7 ways to use a hashtag (like #eventprofs) . to heighten your Twitter experience

1. Join the conversation
Back when I started eventprofs’ weekly chats, there were only a small handful of organized Twitter discussions…now there are over 55, and counting! Each chat is highly targeted to a segment of the Twitter population. For example, there are chats for fathers, association managers, caterers, feminists…and yes, even Anthropology in Product Management! They encourage like-minded people to come together at set dates & times to chat about topics relevant to them. It’s an incredible opportunity to leverage Twitter for learning, networking and crowdsourcing.
@spkrinteractive has created a fantastic Google Doc that tracks these chats and when they’re held – click this link to see the full listing.
For more information on the #eventprofs chat, click here.

2. Find tribemates
As mentioned above, hashtags naturally attract like-minded people. Whether they’ve been created to monitor an event, talk about a subject or for an organized chat, they create a tribe of followers who want to learn more about the subject. What better way to expand your tribe than to follow those who follow a hashtag you monitor. There are a few tools that help you find your tribemates: Wefollow and Twibes and Twubs are three of the more popular sites.

3. Send a highly-targeted message
OK – so we’re beginning to form a picture of like-minded tribemates. People who care enough about a topic or event to follow it. This can prove to be a fantastic opportunity to send a highly-targeted message. HOWEVER…the idea is not to use a hashtag as a broadcasting tool to spam people or to blatantly sell your products or services. After all, the common sense rules of social media still apply – engage, add value and be relevant. A great example of how not to use a hashtag is Habitat UK’s bad decision to use top trending hashtags to promote their spring collection and sale. A decision that still haunts them today. Contrary to Habitat’s strategy, there are many wonderful examples of how people have used hashtags successfully to send a targeted message. Some examples include: sharing a job opportunity, providing your perspective on a hot industry/subject topic, promoting a relevant event, sharing a product or service promotion valuable to the tribe, and distributing compelling news.

4. Find archived information
Think about hashtags like files within a filing cabinet. There are millions of conversations happening on Twitter. Using a hashtag is kind of like selecting conversations on a specific topic and putting them in a file. That file can be looked at by anyone who wants to see it. A popular way of tracking a hashtag longterm is to use TweetDeck. Simply click the magnifying glass icon
Earlier I mentioned one of my favorite tools to track and manage hashtags, What The Hashtag. This site also allows you to see who the top contributors were to the hashtag, how many tweets there were, how many people used the hashtag (and many more stats). The beauty of knowing the top contributors is that these are usually the segment’s influencers. Why is this important? Influencers are critical to helping spread a message. They’re highly connected and valued for the content they tweet…which means that when they tweet, people tend to listen. Getting a message in their hands, that strikes a chord with them, can lead to the message being re-tweeted and spread through the tribe and beyond.