#What?

We have a lot of clients ask us about hash-tags, anchor texts and @mentions when they are starting up their Facebook and Twitter accounts – or writing a blog for the first time. So, we thought it might be wise to let you all know what it means!

Hash Tag

No, a “hash-tag” is not some sort of illicit label for your luggage. It is most commonly used in Twitter – surrounding trending news or topical information. For example when Steve Jobs passed away earlier in the year, people hashed #ThanksSteve to express their gratitude for the work he had done in his life. On the flip side, when Charlie Sheen went on his Twitter rant he added #winning to the end of his Tweets. This went viral –who knows what result your hash-tags will have!

Anchor Text

“Anchor text” is not the name written on the side of boat. It is when you hyperlink a word or phrase to another part of your site, or to another site completely. We’ve done it just above, for ‘your site’. You can usually do this in the back of your content management system (CMS) and this can be done in your blog or throughout your site. It can help with your SEO and is a great way to get people to read more of the content on your site.

@Mention

Last, but not least, an “@mention” is not rude of you – and it is not ‘too complicated’! These are a simple way for you to communicate in social media platforms – and are a handy thing to know! You can use @mentions to reply to your followers in Twitter; when they have @mentioned you themselves, or have Tweeted something that you can respond to. It’s a great way to start two-way conversation with your customers and show you actively engage with the community.

On Facebook, @mentions can be a little different for other companies. When using Facebook as your company page, you can only @mention other pages, which you have liked. This is to avoid any ambush marketing from rogue companies or spam-pages. It is still a great way to interact with your partners and an even better way to create a lead and get talking to the company’s decision makers!

Every day there seems to be some new phrases coined that we have to memorise and use in everyday language.  The person that makes a comprehensive dictionary of every single one of these terms and acronyms will be very rich! They will also be very exhausted and need to use bottle-caps for glasses: given the amount of time they spend looking at the screen!

If there are any other terms you want clearing up, let us know!