Description: Sharing my latest musings on travel and social media
Here’s a secret no one is going to tell you about Twitter. Most of your “followers” aren’t actually following what you’re doing. They probably followed you and forgot about you. This is just not the way people use Twitter. The nature of the platform makes it a bit overwhelming once you start following multiple people, the stream of tweets becomes enormous, and much of it is irrelevant content, so people stop paying attention.
So what’s a marketer to do? Don’t throw in the towel just yet, it’s easier than you think to reach an audience and get them to pay attention. Use hashtags! Yes, those strange words that appear on a tweet preceded by #. Most people who are on Twitter will follow a hashtag stream to hear what other people are saying about things they care about. Because I used a hashtag, a tweet I wrote during the Amazing Race finale was re-tweeted 74 times by people I didn’t even know .
Want to see hashtags in action? Search #Patriots on Twitter to see what people are saying about the New England Patriots football team. You should also notice that not only are people tweeting with the hashtag #patriots, but there are plenty more: #patriotnation, #superbowl, #nfl, etc. Smart marketers that they are, the Patriots themselves have even gotten in on this stream, tweeting offers to buy playoff tickets with these hashtags. By doing this same type of search for your own product or business, you