How to Find Popular Twitter Hashtags

Twitter hashtags help make it easier to find and search for different posts and discussions focused on the same subject.  Hashtags are created by using the pound sign (#) with no punctuation or spaces in front of a word.  Using hashtags, users are able to find all the posts about a specific case, theme, mood or more. It also makes it a perfect opportunity for marketers to gather ideas and engage in large-scale conversations.

Using trends and popular hashtags on Twitter in your social media posts is a perfect way to raise your tweets to reach people beyond even your own followers. If you use a common hashtag in a tweet, you reveal that message to everyone discussing that topic and looking at the related messages for that subject.

To take full advantage of the power of hashtags, however, you'll need to learn the ones work better for your brand and your strategy.

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How Do Twitter Hashtags Work?

This can be indexed by Twitter if a user adds a hashtag to their post and is searchable or discoverable by other users. When anyone clicks on the hashtag, they will be taken to a page that will compile all messages in real time with the same hashtags.

When a keyword gets enough traction it is "trending." But trending isn't just about being the most popular hashtag. Trending hashtags and topics for each user are special, based on their location, social networks, and interests.

How to Use Hashtags

It's just as easy to use a hashtag on a social post as adding the #sign before a single word or sentence, without spaces or punctuation. Also, you can use numbers in your hashtags. It's quick enough to type a hashtag but there are some subtle nuances that you should master to get the most out of them.

Here are some simple rules for using the hashtags:

Hashtag Basics

• Should not add too many words together with a single hashtag if you use hashtags for their intended intent (categorization and discovery)-this makes it less readable and more difficult to identify.
• When you use a hashtag on a public account on most networks, someone who searches for that hashtag will be able to locate your message.
• Don't use #hashtags #spam . Avoid over-tagging or adding a single post to a single word.
• Just use hashtags related to the subject on Tweets. Trying to get attention by using a inconsistency between your Tweet content and hashtag looks inauthentic and will cause most readers searching for real details about that subject to ignore your post or even delete your page.

Although it is recommended that you jump in on trending hashtags and conversations, be careful to tread lightly — especially when using a brand account to respond to a disaster. Many have mixed opinions about whether a company can show compassion for victims of disasters. In general, whatever you do, don't use these types of interactions as a blatant platform for sales.

Look at everyday patterns and our Hashtag Holiday Calendar for an additional degree of timeliness for conversations to hop on in real time.

Creating Your Own Twitter Hashtag

The tools above all are great for identifying current common hashtags and trending ones, but what if you want to build your own hashtag?

Branded hashtags will put the group together, set you apart from the competition and add a bit of fun to your marketing campaign on Twitter.

However, not all of the advertised hashtags are produced equal. Perfect hashtags are easy to remember, legible and special to remember. This is a hashtag that will be linked to your brand, so you should put some thought into it. Below are a few tips to ensure you get the most out of your promoted hashtag on Twitter.

Attach Hashtags to a Campaign

The majority of branded hashtags will fall into one of two categories:

1. Always-on hashtags
2. Campaign specific hashtags

Always-on hashtags are ones like Nike's #Justdoit or Under Armour's #IWILL. These are an overarching marketing component of the products and not exclusive to any single campaign. Often you will see these types of hashtags used when user share content created by followers for their favorite brands.

The second is specific hashtags specific to campaigns. They usually have shorter lifetime and will be used for a limited promotion.

Perform a Hashtag Search First

Before deciding on a hashtag, be sure to check for it on Twitter. In particular, you want to make sure that no one else uses the same hashtag and that it's not connected to anything negative or outside of your company. If your desired hashtag was used many years ago, use of it is likely safe. But if it's used as part of a current campaign by a well-known brand, it will create a lot of uncertainty and make the legal team laugh.

Don’t Make the Hashtag Too Long

We have done all of that before. If typing out a text or a tweet, missing a character or misspelling a word all the time happens. The longer the hashtag on Twitter is, the more likely it will be that when you try to tweet it someone will make a typo.

You want to use your hashtag as something people can quickly identify and read. Here are some things to look for:

• Use several terminating words and beginning with the same letter (# gamingguys). This doubling of letters seems complicated and makes it a little difficult to type out quickly.
• Make it 3 words long (# itsgamedaytoday). Your hashtags should not be turning into full sentences. Ideally, limit your hashtags to below 3 characters.
• Using words which run into one another. The prime example of this mistake is hashtag failure of Susan Boyle's album release party. When you string several words together in one single hashtag, double search for any hidden messages.

Avoid Using Too Many Hashtags in a Tweet

This tip is applicable to both branded and non-branded hashtags on Twitter. Unlike Instagram where it's fairly normal to see 10 + hashtags in a single caption, hashtag cramming is a little less accommodating to Twitter.

Hold the hashtags amount in a tweet to below three. But typically one will suffice, particularly if it's a branded hashtag that's part of a campaign.