Alice

If you?re prolific in using Twitter you?ll notice that some tweets include a hash key (#) before certain words. This makes these words become hash tags, or specialised keywords that can be tracked.

Why would you want to use hash tags within your twittering activities? Here are 20 reasons:

1. to focus on particular keywords that are relevant to your business
2. to segregate your posts into specialised topics
3. to track posts that contain those hash tags
4. to create and follow streams that use that hash tag
5. to create specific columns in TweetDeck or Hootsuite to follow those hash tags
6. to find out who else is tweeting about that subject
7. to draw your attention to other Twitterers who use that hash tag
8. to follow your competitors on Twitter
9. to develop your expertise within the hash tag?s subject
10. to gain more information about that subject
11. to see who else is twittering about that subject
12. to find suitable tweeple to follow
13. to gather feedback, complaints or testimonial
14. to become part of the conversation using that hash tag
15. to gain more followers relevant to your industry
16. to pinpoint a particular audience within Twitter
17. to use them within marketing campaigns
18. to track particular conversations within your industry
19. to track particular links to external resources relevant to your business
20. to draw attention to your business

Can you think of any more reasons why to use hash tags? What are your experiences? Were they useful and what did you gain from them? Did you use them in measuring your Twitter usage? Have they provided good results?