Hashtags to Reach Your Target Market

Hashtags (#) are on every social media site including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Tumblr, but what exactly do they mean and how is this marketing strategy going to help reach your target market? As you read on you will learn the different types of hashtags particular to authors, bloggers and public speakers, while seeing examples of how to better target your audience with this strategy.

First, let’s get to know the meaning of hashtags. Hashtags are a type of metadata tag that is combined with words or phrases in messages and posted on social networking services to form a unique message or thought specific to an audience. Hashtag messages can have representation for individuals or businesses and help people or users find specific tweets, posts or comments. The group of words combined are then created in tweets, posts or in blogs on several specific thoughts including the topics of books, TV shows, movies, debates, #quotes, celebrities, news, events or other conversations that can be useful or relevant to others on social networking sites. Once this hashtag is formed others can click the link of the hashtag created to view past hashtags of this specific message or thought.

Learn the four main etiquettes of #hashtags:

Etiquette #1: Create a hashtag relevant to your message. If your hashtag has no relevance to the message it will be considered spamming. So if you’re sending a photo of you and fans at your latest book signing, stay away from a hashtag on the weather, keep the content relevant to your photo or message.

Etiquette #2: Hashtags should not be run-on-sentences, keep these phrases short and to the point. The maximum number of words in a hashtag should be three. Anything longer than this can be too difficult for readers to even want to figure out, so avoid those hashtags like #WritingForTheFunOfItTodayOnTheBeach. Instead, use phrase in text, “Writing for the fun of it today on the beach. Nothing like #BeachWriting.”

Etiquette #3: Take advantage of this marketing opportunity to build your brand. As you create a unique hashtag for your business you are building reputation for your brand. So use this hashtag in everything relevant to your business and every time someone clicks on this hashtag they will pull up all of your past messages, links, photos and content relevant to your brand. This will help gain a better insight of what you talk about, where you go and the credibility of your brand.

Etiquette #4: Punctuation marks and spaces are a “no-no” in the hashtag world. Once a space is created the hashtag will end with the word before that space.The same goes for punctuation marks, once these are included the phrase of your hashtag will end with the word before the punctuation.

*Side tip: In hashtag world there is no difference with upper and lower case letters, so if you post #HashTagGuru, all other #hashtagguru posts will also come up in searches.

Hashtags are a great marketing tool to help build your brand, but also be aware of the success from competitors’ hashtags as well, to help you gain attention of consumers and where the talk is at in particular to your industry.

Essential Hashtags for Authors, Bloggers and Public Speakers

Authors:

Authors have a great opportunity to market their readers by incorporating hashtags in their tweets on Twitter or posts on Facebook. Connecting with other authors, reading groups, book clubs and of course, fans. These hashtags create inspiration to many authors as well, building new ideas and virtually sharing their interests with other fans and peers.

Here are the top ten hashtags for authors, along with a few examples of how to use them properly:

#AmEditing

#AskAuthor

#indieauthor & #indieauthors

These two hashtags mean there is no additional publisher involved. Several indies have their own micro-press so their books will continue to have a publishers name, but not of the authors service companies. Most indies will also have their own ISBN. So when you incorporate this phrase in a tweet you can say, “In celebration of my 5 yr anniversary as an #indieauthor, I am allowing fans to #AskAuthor anything about this book!”

#BookGiveaway

“Today is #BookGiveaway day! Come out to the @CoffeeHouse to get your copy of my #BestSeller.”

#eBooks

#FridayReads

“My #FridayReads continue as I am #editing my new #eBook coming out this December!”

#WriterWednesday (or #WW)

#WritersLife

“My coffee is brewing and pencil in hand as I sit on my porch overlooking the beach. This is the #WritersLife.”

#WritingParty

“Hosting a #WritingParty online, feel free to join in at 3pm today to talk about #StoryFriday.”

#WritingTip


 

Bloggers:

Bloggers really need to take advantage of this tool on social media platforms like Twitter. This marketing tool can reach hundreds of consumers each hour, so tweet to your fans and gain followers with a hashtag relevant to other bloggers or consumers and your blogs.

#Blog

This is the highest hashtag for a blogger. The average tweets per hour using this hashtag is 130 to 700. The peak of this hashtag is on the weekdays between 4AM and 1PM EST. However, because this hashtag is so common, your tweets might not be as noticed. Still, include the (#) when referencing your blog as you will gain the attention and build credibility as a blogger.

#Blogs

This hash tag actually receives fewer tweets per hour, compared to #Blog (without the ‘s’), you can use this hashtag in a message like this, “My #Blogs are up for review! Who is going to be the first to RT?”

#Blogger

This is an excellent hashtag on Twitter. This single hashtag can get up to 130 tweets per hour, with more traffic in the morning or late evening. “#Blogger Tip 101: A good #blog should be no less than 300 words long, anything less is bad for #SEO.”

#Bloggers

Again, the ‘s’ brings the traffic down. Still receiving good quality tweets and hashtags, however not as many as #Blogger.

#Blogchat

This hashtag was created by @MarkCollier and typically runs every Sunday at 8pm CT. You can find #Blogchat on other days and times by searching this hashtag and comparing which discussion you want to participate in that day.

#MondayBlogs

Every Monday post your blog with this hashtag to gain the attention of other bloggers posting or consumers looking for fresh new content.

#Blogging

#Blogpost


 

Public Speakers:

Public speakers can definitely take advantage of hashtags to reference their upcoming event or topic they will be speaking about at a conference. These hashtags should include cities, locations, topics, business and other keywords that will attract an audience to your speaking event.

Include the following hashtags as week, for consumers to know your specialty and if you’re the opening act or a keynote speaker.

#Speakers

#PublicSpeaker

“I will be #PublicSpeaking today at the conference held on campus.”

#PublicSpeaking

#Consultant

“As a #Consultant for #Publishers I will be sharing valuable insight to others at the #WritersConference in Baltimore on Nov. 2, 2014 @ 9AM.”

#Keynote

“I am excited to be the #Keynote speaker at tomorrow’s event, just for #PublicSpeaking experts!”

Now, you are ready to go out into the social networking world and properly use these hashtags to reach your target market. Continue to look over the etiquettes of hashtags as you market the right audience and build your brand.

Thanks for including #SpeakingofWealth hashtag when referencing this helpful marketing blog!