Tag, You’re It

Filed Under: All Posts, Guest Bloggers on October 28, 2009

This blog is for all of you who have joined the Twitter craze, are considering joining the Twitter craze and those who are just crazed or twittered. If you have spent much time looking around on Twitter, you will realize that some people put weird symbols in their posts. For instance, this actual post from the Omaha World Herald – Sports still makes sense, but there are pound signs and extra words after the sentence – hence the #nebraska and #omaha.

These signs create what Tweeters call hashtags. Hashtags are a way to trigger the Twitter search engine to pull that tweet into a database on that subject. For instance, if I make a tweet with a brilliant business tip and I do not add a hashtag, only the people who are following me on Twitter will have the opportunity to see this life changing business tip. However, if I’d included the hashtag #biztip, Twitter would put this into a database. Those who are interested in the tip can search for business tips and finding the #biztip database, can find not only my business tip, but business tips from hundreds and thousands of other brilliant business people.

What group of people will get the most benefit from my business tip? My friends from college, my family, the kids from the high school musical I direct? Probably not. However, there are thousands of small business owners who are not currently following me that could benefit from that tip and thousands of other tips.

GROW Nebraska now has their own hashtag. GROW’s hashtag is #growne. Any information that has to deal with GROW that you want others who are interested in GROW to know should have the #growne hashtag in it. For instance, if you have a question about a GROW Nebraska service, try posting your tweet with our hashtag in it. First of all, we will be able to find your question easily. Second, other people may have the same question and didn’t know or didn’t feel comfortable asking the question.

Creating a hashtag for your business or event is easy. The first thing is to find a short, yet relevant name for your hash tag. Since Tweets can only be 160 characters, shorter is better. Once you have a couple of ideas in mind, check to make sure that your hashtag isn’t already being used by someone else by typing it into the search engine on the right-hand side of the page. If nothing comes up in the search, all you have to do is start using the hashtag. Tell your friends and family who are on Twitter to start using it and make sure to let the people who are following you know too.

If you have any questions regarding hashtags, tweet your question to us by using our hashtag or you can email us at info@grownebraska.org.