Whether you are totally obsessed with hashtags or find them horribly obnoxious (I’m somewhere in the middle), hashtags are an awesome way to stay connected with your community, start a conversation, promote an event, and build a brand.

While on Instagram the more hashtags the better, on Twitter hashtags should be used much more sparingly, no more than two or three per tweet. So, the importance of creating one to two clever, thoughtful, and effective hashtags is especially important as you try to get the most out of Twitter.

There’s more to a good hashtag than just slapping a pound sign in front of a couple words. If you want to develop a strong company or event hashtag here’s a couple pointers to get you started.

Keep it concise

Long hashtags can be very, very difficult to read, especially on the small screen of a smart phone. With no spaces available in your hashtag, it’s really easy for hashtags to just look like a hot mess, which is why the hashtags are short and concise. Shorter hashtags have a tendency to be catchier and easier to identify as well. Ideally, good hashtags are limited to one to two words. Three is my personal limit. Any more than that and you should seriously re-examine your hashtag and find a way to trim it down.

Use capital letters with confidence

If you are utterly hell bent on using a longer or multi-word hashtag, at least have the courtesy to use capital letters. Using capital letters in longer hashtags helps readability by essentially serving the role that spaces would. #SuperAwesomeNetworkingEvent is far, far easier to read than #superawesomenetworkingevent. It’s important to note that a search for one will pull results for the other, but if you and anyone else regularly using the hashtag commit to this format, it is likely it will catch on.

Use dates for reoccurring hashtags

Specific hashtags are a common (and useful) marketing and social strategy surrounding events, shows, and conferences. Hashtags for events can unify marketing efforts, centralize conversations, and keep your followers up to date with the latest information about the event. If the event you use the hashtag for is a reoccurring event, make each year stand out by adding a date to it. Adding something as subtle as an “18” (like #DTindy18) for “2018” can greatly help engagement with followers by restricting the conversation to the current event and not years before. Just be sure you make it well known well in advance each year so the conversation can start early and carry through the completion of the event.

Stay on brand

Just like every other piece of content you put on your website or on social media, your hashtag needs to be on brand. Clever, play-on-word or witty hashtags are awesome as long as it reflects a pre-established personality or voice across the rest of your marketing. The same goes for more straightforward hashtags.

Whatever you choose as your hashtag, just please make sure everyone is on board and it’s not being misspelled… that’s an easy way to embarrass yourself.