#Hashtags are a way of organising information on Twitter, but you may be wondering how to use them for a marketing campaign.
One strategy is to run a Q&A session for a given period of time, perhaps during that hour you’re stuck in a coffee shop between meetings. You could spend the morning tweeting a message such as:
Free HR clinic between 1pm and 2pm today, UK time. Tweet me your HR questions including #hr360uk and I’ll answer them instantly. Pls RT.
At 1pm you can do one of two things: Log on and do a search in Twitter for #hr360uk or click the +-in-a-circle icon on Tweetdeck to add a column for #hr360uk. All tweets that contain that hashtag will appear in one place, ready for you to answer.
Remember to quote the same hashtag in your replies and you’ll have a complete record of the conversation for future use. Maybe in a blog post?
It is a quick and easy way to demonstrate your expertise.
Note that hashtags are not exclusive (so try to pick something that no-one else is using), and they only stay ‘live’ for a few days.
This idea was inspired by Alan Stevens @mediacoach and his occasional #prclinic
‘Pls RT’ is short for Please retweet i.e. It’s a call-to-action inviting your followers to pass the message on to their own followers.