Nate Riggs: Social Business Strategies; communication, social web strategies, & passion in Columbus, Ohio.

Yesterday you and I looked at a few things about trending topics on Twitter, using the example of PodCamp Ohio 2:

1. The more people you have talking about a grouped topic (in this case, an event) the more potential you have to make noise on the global scale.
2. The frequency at which those people tweet to the hashtag will determine how much noise you make.
3. The longer the duration of the tweets to a hashtag, the more visibility you get for a longer period of time.

Agree?  Disagree? Something to add to the comments?  Ryan Bauer had some great ideas to add on how he and his team approach using hashtags.  Cheers to you dude!

Now let’s talk about ideas on how to apply that thinking.   Not every hashtag will have the power to trend, but at the very least, if you lead your attendees in the right direction of helping you generate online of visibility for the conversation.

Tip 1:  Brand your hashtag for easy recognition
One of the challenges with #pco09 on the global scale was that for users outside of the loop, you could not identify what #pco09 represented.  Sure, if you are tech savvy, you probably could have guessed that it stood for a PodCamp.  But always keep in mind that the audience may not be able to read through the lines.  The more identifiable the hashtag is to general users, the more curiosity it will generate from people outside the topic discussion and subsequently draw their interest (and click though).

Tip 2: Keep it Short
Brevity of the hashtag is key to people using it.  Hashtags should be brief to leave users enough characters to get their own messages out.  Shorter hashtags allow for multiple ReTweets. Shown as RT’s, this functionality on Microblog platforms is extremely powerful in spreading messages). Don’t get too crazy with chopping out vowels as this can be confusing to novice users.

Tip 3:  Use keywords from your SEO strategy
You might use keywords from your SEO strategy or about your business offering or the specific event.   You can get some additional lift from using terms that define your sponsor company or event theme as these terms are searchable on a variety of Twitter search tools.

Tip 4: Market the Hash Tag on all your pre-event promotions
Establishing a named hashtag can be the best marketing you will ever get.  Some event management services even allow you to give registrants the option to tweet out that they’ve registered, automatically after signing up.  You might go as far as to program the hash tag into the standard tweet.  Make the hash tag stream visible on the event homepage by integrating a feed.  WordPress makes this pretty easy through plug-ins.  The more exposure you can bring to the hash tag, the more people will use it and spread it to other interested users.

Tip 5: Re-teach your attendees the right hashtag at the event
Sometimes it’s easy (even for the early adopters) to remember to Tweet and use hashtags.  Another problem occurs when people start using multiple hashtags for the same event. (examples might be #pco09 VS #PodCamp) This often results in disorganized content and a lower volume of tweets.  It can be frustrating for attendees and organizers alike.

To prevent this, make a firm decision on what hashtag you will use and post it everywhere.  Make fliers and hang them breakout rooms.  Put a sign on the speakers podium or stage.  Have your moderator make announcements before every session.  Use table tents or include the hashtag on the cover of the event brochure.  Do whatever you have to do to make the tag memorable and top of mind among the attendees.

Tip 6:  Make the stream visible during the event
Social media adopters LOVE instant gratification and getting attention.  This creates a win-win situation.  By promoting your hashtag, the event and individual attendees get the benefits of visibility.  At the event, find an extra projector, laptop and a screen.  Do a search for the hashtag using Search.Twitter.com or Monittor or even Tweetdeck and Seesmic.  Once you have that set up, make it part of the backdrop of the room or main stage.

Making the live feed visible serves a few purposes:

First, it will encourage your active tweeters to increase the volume of tweets.  They want to be seen by everyone else and pick up followers.  Second, by projecting the stream, you will provide a great learning tool for more novice users.  For some, this may be the first time they’ve looked at anything outside of their own profile on a web page.  The stream will serve as an example of how users can use Twitter as a conversation and search tool – both of which are good lessons.

Always remember that event hashtags have a tendency to keep the conversation going after the learning at an event.  If it’s organized and implemented well, the hashtag will provide an added benefit to users in helping them connect to each other and continue to upload valuable content.  Your event will be the catalyst and stay top of mind.

So what do you think?  Have you done this? Did it work?  Do you have other ideas?  Please share your brain power here…