One of the many mysteries people often ask about in relation to Twitter is use of Hashtags - the where, what and how. For those not aware of Hashtags, it's the # sign which is sometimes put in front of a single word or number of words to group them together. Then all Tweets featuring that Hashtag can be shown together. 

On a large scale it might be used by, say, a radio or TV programme to get people talking and sharing opinions about it. All you have to do is type in the Hastag in the search box on Twitter to discover what people are saying. To join in the conversation people simply have to mention the Hastag in their Tweet and other people searching for the same topic will see your Tweet. Today one of the top Hashtags (also called Trending) is #SomeoneIWantToMeet. By typing this in the search box, or in this case clicking on it in the Trends in the left hand box, you can see the current conversation. 

It's a great way of finding people with similar interests and opinions as people don't list everything in their Twitter profile, and so this is a way of reaching people you'd otherwise probably not connect with.

Many Twitter users also have keywords that they follow and so anything with that Hashtag will be flagged up to them. In business the uses of this are clear. If you are an outsourcing company mentioning #outsouring frequently will get your Tweets in front of people who have outsourcing as one of the Hastags they follow. The Hashtag basically makes it easier for people to find and share information related to a particular topic, such as when a big news story breaks. 

But it isn't just about you and I having conversations and sharing opinions as businesses and emergency services, for example, use it to get important information to the public quickly and simply.

We mentioned Trending earlier, which happens when a lot of people are talking about the same Hashtag. You can have worldwide or UK trending, and you can always find the latest ‘trending topics’ on your Twitter home page on the left hand side. It is by no means easy to get a trending topic given that there are around 250 million Tweets every day, but you can sometimes use a Trending topic to your benefit by getting involved in the conversation to promote your business. This does depend on the topic though as may are pretty bizarre!

You do need to think carefully about the Hashtags you want to use and make sure they are relevant and that people are likely to be searching for them. There's no point Tweeting if no one is reading. See what's popular in relation to your business and which keywords are attracting the kinds of conversations you want to be involved in. It's important to also make sure the Hastag isn't already being used for a totally unrelated conversation stream.

You need to promote your Hashtag so that others know what to search for. Some of the bigger corporations have started promoting Hashtags instead of their websites, which just goes to show the power of the tag! On a smaller scale, if you go to a conference, for example, you could set up a Hashtag to promote the event and talk to all the delegates - before, during and after the day. Think of it as a free promotional tool to help build brand awareness and make connections.

There is just a small word of warning when it comes to promotion. Mashtagging is defined as 'A social networking status update, Tweet, or post that contains an unnecessarily large number of tags or tagged names often unrelated to the context of the post.' In some instances big businesses have been known to use trending topics, such as news items, or popular topics, such as #Apple to promote their own businesses. This does not go down well and your business is the one that will come off looking bad. In addition, Twitter can close your account if they think you’re out to spam by using hashtags incorrectly.

So, do your research carefully and before long you'll be using Hashtags to promote your business like a pro!

Do you use Twitter Hashtags? We'd love to hear your thoughts about how best to use them.

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