Twitter Tools for Hashtag Marketing and Research
I recently went on a marketing mission to find out who is using certain hashtags on Twitter. My goal was to find those users who were most influential and most engaged on certain topics.
If you’re not familiar with hashtags and their value, check out Mashable’s 2013 post on The Beginner’s Guide to the Hashtag which is still relevant today.
USING TWITONOMY FOR HASHTAG RESEARCH
While there are various online tools that one can use to find influencers and hashtags, I discovered Twitonomy which I’ve decided to test as a one-month user.
Here are some of the things I discovered:
It is possible to download lists of followers or, more importantly, those a user is following. This is important because if you’re looking to find, for example, various reporters for a particular publication, or sources uses by a particular publication, it is likely that that publication and its editors are following those people.
I also ran a follower report on the profiles following me @ginarubel on Twitter. The report is chock full of interesting information.
For example, the top hashtag used by my followers are:
- #marketing
- #socialmedia
- #PR
- #law
- #entrepreneur
This information tells me that I’m reaching the right audience as I am a lawyer entrepreneur who works in marketing, public relations and social media.
In addition, the top keywords used by my followers are:
- Marketing
- Legal
- Business
- Social
- Media
Again, this tells me that my followers have interests and speak on topics similar to mine.
I can also identify where the majority of my followers are located:
- Philadelphia, Pa. – where we conduct quite a bit of business
- Doylestown, Pa. – my hometown
- New York, N.Y. – where we have clients and deal with media
- Bucks County, Pa. – the county within which I work and live
- Chicago, Ill. – a hub for law firms, American bar association business and legal marketing activity
USING HASHTAGIFY.ME FOR HASHTAG RESEARCH
Another tool that I was recently introduced to by members of our PR department is Hashtagify.me which allows you to search a hashtag to find related hashtags, top influencers, usage patterns and more.
For example, I searched #globalwarming in the free tool of hashtagifyme. Other relevant hashtags include #climatechange #drought #environment #science #climate and the top influencers were @pitbull, @xhnews, @theeconomist, @greenpeace and @realtonyrocha.
While there is a bit of information available for free on Hashtagify.me, the majority of the information is behind a paywall which is the save for other platforms that I found.
What tools are you using for hashtag marketing research? We’d love to hear from you.
