In Twitter 101 For Beginners Part 1 and Part 2, I covered a brief history of Twitter and the common language for engaging on this social network. This installment will focus on the importance of using hashtags and looking for conversations to join.
Hashtags are a great way for users to connect with others in the Twitter-verse. They serve several purposes, including the ability to make your Tweets searchable and imply sarcasm or humor to your content. But one of the biggest advantages (#IMO) of using hashtags, is that you can connect with others who are talking about the same topics as you. They give you the opportunity to strike up a conversation with those who share similar interests, whether it’s about sports, politics, pop culture or technology.
Many users incorporate popular or trending hashtags into their content. You can search for existing hashtags by typing “#” plus your desired search term into the Search box. Hashtags, when properly used in Tweets, will populate in searches as well as allow for easy click-through to follow the many conversations happening.
Here’s an example of a popular hashtag being used by different handles:
This is an example of users utilizing a common hashtag to converse with one another. This particular example is of the Twitter chat #ContentChat which is geared towards content marketing discussions:
You can even look at the Trending section to figure out what the hot topics for Twitter are in the moment:
Another function of Twitter is the ability to group users through segmented Lists. These Lists, private or public, allow you to filter out content for specific handles. For instance, let’s say you are a frequent visitor to New Orleans and you want to keep up with everything happening in the city to help with planning upcoming trips based on what’s going on in the city. You’d want to create a List and follow NOLA influencers such as @GoNOLA504, @VisitNewOrleans, @NewOrleans, @OffBeatMagazine, and many more. You can also subscribe to Lists that are created by others which saves you some of the leg work if you are following credible sources.
In the last three blog posts, we’ve explored the history of Twitter, understanding the 140 character limit, how to communicate with other handles, and utilizing searchable keywords to connect with others. The best advice I can give when joining the Twitter world for the first time is to explore the channel. Look for influential people to follow and see how they are utilizing this social media network. Then all you have left to do is compose your first Tweet and away you’ll go!