Blogging Tips

Hash tags are ways to denote an important tag word used in a Twitter update. The purpose in doing so is to build a community around a given tag word, which encourages more activity around a topic of interest. Search engines and dedicated Twitter memes can pick up on these hash-tagged keywords and provide a streamlined, niche set of Twitter updates relevant to that topic of interest. It can also help you build your brand.

One of the best examples of such a Twitter meme is #SXSW, the conference that helped Twitter on its path to popularity. SXSW itself had a meme that would retweet any updates that featured the hash-tagged SXSW term, creating a stream that’s specific to its event. This builds an entire community around the SXSW conference and helps to filter out the noise of other Tweets. It also helps the SXSW Conference brand itself.

Perhaps you’ve also heard of #FollowFriday, which is another great community-building tool on Twitter where users mention other Twitterers that they’re recommending you to follow. For new Twitter users and veterans alike, #FollowFriday can help you build your Twitter following and become an active member in the Twitter community, while learning of new useful users to follow as well.

The benefit of creating a hash-tagged keyword for yourself is that you’ve become even more of a resource on Twitter, building your own following and becoming known as the originator of a trend. If you’d like to see something accomplished, what better way to do it than for yourself?
Mashable recently created a list of Twitter memes that are becoming popular, noting that the key to creating a useful meme is to be consistent on a weekly basis. This makes the meme recurring and is associated with a particular day, just as a popular television series becomes tightly associated with a given day of the week.

But having a meme tied to a particular day isn’t the only way to get a meme going. As I mentioned above, creating a meme around an event or conference is effective. Creating memes around other popular aspects of culture can be useful as well, and you can still reap the benefits of getting in early on a given trend.

As memes are great filters and offer community activity around a trend you’ve initiated, the return traffic you’re likely to get on Twitter will help you build your brand and can be redirected accordingly from there. This is especially important as Twitter-related search engines are keen on alerting the world to popular terms on Twitter, which is where a great deal of return traffic can come from. Twitter itself has finally integrated search terms into its hompeage and profiles, so no matter where you are on your web-based Twitter account, you’ll see the most popular Twitter terms. This means that users no longer have to leave Twitter or use a third party search engine or application such as Twemes in order to find out what the current Twitter trends are, and in turn it’s easier for Twitter users to come across the meme you’ve made popular.

In actually creating a buzz around your meme, however, keep in mind that you’ll need to gain the support of other users. Ask your loyal followers to help you out, both through public and private tweets. Don’t be annoying though–remain cordial and light-hearted. Be consistent in your own use of hash-tagged keywords, reply and retweet to as many uses of your hash-tagged keywords as possible, and just keep tweeting!