Tool Tuesday: Hashable
Having thousands of social media friends is fun, but honestly, doesn’t it get a little hard to keep track of it all? Not only that, but let’s face it, there are some people, whether they be clients, friends or business associates with whom we are closer and may meet off-line. And then, there are those with whom we are developing a relationship. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could track your interactions with others whether it be real life, email or a social connection on Twitter?
Enter: Hashable. I’ve been using Hashable for about 6 weeks now. It was released in all its glory at 2011 SXSW. The idea behind Hashable is to allow you to track the depth of your interactions with others. This can be a particularly useful tool for small businesses and individual brands who are having lots of conversations in many different forums. Essentially the idea is that by using predefined hashtags within a tweet or email, you’ll be able to track the depth of relationships. The beauty lies in the fact that it isn’t limited to online engagements. Hashtags like #coffeewith exist to enable users to give their off-line life authority in identifying the depth of a relationship. Also, if you’d like to track other types of engagement, you can easily add your own hashtags by cc’ing Hashable in email or a Tweet. Hashable suggests that using it can be basically be a CRM program for small businesses. I’m not sure I’d go THAT far yet, but it is a useful tool that shows even more promise.
How COULD small businesses be using Hashable? I see several opportunities:
Tracking Influencer Conversations: If you are working on creating a relationship with an influencer, using Hashable to track each of your engagements whether they be through email or Twitter is a great way to see the relationship develop.
Bloggers: I have a custom hashtag of #blogconvo for those who are actively commenting on my blog. Its a great way for me to track those who are consistently commenting on my blog and lets me see at a glance when its someone’s first time.
Events: Creating and urging those at an event to use a particular Hashtag (as we do now), but including Hashable on the tweet is a great way to see participants of an event. In fact, hopefully, it’ll be easier for events and brands to register Hashtags at Hashable so they can use Hashable in a larger, more scaleable way.
Community Managers: Much in the way that tracking influencer relationships is easy on Hashable, so it is for Community Managers to see their most active Twitter followers and those who engage.
Customer Service: Companies who use Twitter for customer service can go back and see their engagements over the last 30 days or so and touch base with those people again to create a feel good touch point.
Overall, I really dig Hashable. I think its smart and fun and insanely simple. But here’s my official “Likes” and “Mehs”
Like:
The overall concept: Its a great idea to track the depth of your relationships and see them at a glance.
Great interface and easy to use. Particularly if you are using a pre-identified hashtag, it couldn’t be easier to track your Twitter conversations.
Ability to track offline meetings: Yes! What can I say! Hopefully we all have vibrant off-line lives.
Inner Circle: The inner circle group is that group of people who you allow to see your interactions and also you see theirs, even when it has nothing to do with you. Great for identifying potential synergies.
Great Iphone App: To make it easier to use on-the-go the Iphone app roooocks! I also love that from the app you can send “send a business card” with someone you’ve #justmet
Meh:
Email integration only works with webmail: Not necessarily business friendly. Plus, I have to cc: hashable on my actual email if I am using a unique hashtag. Its one thing to cc: Hashable on a Tweet that is already public. Its quite another to cc: Hashable on an email. As I am not a techie, I don’t know the solution, but I don’t see myself doing this. Ever.
I don’t really “get” how to use it with Facebook: I’m not a huge fan of using hashtags on Facebook. I think its alienating to the Facebook audience who may or may not “get” hashtags. Plus, it doesn’t work with Facebook Pages, which is very important for businesses. Surely there is a Hashable Facebook app in development. Right?
Make it easier to register Hashtags: it would be great if you could register a Hashtag for public or private use. More public hashtags would eliminate the need to cc: @hashable on Twitter – which takes up valuable character space. And for brands and business, the ability to reserve a hashtag could be invaluable..and something even worth paying for?!
Sometime hard to remember to use in real life: I have so many apps I use when I am out and about, sometimes its hard to remember to do it when I am with someone. But Hashable lets you do it later, so they’ve got that covered.
So what do you think? Have you been using Hashable? Do you like it? Will you try it now?
More about Hashable:
