In requests for more information about our Twitter party and Twitter chat services, we are often asked, “How can I get my hashtag to become a trending topic on Twitter?”

The question’s frequency makes sense: To have your hashtag or brand name displayed along Twitter’s ‘trending topics’ column is a coveted position, with the top or ‘promoted’ trend costing an advertiser a reported $120K to achieve it. Trending topics are seen and monitored by millions of sets of eyes per day; to be one of them can be game-changing for a company. When a user clicks on a trending topic, they will see a list of all recently-tweeted tweets that contain that term. For companies, this means having more people learn about them and get introduced to their products and services. And free advertising that could be seen by millions is impossible to resist.

What exactly makes a topic trend?

According to Twitter, “an algorithm determines which topics are ‘trending’ in the location you’ve selected. This algorithm identifies topics that are immediately popular, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis.” What this means is, one million people each day might tweet Justin Bieber’s name, but sheer volume doesn’t make a topic trend. A trending topic usually represents a surge of tweets, even if the volume is less than that of a topic tweeted about regularly. It’s Twitter’s way of trying to keep is users aware of what is current and newsworthy. If sheer volume was the only factor, Justin Bieber might be the top trending topic every day for years, making the whole point of having trending topics useless.

How do I do it?

Often a trending topic is something that is newsworthy that suddenly becomes talked (or tweeted) about by a large number of people at the same time. For example, an event being watched on t.v., such as an awards show or sporting event, are likely to become part of a trending topic due to the number of people who are likely to tweet about it at or around the same time. So there is the element of timeliness as well as volume that seems to make for a trending topic. Your goal then should be to get a lot of people tweeting your hashtag at the same time. If you do not have a national stage to work with (such as a high profile t.v. show or event), then a great way to attempt to achieve this is a Twitter event, such as a Twitter chat or party. Twitter parties occur at a specific time, have a certain hashtag that people will tweet to be included in the event, and usually have a significant number of attendees online at the same time who will tweet using that tag. However, simply deciding to have an event and holding it won’t guarantee that your hashtag trends; you still have to put together a quality event with a skilled host, informative content, noteworthy or high-profile guest contributors and awesome prizes and special offers to really get some buzz. We’ve found that those elements are a big draw when it comes to Twitter parties, and are most likely to get tweeted about. However, there is a downside to becoming a trending topic during a chat: hashtag spam. Once you’re topic starts trending, beware of spammers hijacking your tag by using it to promote their own links completely unrelated to yours. Be prepared to offer followers of your chat an alternative hashtag to switch to for purposes of the chat, to steer clear of spammers and get the chat’s conversation back on track.

How not to do it.

Twitter has specific guidelines for hashtags and tweeting that, if not followed, could get your account flagged when trying get your hashtag to trend. If you see another topic trending and try to get your hashtag noticed by including it in a tweet along with the other trending topic’s hashtag, that is considered spammy and unacceptable (Twitter does not like unrelated hashtags in tweets; it’s misleading). Repeatedly tweeting you hashtag, or encouraging others to do as much as possible so as part of a tweeting contest, in an attempt to get it trending without adding value to the conversation the hashtag is part of is another no-no (tweeting contests are acceptable if limited to one tweet per day). Also, taking a trending topic hashtag and tweeting out links to your profile or website along with those trending tags is another way to get into trouble. On Twitter, like everywhere else on the web, organic is good. Create hashtag tweeting opportunities that are natural and not forced. While it’s great to get a topic to trend, it’s even better to provide excellent content to your followers, become a value to them, and remain in good standing with Twitter.

With ‘Tailored Trends,’ Are Trending Topics as Valuable as They Once Were?

Recently, Twitter allowed users to get ‘tailored trends’ — or to turn their list of trending topics into a column customized just for them. Twitter says this about tailored trends: “Trends offer a unique way to get closer to what you care about. Trends are tailored for you based on your location and who you follow.” To turn this setting off or on in your own account, go to the “change” button next to the trending topics column. Click on that, and you’ll get the option either to turn this feature off or on, depending on your current settings. The intent of this feature is to help users see trends related to those issues/places/people who matter most to them. Tailored trends takes into account a user’s location and those users he/she follows to come up with a list of trends that are relevant that user alone. With this feature turned on, the topics you see trending are no longer the same as what everyone else is seeing, but rather made just for you. What does this mean for trending topics in general? When your hashtag trends, it may not be seen by as many eyes as in the past, since everyone might not see the same trends. However, if you don’t succeed at making your hashtag trend on a worldwide (or countrywide/citywide scale), it still might have the ability to trend to your followers — or those who might really matter to you and who are already eager to hear what you have to say. Tailored trends might have put somewhat of a damper on widely-viewed trending topics, but on the flipside, the service might help topics that would normally have trouble trending on a large scale now get noticed more easily. On another note, if you are hosting a chat or party, and see your hashtag ‘trending,’ check to make sure whether or not you have tailored trends turned on. You just might be ‘trending’ to a limited audience, rather than citywide, nationwide, or worldwide.

Tags: hashtag, tailored trends, trending topic, Twitter, twitter chat, Twitter party

Every business that uses social media constantly looks for ways to measure the success of its marketing efforts. We check our follower counts and monitor hashtag performance to determine how many times our message is mentioned. Another statistic of interest to marketers is that of ‘reach,’ or ‘the maximum number of Twitter users who possibly could have seen our message.’

For example, say you have 100 followers. Send out one tweet and your reach is 100. If one of those followers retweets your tweet, and they too have 100 followers, your reach extends to 200 people.

Calculating reach can be difficult (if not impossible) to do alone. The more your hashtag is tweeted around the Twitterverse, the more adding up of recipients you would have to do. If you don’t like to be driven to the brink of insanity, then it’s best to leave it to the experts. Tweet Reach helps determine how far your hashtag, keyword or url spreads across Twitter. They can run reports not only to determine reach, but also to interpret how many times in total your message was received by all users (called ‘exposure’ — this number includes how many times one tweet was received multiple times by the same user), and  also who exactly tweeted or retweeted your message to their followers (for a more detailed description of these terms and their meanings, check out Tweet Reach’s definition page). By compiling these stats, you not only will learn how many times your keyword/hashtag/url was mentioned, but who was interested in it enough to mention it to their followers—which could help in determining who to contact for future campaigns.  

So just how important is a statistic like ‘reach?’ Just because your tweet had a reach of 200 doesn’t mean 200 sets of eyes actually saw and read your tweet. Reach is all about possibilities. ‘How many people did I reach?’ would then turn into ‘How many people actually read my tweet?’ followed by ‘How many people read my tweet and took action because of it?’

And that is the key here: we want to expose our tweets and share our information with as many people as possible. We want people to take notice of our messages and in turn, hopefully take notice of us and our products and services. If you have a specific goal in mind for a Twitter campaign, definitely keep an eye on reach, but also include a call to action. When we tweet about an upcoming Twitter party, we include a link to a party RSVP page. Our goal is to get as many people to sign up as possible. Another tweet might be to encourage people to take part in fundraiser for a non-profit. Or order something today and get free shipping with a special code that is included in the tweet. Here social media meets traditional marketing: having a call to action helps track how many people not only saw your message but reacted to it. 

I think of reach as being like the circulation of a magazine. Knowing the circulation of mags helps advertisers decide which one gets their ad business. However, with magazines it’s not strictly about the numbers, and it should not be in social media, either. Advertisers like big numbers, but they also look at the types of readers who comprise that circulation. No sense for a kayak manufacturer to place an ad in a magazine that reaches 500,000 subscribers who are into fashion (unless the fashion is limited to Teva sandals). Better for to place an ad in a paddling magazine that reaches 50,000 hard-core kayaking enthusiasts.

Monitoring a statistic like reach can help you modify your campaign so that you better target the audience you’re trying to, well…reach. For example, according to Tweet Reach, if you have a low reach rate but a high exposure rate, it could mean that a small group of people are tweeting your message too many times: not a good thing if you want to reach a more diverse group and not annoy the smaller group of users who might feel as if they’re being bombarded by your message. You might need to do some research and reach out to another group of users whom you haven’t targeted before who might find your tweets of interest and tweet it to a different pool of users.

Twitter stats can help you better guide your marketing campaign and fine-tune it. But remember that while the medium has changed, the basics of marketing hasn’t: you still need to utilize traditional tools such as including special offers and incentives to signup for lists or newsletters in your message to help determine how many people actually do turn that tweet into action.

Tags: hashtag, reach, social media marketing, tweet reach, twitter statistics