In her recent article, Stephanie Buck addresses the art of using hashtags (denoted by the # symbol) to stream more users to read your tweets or view your Twitter profile. Small businesses are attempting to infiltrate the social media site that is already so commonly used by larger companies such as Nike, and their ever popular hashtag of #JustDoIt. Buck suggests that businesses attach a hashtag to their tweets such as #smallbiz or even the company or brand name to tweets in order to increase chances of being found by users in Twitter searches. While this may be helpful to small business owners it could, in the long run, be detrimental to the social networking site.
Buck goes on in her article to suggest that for starters, small business owners should search hashtags in order to learn about what other small companies are doing to advertise on Twitter. She teaches owners to keep hashtags simple and direct and not include an excessive number of them in tweets just to appeal to the masses. Her third tip is for companies to create their own hashtag as if they are a large company on Twitter and try to get it trending. Lastly, Buck suggests that you attempt to get businesses with many followers to mention you on follow Friday in order to gain more followers who may not have found you by your hashtags alone.
While Facebook is still alive and well in the world of social media, what often appeals to users about Twitter over Facebook, is the lack of advertisements and businesses forcing their information on users. Yet now, not only do companies tweet, (which in many cases can be entertaining to some users) but journalists like Buck are teaching social media inept small businesses how to jump on the bandwagon and use it to their advantage. Facebook has undoubtedly lost the attention of the college aged crowd for these reasons and its only a matter of time before the next new site takes the spotlight off Twitter if it continues down its current path.
I did not appreciate this article because I think that Buck is only making it easier for companies to infiltrate the world of Twitter. Facebook lost its appeal when it became available to the masses. Every small business now has a Facebook page that it uses for marketing and free advertising. If Twitter becomes just as easily accessible as Facebook, then young people will look elsewhere for a social media site to appeal to them. The great thing about Twitter currently is that many people outside of the college aged generation do not know how to use it, and therefore do not. With people like Buck teaching businesses how to use the site, eventually everyone will be on it and young people will move on to the next best thing in social media.
