Using #Hashtags as a Networking Tool
January 26, 2015
Do you remember filling out your Myspace profile, with something like this?
I recall most people would say they were there for: dating, friends, or serious relationships. Rarely, you would see someone put “networking.” Myspace kind of knew what was going on, and was definitely a segway into the importance of social media.
Being engulfed in the world of SEO, we sometimes have to remember to remove ourselves from only looking at link and content strategies. Social media is becoming increasingly important to supplement your SEO campaigns through networking, branding, and building your online community. It’s said that Social Media budgets will double in the next 5 years. You can read about it here.
I would say it’s time to take advantage of the FREE networking on the web, if you’re not already doing so. Here’s your chance to outreach to people that share the same interests because they already love what you do. Brian’s blog post from last year touches on the actual platforms, but I wanted to go into further detail and talk about how to increase your social media, without having to increase your budget.
How to start your following:
– Request likes from your friends and family on Facebook, Twitter, G+, and other social sites
– Share your social pages on your personal page
– Add your social media buttons to your email signature
– Make sure your social media buttons appear on your website
– Request likes/follows to people in your industry
– Use #hashtags!
Hashtagging is a newer feature on FaceBook (read more about it here), but has been around since Twitter started the craze in March of 2006. People often use them to be comedic, but at this point it’s used as the way to search within social media. There are 2 ways that #hashtags should be used for business. The 1st is to find relevant followers in your industry, and the 2nd is for people to find you.
How to use #hashtagging to find your followers:
– Say you own a vintage furniture store online, you can find relevant pages under #vintagefurniture #midcenturyfurniture #antiquefurniture #consignmentstores #cityyoulivein, etc. Just type those tags into the search bar of your social page.
– You will likely find other business related to yours. You want to then go to their followers, and try to get likes from them. That’s where you’ll get the best followers!
How to use #hashtagging on your own posts:
– You can use those same hashtags listed above for people to find you.
– Once you gain more of a following, you should tag your business name.
– Make sure there are no spaces, symbols, or punctuation in the phrase you want to use as this will break the tag.
– Use around 2-3 relevant tags per post.
I know it sounds daunting at first if you’re newer at this, but once you get around to finding those followers, your community will build on it’s own. You will find that more people will find your without your outreach. Just make sure you post interesting updates for your audience a couple times a week, which takes just a few minutes. Happy #hashtagging!
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Uyen Ochsner is an Account Manager at SEOhaus. If you would like to stay up-to-date on all of the latest SEO industry news and tips, you can subscribe to our blog here. Thanks for reading the SEOhaus blog!