The Importance of Hashtags

If you want your business to get noticed when using social media, it is vitally important that you start to incorporate hashtags when sharing your content online. At fatBuzz we use them to help get your content to the right audience, and in this post we will share with you some hints and tips for using hashtags.

Now some would say that hashtags are just part of the “online lingo”. Which is of course true, we have all seen #NoFilter or #Selfie being used online. But the hashtag is much more than a modern colloquialism, it is an incredibly useful tool for connecting your business with the people you want to engage with.

With most major social networks now supporting the use of hashtags, including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram, there has never been a better time to start using them!

Hashtags will serve as a hyperlink to other users on social media sites that search for the term.

If you start to think of hashtags as a conversation topic, they will allow people who are interested in the discussion to be able to quickly identify and engage with you.

For example, if you were wanting to engage about the Oscars this year, using the hashtag #Oscars2015 has a better chance of being seen by those interested in the awards as they can simply search for the hashtag and see your post.

In using hashtags you will be able to expose your content to a wider audience as you are channeling information to the right people. However, using them correctly is what can truly boost your business’s chance of engagement.

One key factor in using hashtags is to keep it brief. Overlong and overdetailed hashtags simply won’t catch on. You want yours to be a clear and concise summary of the topic/event you are talking about.

You also shouldn’t be using more than two hashtags at a time. Studies have shown that when you use more than two hashtags, engagement drops by 17% on average. A quality summary will always be better than a high quantity when it comes to hashtagging.

If we look at the Oscars example again, picture yourself searching for a term to see who has won best actor. Are you more likely to look for #WhoHasWonTheOscarForBestActor or #OscarWinners?

It is that simple, and getting yourself into this habit will make sure that your hashtags are relevant and easy to find. If you stick to using keywords in yours it will make for a much more engaging hashtag.

Remember as well to use existing hashtags to connect with your audience. If your business is attending an event, look out for official tags and if you think they are relevant - use them! They are a great method of marketing yourself within an existing group.

We have covered the basics to help you in using hashtags on social media. The next time you post an update, a blog or tweet, we hope you try some of our tips and see for yourself how helpful using a simple hashtag can be. #GoodLuck!

For more helpful hints on how to market your business follow fatBuzz on our social media channels below, check out our QuickBuzz videos on YouTube and of course stay posted right here on our blog.

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Sometimes social media platforms can make you look silly...

    

  

Recently we presented to a client about making the most of LinkedIn's functionality and the various features they should be using on the platform. This week some of that information is completely redundant; LinkedIn is making a change to the company pages having announced the Products and Services tab is to disappear on the 14th April. 

So there we were demonstrating the fatBuzz LinkedIn Products and Services tab with a complete list of services, healthy impressions and some good recommendations only to discover it is being dropped later this month. Read more from LinkedIn here...

The problem with social media marketing is knowing where to concentrate your efforts and we've long said the hub of your social media marketing activity should be on a platform that you own and control. There are many tools and platforms out there that will help extend the reach of your message but you should take whatever steps you can to 'future proof' your investment by syndicating content to them rather than creating the content on them.

The changes to LinkedIn means we will lose the recommendations we have on the Products and Services tabs; LinkedIn say we can recover them by copying them to our own document before the 14th April - not really a great result!  

The advice from LinkedIn is to use Showcase Pages in future. Showcase pages are intended to extend your presence on LinkedIn by featuring specific aspects of your business, they are intended for long-term engagement rather than to promote short-term events or campaigns. Read more about LinkedIn Showcase Pages here... 

To promote short-term campaigns you should use Company Updates. You can post and share items like company news, promotions, relevant industry articles, SlideShare presentations, and Vimeo and YouTube videos. Read more about Company Updates here...

The topic of the April New Media Breakfasts is "Choosing the right tools" where we will be looking at how to decide which tools are best suited to your goals; as part of this we will be looking at what you can do to limit the impact of sudden changes to social media platforms and the functionality they offer. You can find out more about the New Media Breakfast presentations here...

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New-Bees are Buzzing

We revealed last month that we were looking for two new mouths to feed at fatBuzz - and we are delighted to announce that we have found the perfect candidates!

Firstly, we would like to welcome our new Social Media Account Manager, Joanna Robb, to the team.

Joanna had been interning with fatBuzz for six months, and she has always been a major part of the fatBuzz team, but we thought it was about time we made it official!

Joanna graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University with a 2:1 Honours Degree in Marketing, and in addition to keeping the fatBuzz boys in check, she will work directly with a range of clients on marketing, social media engagement and developing online communities.

While carrying out 'extensive' research for this post, we found out that Joanna used to attend RSAMD Theatre Group... which really does explain a lot! 

In all seriousness, Joanna is a real people person with an infectious, bubbly personality and we are confident that she will bring a range of additional skills to the team.

We are also delighted to welcome our latest web developer/designer, Chris Winch, to the team.

Chris is a web and graphic designer from Dumbarton, with vast experience in developing websites for a range of businesses across various sectors. 

We knew Chris was the perfect candidate for this role as soon as we met him; he is experienced, enthusiastic and ambitious, but most importantly, he fits in perfectly with the fatBuzz culture.

Chris' main skills lie in HTML/CSS, WordPress and Graphic Design, but he is also vastly experienced with UX/Usability, Responsive and Mobile Web Design and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Interestingly, we have just found out that Chris and our other web developer David actually went to school together, although they didn't know each other at the time!

It really is a small world, isn't it?

In saying that, we are sure that our own little world will continue to grow and we look forward to welcoming lots of new faces to the fatBuzz team in 2013.

If you've found this post interesting please use the share buttons below to tell your online community about it, there's a good chance they'll find it interesting too.

 

Team members make their Quick Buzz debut

Since our last post on our series of Quick Buzz videos, other team members have decided to make their first appearance in front of the camera.


If you have seen these videos before 'Quick Buzz' is a series of 30-60 second videos clips by fatBuzz bringing you news, events and updates from the world of Design, Marketing and Social Media.

The first video is by our newest member of the team, Kirsty. In this edition Kirsty gives you her first Quick Buzz about Facebook pages.

The next part of the series is from Marion of fatBuzz, where she share's her extensive knowledge in event management on how to run a success event.

Here we have Gordon,talking about how it is important to be yourself on social media as it will create more engaging conversation.

Finally we have Cecilia, our senior designer, gives us a very useful tip on how it is important to adapt a square format of your logo so you can make it work with social media.

These videos will be syndicated to our various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Blog, YouTube and you will also be able to find them on the fatBuzz website. Be sure to look out for the next Quick Buzz with other members of the fatBuzz team. We would be interested to find out what you would like to see on future 'Quick Buzz' episodes, so please don't hesitate to tweet or facebook us.

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Make sure you catch Quick Buzz

Make sure you catch Quick Buzz


Quick Buzz' is a series of 30-60 second videos clips by fatBuzz bringing you news, events and updates from the world of Design, Marketing and Social Media.



 The first video Gordon White of fatBuzz talks about how your social media is not the responsibilty of any one person in your company.

Here we have the second video, where Gordon discusses how important video content is when hosting an event and to help promote future events.

In our latest addition to the 'Quick Buzz' series, Gordon tells us about who should not be embracing social media

These videos will be syndicated to our various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Blog, YouTube and you will also be able to find them on the fatBuzz website. Be sure to look out for the next Quick Buzz with other members of the fatBuzz team. We would be interested to find out what you would like to see on future 'Quick Buzz' episodes, so please don't hesitate to tweet or facebook us.

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Back to Basics - Simplifying Social Media Marketing

7.30am for 8am - 29th July 2011
No.29  Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow.


In September 2009 we held the first New Media Breakfast where we looked at social media in general and explored the various ways to participate; in the past couple of months we have received lots of requests to do an updated version of that presentation.



The July New Media Breakfast will look at social media today and offer a definition and examples of social media marketing - how businesses can use social media to promote their goods and services.  Social Media Marketing is being accepted as an essential part of the marketing mix by the world's largest brands, business are realising the need to engage and communicate at this level and, a bigger share of marketing budgets are being spent on digital channels so, it has never been more important to be aware of social media and understand how it can work for you.

Using what you already know
Sticking to the title theme, we will demonstrate how a complete "back to basics" approach can help you get to terms with social media and help you understand how you can participate effectively.  We will try to show you that using what you already know and do can be easily adopted on digital platforms to help you develop and implement an effective social media marketing strategy.  We believe there is a tendency to over complicate social media activity; yes there are pitfalls and areas of concern but, we believe our 'back to basics' approach will help you identify and understand how to approach most situations you may encounter online.

Social Media Advertising
Social media marketing encompasses engagement, forming relationships and emotional connections but it doesn't stop there; advertising on social media channels is an integral part of social media marketing but, the most successful businesses are those who are integrating the ability to share content among friends with conventional advertising to create social media advertising campaigns that tap into the massive power of word of mouth.  At the breakfast we will take a look at what's new in social media advertising and how you can utilise your community to promote your business effectively.  We will also explore how to utilise the highly targeted nature of social media advertising.

Venue: 29 Member's Club, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow
Date: Friday 29th July 2011
Time: 7.30am for 8am


No.29 Members Go Free – If you are a 29 Member you can attend the breakfast free of charge. Please email malcolm@fatbuzz.com with you membership number and he will add you to the attendance list. We hope you can make it along to this event. If so, I look forward to seeing you on the day.

BOOK FOR NEW MEDIA BREAKFAST GLASGOW HERE:

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