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If you are new to Twitter you may have noticed that some messages include a word with the # sign in front of it at the end of the tweet. This is called a hash tag, and hashtags are a convenient tool for organizing tweet posts.

During the 2007 San Diego forest fires a guy called Nate Ritter posted updates on Twitter.com about the situation and identified his post with the hash tag, “#sandiegofire”. Since then, the use of hash tags to identify and quickly locate groups of messages has become a common practice among Twitter devotees. There is even a website, http://hashtags.org/, that logs the use of hash tags on Twitter. If you check it out you will find hundreds of different hash tags that are currently being used to organize information on Twitter.

Anybody with a twitter account can easily begin using hashtags. You can use hashtags whenever you want to send out a regular flow of notifications on Twitter about any subject you like. Simply include the hash tag somewhere in the body of the message that you want to tweet. Hashtags are often inserted in the body of tweets about business promotions or contests, or by people organising parties or other social events.

Hashtags can also be utilized by Internet marketers who want to keep customers updated about new developments, products or projects. By letting your customers and the people on your mailing list know about the hash tags you are using, you can give them a convenient way to follow your updates on Twitter. People will be able to find your post on a particular subject when they enter the topic at hash tag in the search box on the Twitter.com website. This is a great way to reinforce your brand image.

Since Google indexes Twitter messages, and bearing in mind that hashtags are inserted in the text that you tweet, it is a good idea to use relevant keywords for your hashtags. Since you are providing information about your business, many of your tweets will also include links back to your website or blog, so your twitter tweets will help improve your website rankings on the search engines if you’re hash tags are keyword optimized.

Here are some tips for getting the best use out of your Twitter hashtags.

1. Get your hashtags tracked. Go to http://twitter.com/hashtags and click the follow button. They will automatically follow you back and track your hashtags.

2. Keep your hashtags unique. Since you will want to use hash tags to identify your business posts, it is important that they be unique. Go to http://hashtags.org/ to see if the hash tag you want to use is already in use.

3. Always precede your keyword with the # sign. A hashtag looks like this: #retirement or #homebusiness, #affiliates etc.

4. Make them relevant. Use a hash type that is relevant to the topic you are tracking. For example, if you are promoting a fashion show in London, #Londonfashion09 would be a better hashtag than #London, which is not specific enough.

5. Make them short and memorable. The hashtags are best when short, simple because you want your followers to be able to remember them easily. Avoid lengthy acronyms, long strings of abbreviations or code numbers. Don’t forget that you can only use 140 characters in the whole message, so a long hashtag is undesirable.

6. Use hashtags for branding. Think “relevant keywords” and “brand image” when making up hashtags. This will make your brand more visible to your target market, especially to those who are searching for what you have to offer.

Using hash tags on Twitter is a great, free method to help you build your brand and promote your website business. Start using hash tags when you Twitter, and be sure to let your customers and the people on your mailing list know what you are doing and explained that they can find out the latest news about your business by searching for your hash tag in the Twitter search box.