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How Does Hashtag Work on Twitter and How to Trend Hashtag

by : rajkishore Category : Marketing Date :
how to trend a hashtag on twitter

It was the modest but brilliant invention over the internet, throughout its life expectancy hashtags have created a huge impact over Social Media and carrying with the same legacy to date. But the real utilizers of the hashtag and bringing them into the picture was done by Twitter.

Twitter, is well-known for its hashtags, the amount of authentic hashtags we get over on twitter is comparatively better than the number of authentic hashtags we get over on other Social Media platform.

So, actually, hashtag means

The hashtag is categorizing keyword tool used to categorize your message to specific content. It does simple thing just direct your hashtag attribute to assigned attribute which sender of the message wants to categorize. For instance, very famous #hashtag is trending nowadays #metooindia the content posted by #metooindia or #metoo will automatically be categorized and if anyone wants to search who tweeted #metoo they can just simply search #metooor #metooindia and see the number of posts being tweeted since the moment of initiation. Hence, it describes the particular topic or theme justifying the hashtagged conversation or content providing a label to it.

trending twitter hashtags

How does #hashtag works?

To know how #hashtag works you need to understand what is the core functionality behind the search engine which filters and categorize hashtags and it will help you to understand how really hashtags works behind the scene.

For instance, you posted; Hello! Everyone I’m here to announce a new product on #dontgetserious.

So, this is the simple statement which was composed by you and posted on your Twitter profile. Now, the real journey begins. This composed tweet will be sent on the server of Twitter where all the tweets are being first entered to the mainstream server without being categorized. Still, your post and content are not yet being categorized so for the Twitter server, the categorizing is yet to be placed. Nextly, twitter collect all the database of past and present and their search engine will command for the action to search for the posts related to #dontgetserious.

The server will automatically filter all the content related to the #dontgetserious hashtag and will give them the input label and further send it for the storage on severe. This all will happen with lightning speed and don’t even take few seconds, the interconnectivity is quicker the Dhoni’s reflexes for a stumping, everything will happen with the trace of the bullet.

Above mentioned activity by Twitter was the primary task of its server now the real part of hashtag will begin into the picture.

Since the input programmed by the Twitter server is given #dontgetserious the server will automatically command in response to the output which will be shown in favor of content used by the label #dontgetserious. So, “content: Hello! Everyone I’m here to announce a new product on #dontgetserious” will have two commands

input=“#dontgetserious”
output=“Hello! Everyone I’m here to announce new product on #dontgetserious”

Now, let us suppose the post “Hello! Everyone I’m here to announce a new product on #dongetserious” is posted by the founder of DontGetSerious. Com Mr. Rohan Pandya. At the other end, Mr. Anshu Singh sitting somewhere in the other part of the world wants to search something about dontgetserious on his twitter profile so he will search in search bar Dontgetserious “Command reached the twitter search engine”.

Now, twitter search engine will search the #dontgetserious label and try to link the input with output and in response to the input given “Hello! Everyone I’m here to announce a new product on #dontgetserious” will be shown on Anshu Singh’s search engine result page.

So, this was all about how does hashtag’s work. It is as simple as segregating the tasks on automation basis.
Till now you understood by the hashtags core functionality but how to use them appropriately is the big challenge, especially for those #hashtags, are very common. It’s very challenging to index your hashtags because it gets filter every minute we put command. So, here are a few ways you can use to trending hashtags.

#1. Be different with your hash

I mean the hashtag, not the other one. A lot of people ends up indexing at the least noticeable pointer of hashtags on twitter i.e. hashtag appearing on very late part of SERP (Search Engine Result Page). The reason is simple they used very common #hashtag, the biggest mistake when it came to the engaging audience. So, the advice is that use you #hashtag which sounds a bit different than other hashtags available on twitter—just make it different.

For instance,

You have a website ABC Ticketing providing Air tickets online. So, now you decided to outreach people with your new APPLY COUPON CODE which will help your users to get FLAT @30% OFF on 1st 3rd 5th and 7th air ticket in following year.

If you will use #Flat30 as hashtag than there is a chance that you will not appear in Twitter’s SERP. Instead, try to feature using unique hashtag #ABCOFFat30

This will command Twitter server to label your content different from the content present on their server. In fact, they will categorize and label this different from other hashtags used by promoting FLAT @30% OFF. This is the best way to appear on top as well as to engage more.

#2. If you want to trend follow the trend

If you want to trend your hashtag you must use the seasonal festive time to trend your hashtag.

Why?
Simply, because in particular season the big brands will be coming up with the best hashtags and if you will use those hashtags then there are greater chances that your tweet analytics will respond in a much positive way.

So, what does it happen if we use the seasonal time to trend our hashtags?
The answer is simple it will bring more impressions i.e. Number of times people saw this tweet on twitter and Total engagement i.e. Number of times people interacted with this tweet. Hence, giving you the chance of getting noticed by the people more often, in less time and negligible cost-effective way.

#3. Measure and fix to major

When it comes to measuring the hashtags there are plenty of online tools available to check your tweets and hashtags analytics but you should keep a note on what is really working and what is not working at all. You need to give dimension to your hashtags, make them flow where people are letting your hashtags to flow. Three components you need to be concern about;

Mention: Your hashtags should inspire people to interact means your hashtags should be mentioned at more often by the people who are talking on your theme.

Views: Your views of the content should be comparatively high which means it should be viewed by at least 10k people to reach the point where your hashtags start appearing on the top or either started being showed as more authentic.

Followers: Check whether the hashtag is bringing more followers or not.

These three analysis will give you clear cut idea about your #hashtags performance and will further help you in guiding where to go and where to not give by showing you the direction. Just measure your hashtags and fix on the hashtag majorly used by the people for interacting either with you or your brand, the more they are in the more attention you get rest followed by cascading effect of word-of-mouth.

#4. Don’t use numbers, special characters and slangs for hashtags

If you start using #70FF as hashtag than this will not work instead of starting with #OFF70 words will give much dynamics to your hashtags. Usually, numbers are being characterized less effective and creating confusion in SERP and slangs will have a different meaning in a different country sometimes offensive as well. Always remember not to use special characters like & ) $ ! these in #hashtags because it will break your hashtag and as result, you won’t find the words joining together. For instance, #ABC$ so the hashtag #ABC$ will be in bold till #ABC not till #ABC$ because $ is one of the special characters which will split the hashtag into two.

There are many slangs which will have an offensive meaning in other native languages creating confusion and uncontrollable negative word-of-mouth marketing. So, beware of these two mistakes —Never, Never! Use this in your #hashtag marketing.

#5. Use the trending topics of the day

There is plenty of website which showcases the most used #hashtags in last minute, last hour, last day, last week, last month and so on. Use this especially when you’re not promoting your brand instead wanted just to put your content visible to the audience at the engage-able rate. Just figure out top-ten topics related to your content or theme discussed over Twitter in the last few moments. 9 out of 10 times you will find these and accordingly you can use those #hashtags. Kindly, note that it’s not being legally trademarked by people or organization.

#6. In order to get a hashtag trending on Twitter, it is crucial that you have an established following

In order to get a hashtag trending on Twitter, it is crucial that you have an established following. Many of the people who get their own hashtags going tend to have over 50K followers and more so if they are in your niche; find them by searching for the most successful Twitter user in this area. As your social media following grows, be sure not only to follow those with similar interests but also follow back anyone else that follows you because as soon as enough people start seeing all of these posts within minutes or hours then we’ll see our tag go viral!

#7. Make your hashtags something worthy of trending.

Make your hashtags something worthy of trending. Whether you are approaching a certain follower milestone or using it as part of some other promotional campaign like promoting new products/services. Make your hashtag something good enough to trend. If you’re approaching a follower milestone, tweet that out! Uber Facts used the hashtag #UberFactsTo6Million when they reached 6 million followers and wanted more people to know how popular their account is.

As a company, approaching milestones is an important way to engage with your followers. The Uber Facts account recently reached 6 million Twitter followers and wanted their hashtag #UberFactsTo6Million trending for the occasion!

The popular social media marketing team at Uber had been tweeting out facts about themselves since 2009 after they were convinced by another user’s suggestion that it would be fun. In 2016, this became even more of a priority as they hit 5 million Twitter accounts followed, and in 2017 when they went past the 10 Million follower milestone! So unsurprisingly, on January 3rd, 2018 as soon as their next huge mark was coming up (reaching 7 Million), there was no better time than now to promote them using the hashtag #UberFactsTo7M

#8. One way to get a trending topic off the ground is by paying for promoted tweets

If you want to get your trending topic off the ground, there are a few things that can help. One is paying for promoted tweets so they will be seen by more people and spread faster than if left alone in social media. Make at least one tweet with this promotion and promote them to different audiences since everyone’s tweeting something about their prom or graduation party (or just showing some college pride). This “ad campaign” should last only hours – not days like usual PPC campaigns because broad targeting means less money spent on ads! It might go against what most of us have learned from digital marketing but hey, sometimes we need an unconventional approach when all else fails!

#9. Ask for tweets and retweets

Uber Facts has a clever way of making their tweets seem more interesting. They created this hashtag to get people’s attention and remind them that they had the chance for some free Uber credits, so when someone tweeted #UberFactsTo6Million or retweeted it with their original tweet on Twitter, they were instantly entered into the giveaway!

#10. Give people a reason to continue tweeting for a longer period of time

In an effort to give people a reason to keep tweeting about the hashtag, Uber Facts doubled its price from $100 to $200. The increased interest and attention helped prolong the popularity of this trending topic for even longer than originally expected!

#11. Let’s bring on the engaging content

If your goal is to have a trending hashtag, then you need content that will engage the audience. There are plenty of ways to do this and I’ve touched on some of them already in my post but for brevity’s sake it deserves mentioning again here: make sure tweets are engaging enough so they get as much activity from followers quickly.

#12. Know your audience and know their interests

If your goal is to have a trending hashtag, then you need content that will engage the audience. There are plenty of ways to do this and I’ve touched on some of them already in my post but for brevity’s sake it deserves mentioning again here: make sure tweets are engaging enough so they get as much activity from followers quickly.

#13. Give them an answer back immediately

Did you know that an average of 30% of people who comment on posts never leave a reply? It’s important to invest in your comments, and give value. To do so: identify the main point or take-away from what someone said; share a related personal experience where appropriate (not bragging); ask questions about something they mentioned that piqued your interest; offer encouragement when warranted. If somebody says “Hey” talk with them for a while!

#14. Pick the perfect time for your tweet

Picking the right time to tweet can be tricky, but it’s even more difficult when you are trying to create a trend. You should start early in the day and post several times leading up to your event so people get excited about what is coming soon. Then during optimal hours use retweeting strategies as well as any media posts or contests that will make your tweets really stand out from everyone else’s!

#15. Twitter has some rules about what is allowed when trending

Twitter has rules about what you can and can’t do when trending. It’s important to follow these so that your account is not penalized or banned from Twitter!

For example, using profanity in a tweet will get it deleted if reported by another user. Have an opinion? Share but don’t be offensive – even though this might sound like common sense, there are people who just don’t know any better! We all need a friendly reminder now and then.

Conclusion

So, these were some ways to trend your #hashtags and I hope you understood how does hashtag’s works over twitter and what are the best ways which will fit your hashtag bucket to trend.

Raj Kishore About Raj Kishore A digital marketing consultant at VOCSO. I've been working in digital marketing since 2010 and I am an expert at generating leads online via SEO, Paid Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, Site/Landing Page Testing and Optimization, and Display and Remarketing.


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