Home Insights On Twitter Do You Know Your Hashtags From Your Mentions?
10th June 2014 in Digital Marketing

On Twitter Do You Know Your Hashtags From Your Mentions?

Louise Towler

By Louise Towler

On Twitter Do You Know Your Hashtags From Your Mentions?

Twitter hashtags

# hashtag is like a category, so when you use #hashtag in a tweet it becomes a link to all tweets that also use the same #hashtag in a steam.

So why use a hashtag?

Well if lots of people use the same hashtag when talking about something their tweets will appear in the same stream. In that way, Twitter hashtags help conversations and if a particular word is used a lot as a hashtag it may even become a trending topic.

Top tips for twitter hashtags

  1. Before using a new twitter hashtag check if it is a new one?  Use the twitter or hootsuite search tool and make sure other people using this hashtag are talking about a the same  topic as you
  2. Careful of spelling, spaces are not included and make sure you leave a space between the hashtag and any punctuation such as commas
  3. Keep it short, so any hashtags on the end do not make the tweet too long to retweet

Twitter mentions

@ is used to identify another twitter user in a tweet, for example @ltconsulting . When the username has @ added at the beginning it becomes a link to that users twitter profile.

If someone uses your twitter username in a tweet this is a mention, and depending on your notification settings you can be sent a text / email when this happens.

So why mention other twitter users?

  • You can direct attention to a specific person/user, and are a good way to give another person recognition and recommend others to follow them
  • Can be a great ways to get noticed by another Twitter user, everyone likes to see who is talking about us!
  • Are used to start discussions and are an easy way to continue a back and forth conversation

Other useful Twitter terms

DM – Direct Message, if you send a DM only you and the recipient can view the message so they are private.

RT – Retweet, when you forward another persons tweet to all your twitter followers.

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