If you have trouble finding content for your twitter account, following a hashtag in your Hootsuite dashboard may be a great way to help you curate more content. Generally, you should follow a hashtag that most closely relates to what type of content you would like to provide for your followers. Hootsuite makes this process extremely easy to start and monitor.
Picking the Right Hashtag(s)
Depending on what field or area of interest you are in, you will want to pick a hashtag that is popular for that category of tweets. For example, if you are a graphic desginer, you may want to follow graphic design, web design, photoshop, etc. These will depend on the type of information you are looking for. If you are a web developer, you may want to follow webdev, web design, html, css, php, database management, or programming. Again, this will all depend on the type of information you are looking for. Make sure after you pick a hashtag or a even a few hashtags, that you look at their streams to make sure that you will be getting the most out of the ones that you choose. You do not want to follow a hashtag that is rarely used or one that is full of spam.
Setting Up Your Hashtag Stream
Go to the tab in your Hootsuite dashboard with the Twitter account you want to create the hashtag stream under. Click "Add Stream" below the account tabs. A dialog box will pop up; this is where you will be able to type in your specific hashtags. Click the "Keywords" tab and type in the hashtag (with # symbol to get the proper results) and click the "+" button. You can add up to 3 keywords to a stream. If you choose to add more than one, make sure they are similar. An example would be combining #photoshop and #illustrator or #webdesign and #graphicdesign. You probably would not want to combine #php and #socialmedia. It is helpful to combine some of your hashtags if you have a lot you would like to follow at once, since Hootsuite only allows ten streams at one time.
Using Your New Stream
Once you have your new stream set up, it is ready to use! Drag the stream to the best place for you. I put the most interesting streams within the first four spots so that I can see it without having to scroll. I like to use my streams for live chats. As of right now, I follow #inboundchat by Hubspot because there are live chats every other Tuesday at 3:30pm that anyone can participate in. This helps me keep up with the hashtag and live chat as it is happening! The dashboard as a whole also helps me keep up with everything that is happening with the live chat because I can see my retweets and mentions, along with the hashtag all in one place!
Takeaways
Using hashtags is a great way to get more content out to your followers. Hootsuite makes this convenient and putting everything you need in one place. If you need assistance with your Hootsuite dashboard, or would like to know more about Hootsuite, Contact Us and we can help you get started!