down from worldwide to countries to cities
– Current trending topics, most active trends of the day, trends marked
as spam, most popular trends in last 30 days

8. Hashtag Search
• twubs.com
– Twitter users form groups around popular hashtags
– Only site that groups hashtags into categories (books, movies, etc.)
• tagdef.com
– ‘Top Today’, ‘Top This Week’, ‘All Time High’
– Shows user definitions of hashtags and latest tweets using them
• trendsmap.com
– Latest trends and hashtags used around the world
– Shows local and global popularity
• tagboard.com
– Shows entire conversation across social media platforms
– Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, Pinterest, etc.
– Ultimate hashtag hub

9. Hashtag Communities
• Online communities let people across the world who share a
strong common interest connect anytime and anywhere
– More convenient than real world
• Types of Communities:
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Community of Place
Community of Practice
Community of Interest
Community of Action
Community of Circumstance
• Choose community type before you launch (can overlap)
– Helps position and distinguish you from already existing similar sites

10. Hashtag Communities

11. Creating Your Own Hashtags

12. Repetition

13. HashtagDon’t’s
• DON’T overload a post with hashtags
– Too many looks cluttered and people will pass over your content and
look at someone else’s
– Limit yourself to maximum of 3-4 for each post
– Example:
• If you’re tweeting about the music performers at State Fair, use #AZstatefair
#AZconcerts and maybe #(the artist’s name)
• DON’T include #summer #music #stage #food #fun #crowd etc.
• DON’T use hashtags just to use hashtags
– Relevance is key
– You are trying to target a specific audience
– Remember the point is to group and carry on conversations

14. Recap