Making Twitter and Facebook Hashtags Work for Your Business

If you're not clear about using hashtags in Twitter accounts, here’s a brief description. A hashtag is denoted by a hash (number sign - #) and is joined to a phrase or word to perform certain functions. Hashtags were attached by Twitter users to tweets to serve as categorizing tools, search mechanisms, and marketing tactics. Now they have arrived on Facebook as well.

If you’re using a Twitter account or a Facebook fan page for your small business, make sure you invest in hashtags as a component of your social media strategy. Sending out tweets or posts without making use of marked phrases and keywords indicates that you're ignoring a very important aspect.

Small businesses can follow these tips to improve their brand's hashtag strategy:

Look for business related conversations

Go to hashtags like #smallbiz or #SMB for resources, advice, and news relevant to small businesses. Though such broad hashtags are likely to generate a large number of tweets each day, tuning in often for quick updates is great for inspirations regarding future blog posts or marketing tactics.

Select hashtags by topic for more specific conversations. The #marketing and #sales hashtags contain loads of content related to small businesses. You could also peek into the #entrepreneurs or #startups hashtags for interesting profiles in your arena. For tips on connecting with like-minded business men, you could use the #networking hashtag.

Keep things consistent and simple

When you’re creating your own hashtags, try to keep them simple and direct. If you’re tweeting or posting regarding a blog explaining how your company uses finance apps, don't craft a complex hashtag. You could pair your post with hashtags like #SmallBiz and #apps instead of #SmallBusinessToolsandApps. Complicated hashtags are not search-friendly or commonly used, and your post might remain unnoticed.

Avoid using excessive hashtags because they might appear as a desperate marketing attempt. Using 1 to 2 hashtags in a tweet is quite enough.

Craft your own hashtags
 

This is a cool way to create interest in a marketing campaign. Using Twitter or Facebook for launching a contest is a great marketing strategy for your brand. Ask people who submit ideas, photos, or jokes to tweet with specific hashtags. This gives you all submissions in a single place at the end of the entry period.

You can use events as opportunities for the creation of conversations around hashtags. Assign a unique hashtag before the event, and you'll have discussion and content related to the event even before it begins.

Organize social dashboards

A convenient way to stay updated with relevant hashtags is by the designation of columns easily accessible in your social dashboard. You could add a hashtag column with a business theme to check when you can spare a moment. Keep adding columns as required, for example, when a hashtag contest or marketing campaign is launched.

Make use of Follow Friday. 

Through a January 2009 announcement on Twitter, Micah Baldwin suggested that people follow every week. This Follow Friday trend took off with the #FollowFriday hashtag which is now shortened to #FF.

You can also create a #FF of your tweet. List the people you wish to follow and try squeezing as many Twitter handles as possible into a single tweet with the #FF hashtag. Ensure your list is themed – for example, Political analysts, Comedians or Activists. Indicate the category of people suggested in the tweet. You could also support only 1 or 2 people such as executives, journalists, or prospective business partners in a #FF tweet for complimenting or communicating with them.

7 Reasons Why Your eCommerce Site Needs a Blog

Do eCommerce sites need a blog? Yes, they do. There are plenty of reasons to add a blog to your eCommerce site. Many webmasters wrongly assume that adding a blog to their site may distract people from buying. The truth is that it doesn't. On the other hand, your blog may encourage more people to buy from you. Here are seven reasons to add a blog to your eCommerce site.

1. Blogging gives you and your business a voice

When you blog on a regular basis, you will be able to create a unique voice for your online business. When you have a blog where you post useful information about your products, consumers will feel more comfortable buying from you. People want to know as much as possible about the products they are buying. A blog will make it possible. If your eCommerce site merely lists your items for sale, people will be less sure of buying from you.

2. Blogging gives more opportunities to reach your target customer

As an online business, you want more and more people to stop by your site and buy stuff. If you frequently blog, you will have more pages on your site. All of these pages can act as great entry points. If your site only has product pages, you seriously limit your chances of getting found online.

3. Blogging attracts more search traffic

We have seen this happening in numerous cases. When an eCommerce site starts blogging, its search traffic generally goes up. Search engines like sites that are constantly updated with fresh content. Since blogging gives you an opportunity to add new and useful content on a regular basis, it will improve your search ranking. Higher search rankings will bring in more visitors and more sales.

4. Blogging attracts more social shares

You blog when you have something that you want to share with others. If it is worth sharing, more and more people will readily share it on social media. When your content gets shared on the social media, you will get more visitors. Search engines have started looking at social shares as a measure of a site's popularity. This will improve your search rankings. Blogging also allows you to post different kinds of content on your social media channels.

5. Blogging gives more opportunities to convince people into buying

Every time you publish a new blog post, you can direct customers to different product pages on your site. You don't have to blog about just one product all the time. You can also blog about trends, best-selling products, testimonials, or just about anything that will bring you closer and closer to your target audience. Remember that every blog post is a great opportunity to sell.

6. Blogging attracts more backlinks

When you post useful content on your blog, other blogs in your niche will link to you. This attracts backlinks. As you probably know backlinks play a significant role in determining your search ranking.

7. Blogging attracts more buyers to your sales funnel

If you are serious about your business, you will definitely want to explore all possible ways to attract buyers into your sales funnel. Of course, your email subscriber list is your biggest asset. Your list will grow when you provide incentives such as freebies or discounts to sign up. Your blog is a great platform to communicate these offers to your audience.