What’s a hastag? – A hashtag is a pound sign (#), and is used on Twitter and other social media platform to categorize messages.

According to Twitter, hashtag is defined as the # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.

How to use hashtags on your social media accounts:

1. On your Twitter and Facebook accounts, write the number sign (#) along with a topic or phrase like: #virtualassistant, #happy, #feeling grateful
2. On your Instagram account, write the number sign (#) along with the phrase or topic with the picture you are posted: I had a great time today! #feeling great, #happy, #excited.

On your social media accounts, when you see feed of posts with hashtags and clicked on a certain tag, you will be directed to topics related to that word. This made interaction a lot easier and is really beneficial to businesses, companies and entrepreneurs. . Hashtags turn topics and phrases into clickable links in your posts on your social media accounts. By using interesting hashtags, people can find posts about topics of their interest.

You can write as much hashtags as you want but be careful in choosing the right hashtags of your industry.

Choosing the right tags

1. Choose a tag that is easy to remember. Don’t complicate the tag or tags you want. Make it simple and easy to remember. With all the hasthtags proliferating in the social media, the ultimate thing a business wants to do is create a hashtag that is complicated, hard to spell or pronounce.
2. Create a unique hashtag. By creating a unique one, you are also creating your brand and tag other people of the same interest.
3. Search for the trending and most used hashtags before using it. Read and follow discussions taking place outside your circle of followers. From there, you will be able to find new potential customers and followers.
4. Use these hash tags on multiple social media channels. Use the same hashtags you have in one account to your other social media accounts, specially the unique one that you have created for your brand. Be consistent with your hashtags.

One of the other boundless things about hash tags is that you can get a glimpse on what people are speaking about a certain topic of interest, especially those that are relevant to your business, without the need to follow everyone.

In general, this is important for businesses as it allows you and your Social Media VA to monitor your brand, points of interest and be aware of what’s happening in the market and social media.

One of the most used platforms is Twitter, a microblogging service and online social networking website that allows users to post, re-post and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters, known as “tweets”.

Jack Dorsey launched Twitter on July of 2006 and is now in the top 10 most visited Internet sites.

According to statistic brain, there are over 550 million active Twitter users as of April 2013, 58 million new tweets daily, and 135,000 new Twitter users every day.

Update: As of November 2015, there are 1.3 billion registered Twitter users; 500 million tweets sent daily, and 100 million daily active users (stats by DMR).

The last two years have seen a 2.5x increase in customer service conversations on Twitter. Using a Digital Media Marketing Virtual Assistant can potentially help you and your business maintain active Twitter interactions.

People from all walks of life turn to Twitter to inform the public and update of their daily activities, products and services, and business branding. Just like any social networking sites, Twitter has a huge market share and businesses are competing to get the attention of people.

Sharing information that is relevant to your business is imperative in winning the tweet-retweet campaign and creating headlines, thus making you on the lead – ahead of the competition.

Related: 10 Effective Ways to Promote Your Business Using Facebook

How and when to tweet and retweet:

1. Send out retweets more often than you promote your own tweets. – According to studies, people who send out more tweets are likely to receive more tweets.

2. Tweet at the right time. – You should be aware of the time you want to tweet. Tweet on same time, as you are located so your followers, clients and prospected customers can follow and read your updates. Tweriod, a free Twitter analysis tool analyzes where your recent 1,000 followers are from and recommends the most strategic time to send out tweets.

3. Getting retweets. – If you need to ask for retweets then don’t be shy to solicit for it. Using call-for-action words is an effective way to reach your market like “please retweet”, “please RT” and “RT”.

4. Tweet links. – Businesses and clients turn to twitter to send out updates and looking for something new from the company they follow. It is best to embed a link of what you want to tweet and retweet.

The average Twitter user follows five businesses and 77% of Twitter users feel more positive about a brand when their Tweet has been replied to.

But sometimes, you can hardly have the time to login and respond to customer queries. Look for a virtual assistant for hire and let your VA handle all of these tasks. You can think of discounts and promotions and the virtual assistant can tweet them or share them to other social media sites.

5. Avoid sluggish and empty tweets about daily activities.

[Tweet “These are the 20 least retweetable words ~Dan Zarella”]

• Game
• Going
• Haha
• Lol
• But
• Watching
• Work
• Home
• Night
• Bed
• Well
• Sleep
• Gonna
• Hey
• Tomorrow
• Tired
• Some
• Back
• Bored
• Listening

6. Use retweetable words.

• You
• Twitter
• Please
• Retweet
• Post
• Blog
• Social
• Free
• Media
• Help
• Please retweet
• Great
• Social media
• Follow
• How to
• Top
• Blog post
• Check out
• New blogpost

7. Leave room for retweets. – Ideally, you should limit your tweets to between 80 – 110 characters. People are lazy and don’t want to read long and nonsense tweets.
8. Use #Hashtags. – It’s a fact that any social media site that uses #hashtags and tweets with #hashtags are more likely to be retweeted.
9. Tweet quotes. – Great quotes are good for retweets, especially if they strike an impact and influences your followers.
10. Speak your audience ‘s language.

Think of the terms your audience is using before you tweet.
Click To Tweet

11. Talk about new things. – Keep your tweet interesting by tweeting new things and
    updates about yourself, brand, products and services.

Speaking of new things, here are additional ways you can promote your business on Twitter. Some of these you can do by yourself or you can consider virtual assistant outsourcing, which has gone tremendously popular among small to medium business owners.

• Tweet your New Product Launch: Got a new stuff to introduce soon? Generate follower interest by tweeting teaser details and images weeks before the launch.
• Twixclusive: Limited-time Discounts and Special Offers: Many Twitter users look for the hashtag #Twixclusive to look for recent deals. A Twixclusive also leads to more sales, retweets and followers!
• Take Advantage of Seasonal Events: Special days like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Back to School simply get people talking and sharing. Insert your business into discussions by showing how people use your products during these times.
• Local Events and Sports: Generate more interest for your business by giving away discounts or customized items during popular sporting and cultural events like Super Bowl, Oscars, or even state-level events.

Not all businesses have the budget to sustain paid promotional campaigns. Thankfully, there is Twitter among other social media networks where you can market your business for free. Follow us on Twitter for VA updates and marketing tips! @virtualtalentph