“A hashtag is really just a way of categorizing your tweets so that they are part of a narrowed conversation and they’re easier to find in Twitter search.”  - Lauren Dugan, “Twitter 101: Why Use Hashtags” 

Hashtags are great because they help you target both topics and audiences while giving context to your conversations in social media.  And as a result of using them you can enrich your engagement and extend your reach helping you get more engagement, retweets  and followers.  In other words, when used correctly, hashtags can get you a lot more bang for your buck- or tweet.  

Of course, the key to getting the most value from hashtags involves using them correctly. For example, don’t write a tweet like this:

“Don’t use hashtags excessively #for every #other word or extraneously #cheetos! hoping for traffic from them” - example from The Digital Marketer, “How to Use Hashtags Properly”  

The key is to make sure your hashtags are relevant to the topic of the tweet, understandable to the audience you’re targeting, and not over-used. If you want to read up more on the “Do’s and Don’t of Hashtags” check out a great post on the topic by Sherilynn from The Next Web.

So the question remains, how can you find the hashtags that are most relevant to the topic you’re tweeting about and that will be recognized/searched for most by your target audience?

To help you with this, we have developed a tool in Formulytics that allows you to discover the top trending hashtags for your target audience on Twitter.  Either use an existing list or make one with us (of your followers, experts in your industry, fans, etc) and we will find their top tweeted hashtags from the last two days. For instance, here are the top trending hashtags for the group of tweeps that have been tweeting about #bcwine most:

What’s great about this is that I find out exactly what’s trending with my audience (#BCwine tweeps) and the hashtags they use, will recognize and search for most.  I also learn about festivals going on (#fallwinefest), chats I should get involved in (#winechat) and other interests of my target audience (#Vancouver, #travel, #canucks- no surprise ;)

Give it a try if you’re interested and let us know what you think! You can tweet us any time @formulists or send an email our way to contact [at] formulists [dot] com. Would love to hear from you!

Top mentioners/participants of “#tweetnight” chat

Hashtags on Twitter can be used as a great and effective way to both discover and draw in new people.  The same is true of certain keywords once you know how to use them. They can be especially useful to both businesses and individuals looking to expand their network and find relevant people to follow and engage with.  And by using Formulists, there is a way to find who is mentioning particular keywords or hasthags most. These top mentioners of a keyword or hashtag are likely to be people interested in them and great people to network too first. Additionally, if you are specifically looking for people in your area, you can find the top mentioners of a hashtag/keyword in any city as well.

First just sign into Formulists with your Twitter account.

Then, choose to add a “See Who Uses a Hashtag or Search Term Most” list from under the “Experts or Social Hubs Worth Meeting” category

Type in the word or hashtag you are interested in…

Filter for location if you are specifically looking for locals…

Create the list!

You should now have a list of a number of people from your city who mention a hasthag or search term most.