It’s 2017, and hashtags are every where. They are on television shows, award shows, sporting event telecasts, advertisements, etc; for viewers to connect with other people around the world on their social media accounts who are watching the same show. Basically, allowing you to connect with and engage other online users bases on a common theme or interest. In today’s world, hashtags have a place on all of the popular social media channels, including, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Utilizing hashtags is the most popular means of categorizing content on social media. It allows for your own content to be discovered, and makes it easier for you to find relevant content from other people and brands. Still, the most effective use of hashtags has become the organization they provide online; tracking and participating in social media discussions.
Hashtags can be especially useful for brands to create a call to action that integrates offline and online campaigns, capitalize on timely and relevant conversations that are already taking place, and track an online conversation. The key is to understand the relevance of hashtags, and the fine line that exists between doing it right and overusing them. Being knowledgeable on how to use hashtags is not only important to your brand’s success on social media, and also the average Joe will have the insight to make the most of their social channels.
The Do’s and Don’ts of Properly Using Hashtags
Do’s
Adapt to Social Channel
While everyone uses hashtags on all social platforms, Twitter and Instagram are the channels where hashtags are the most searchable. On Facebook, hashtag search results only include public posts and posts from your friends. Before using hashtags, do your research on the proper way to use them for the each specific channel. I also suggest you take the time to research the hashtag your brand wants to use. Also look for the most relevant hashtags on the specific subject you are talking about.
Engage with Your Community
Social media is all about conversation. You want to try and tap into your passionate community that shares the same interest as you. Hashtags pull consumers into a conversation with a brand and vice versa. The more specific you are with your hashtag, the more targeted your audience will be. A more targeted audience means better engagement with your community, creating a conversation, not just a marketing tool for the brand to push it’s own agenda.
Create a Relevant Unbranded Hashtag
Brand hashtags are great for user-generated content campaigns and contests. Your branded hashtag doesn’t have to mention your brand name, but should represent your brand and what it stands for. Utilizing a branded hashtag allows the company to share photos that they have taken and that employees have taken and share them with their community. Once consumers see photos from regular people on the hashtag, they will start to share their own photos and embrace the hashtag. The brand hashtag will not only drive engagement, it will also organize all the posts that include the hashtag on a stream that you can embed on your website. Plus, they are good for increasing brand awareness.
Don’ts
Use More Hashtags than Words on a Post
Many people who use Instagram on a regular basis have figured out that the more hashtags that you use on your post means more people seeing your post and more likes. So, you what users have done is overload their photos with as many hashtags as they are allowed. By doing this you are gaining followers, but it is usually the wrong kind of followers, they are mostly spammers or people who are only interested in being followed back. This dilutes your message, hurts your brand, whether your an individual or company, and makes you look desperate for people to like your photo. You should focus on specific hashtags that correlate with your brand and message.
Expect the Hashtag to do all of your Marketing
Hashtags are a too, that like everything else must be driven by strategy and innovative ideas. Without a strong strategy, your hashtag will not go anywhere. As long as your brand promotes the hashtag in your marketing, offline and online, and it resonates with your target audience, consumers will make the connection and engage with it. With a strong marketing concept, your ads and content will be the driving force behind the success of the campaign. The hashtag should simply support the marketing mission.
Create and Use Irrelevant Hashtags
When you adding them to your social media content, you want to make sure they are relevant or appropriate to the subject that you are discuss. A current social media conversation can provide the perfect access point for your brand to interact with consumers, but you’ll need to make sure your content is relevant to the conversation. Just like Oreos did when the lights went out during the Super Bowl a few years ago. Their content was relevant to what users were already talking about. It was perfect brand integration.
In today’s marketing environment, the hashtag is a powerful marketing tool that must be used often and intelligently during your campaign and on all of your channels. By doing so, you will be inviting your target audience into your conversation, which will create greater awareness for your brand and help bridge your online with your offline marketing.
What other tips and suggestions do you have?
