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I posted about hashtags in one of my private facebook group recently and the conversation ended up talking about hash browns in NJ.

It got me thinking, pet sitters should know about hashtags. How to use them, and what not to do to annoy people or show that they have no clue what they are doing.

First a hashtag is a # sign. I am not quite sure when the pound sign turned into the “hashtag” but it is!

Hashtags main purpose is a organization system. It is a way to find a subject, conversation, or interest through a simple hashtag and the word or words. So, if you were to type into the Facebook search box #pets you will find all the public postings that mentioned “#pets” It was first started on Twitter I believe and is very successful if used properly.

Why Is This Good For Your Pet Business?

Imagine you are trying to find people in your area who have dogs. So you use the hashtag #dogs #scottsdale (your city) in the Facebook search box. By doing this, you could potentially find topics, conversations, interests of people talking or posting pictures about “dogs in scottsdale” Oh look – sounds a lot like SEO kew words, now doesn’t it?

It can also be good for your to extend your reach to other sources for things that you are wanting to learn about of connect with. For instance, you could be writing a blog about leashes and search for #leashes and find out what people are saying about it. Through this search maybe you see that there are many types of leashes, many types of problems, many types of questions… which in turn, could help you with your blog or maybe even your posts on your pet sitting business facebook page.

For Example:

I just did a search inside of Facebook for #pets. One of the posts that came up was from our friends over at Pets WeeklyHere is what they said:

This Is Interesting To Me For A Few Reasons:

#1 – I know the awesome woman behind these postings. She always has great info and is a great source of education.

#2 – That is a topic that inspires me to speak to that audience. It is the summer and some people are taking their pets camping with them.

#3 – This was posted on Thursday. It is Saturday as I type this. This is something that I would have missed in my news feed, that I now have the opportunity to see and read.

#4 – It is great info that would be valuable to my readers and it would be a great retweet on Twitter or Share on Facebook.

#5 – It also offers me an opportunity to connect with this business again!

What Hashtags Are Not For:

#hashtagsarenotforsentencesthatrunonandon   Get the picture? You should not be using hastags to link many words together. Two or three, sure but try not to do more than that. It is #annoying  (smile).

#you #also #shouldnt #be #making #up #whole #sentences with them or adding 20 hastags at the end of a status or posting. Again, it is #annoying

What Do You Think?

I admit that I don’t know is all when it comes down to this hashtag thing. In fact, I wanted to connect you all with the fabulous Heather Dopson who, to me, is a Social Media Queen. She gives big talks to huge groups of people, goes to conferences all over the country on them, and works at a awesome local company here in Arizona called Infusionsoft  

Below, I would like to know what you know about hashtags and if you have any questions, I urge you to just on Heather’s Facebook page and ask her!

I hear people tell me often, I don’t have any money to advertise but I need to get my name out there.

Well picture this:

I was driving through Starbucks and I saw a car parked in the parking lot with a sign that said For Sale and the phone number. It was placed smack dad in front of the drive through line. So while you are waiting for your latte, you see this sign staring you in the face.

I thought wouldn’t it be a great guerrilla marketing strategy to put a huge sign in your window like one of those sunshades?

This car is facing you when you are at the drive through window

I think this is an off the wall, wonky, eye catching way of advertising because:

• People who go to Starbucks pay for the brand, they are affluent
• They are bored so the call to action can be as simple as www.callbellas.com (your website)
• You are getting the people that pay a little extra for coffee and that is your target market for pet sitting.

This is the drive thru window

So what kinds of things can you do that are a minimal cost but can make you money? For instance, at Starbucks. Let’s just say there is one car every minute in the drive through plus all the people that walk into the actual store. There is probably at least 60 people an hour. That large sign in the windshield would potentially hit all of those people.

Let’s take it a step further and place your business cards on your wiper.  So for those of you not wanting to be a mobile billboard all the time with a wrap or magnets, you can do the one time advertisement. Ever think of that?

What do you think? Would you do this in your pet sitting business? Or is it just too guerrilla marketing for you?