Hashtags for Listening, Collecting, Broadcasting and Conversations

by on October 4, 2010 in Best

Great idea came from a different conversation.  Mike Sansone asked me if there was a hashtag for Social Media Informer.  While we have created a twitter account (@SocialMediaInf) that currently sends out links to posts and eventually will be sending out links to only the best posts from the day, week, month.  But I hadn’t really considered a hashtag.

I’m honestly a bit torn on what’s best here.  I did some background research on the use of hashtags.  Of course I cheated and used pages from Social Media Informer such as hashtag, hashtag marketing, and B2B hashtag and the B2B Marketing Zone hashtag page.

In breaking down the recommendations, it seems like there were three basic ways that hashtags could be used in our context:

Listening / Collecting

We can listen to existing hashtags that relate to our hubs and potentially use that to bring in additional material for inclusion in the site.  For example, #socialmedia likely has a pretty good flow of links to articles/posts that may make sense to include.

We could also set up a specific hashtag that would be used by participants to mark content that they think should be included.  Or this could be done by including @socialmediainf in tweets.

Broadcasting / Conversation

Our twitter account could certainly be using hashtags as a way of better indicating topics/subtopics that relate to specific posts.  For example, this post might have #hashtag #socialmedia when it is sent out by @socialmediainf.  Theoretically, by adding one or two hashtags we will Get More Retweet Action on Twitter.

However, if we adopt a particular hashtag that’s used by participants to indicate that content is interesting to this audience, then that could also help form a conversation.

Overuse

I’m a bit worried by the potential for overuse, especially in the Broadcasting scenario.  From HOW TO: Get the Most Out of Twitter #Hashtags:

The primary one to remember: don’t overuse them. If every one of your tweets IS a hashtag, you dilute the usefulness of them by fragmenting the conversation. In addition, many people will shy away from you because it seems spammy.

Ugh, I definitely want to balance the solution.

Plan / Questions

Honestly, I’m still not sure what the right approach is here.  I would definitely love to hear your comments.

  • Do you think that people would use a hashtag to indicate resources appropriate for topic hubs?
  • Do you think that a form of conversation or sharing would emerge as a result?
  • How do I balance the concern over spam?

Bottom line – what would you suggest?

Additional Resources

Here are posts that talk more about the use of hashtags:

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