HOW #HASHTAGS HELP BUSINESS
Jan 23, 2015
WHAT IS A HASHTAG?
A hashtag is a word or phrase, which immediately precedes a hash symbol (#), and is used on social media sites to group messages on a particular topic. The hashtag becomes a link which is clickable and takes you to a page displaying every post containing the same hashtag. Until you use hashtags in your posts, they will only reach friends and followers.
HOW DID IT ALL BEGIN?
1988: mIRC (Internet Relay Chat) used hashtags to categorise messages and images.
2007: Chris Mecca began using hashtags on Twitter to group posts referring to BarCamp conferences in Nashville.
26/08/2001: Stowe Boyd came up with the name “Hashtag” in his blog post, “Hash Tags = Twitter Groupings”.
2009: Twitter officially began hyperlinking hashtags.
2010: Twitter started using the term “trending” to refer to popular hashtags.
June 2014: The term “Hashtag” entered the Oxford Dictionary.
WHY SHOULD I USE HASHTAGS?
Tweets containing hashtags lead to double the amount of engagement than those without; this means that they are a fantastic tool for raising awareness about an event. In recent months, a number of hashtags have gone viral following certain events such as #JeSuisCharlie, #BringBackOurGirls and #BlackLivesMatter.
ARE THERE RULES?
• Hashtags must be a single word, without containing any spaces.
• They can’t contain punctuation or special characters, (such as £ or @)
• #dontuselonghashtagswhicharedifficulttoread – this will also deter Twitter uses as tweets can only contain a limited number of characters.
• Don’t use an unrelated hashtag in an attempt at getting more exposure. This can result in you being filtered out or suspended. Even if you aren’t penalised for doing this, you will be wasting your time; people will be able to see what you’re doing and it won’t result in meaningful interactions.
HOW WILL I KNOW WHAT TO WRITE?
Start by conducting some research. It’s wise to start by finding trending hashtags in your area of interest. Twitter and Google both display the top 10 trending hashtags on their sites, and these can also be applied to other social media platforms, such as Google , Facebook and Instagram.
www.trendsmap.com is particularly useful for finding what’s trending where, if your business focuses on a particular geographical area. It is important not to use hashtags you don’t understand, or which are trending for a reason which you are unsure of, as it may have a specific meaning attached to it which you are unaware of.
SOME WISE WORDS OF WARNINGThere is also the potential to create your own Brand and Campaign hashtag to market and promote your business; this could be either your company name or a slogan. An example of this is the McDonald’s hashtag #imlovingit; It can be interesting to search for a hashtag across various social media platforms, to see how people respond to it.
As hashtags can consist of a stream of words without spaces, be wary of how it may come across to other people. A classic example of a disastrous hashtag moment was one caused by Susan Boyle’s PR team, back in 2012, who created the hashtag #susanalbumparty to promote her new album…
It is also worth taking some time to consider how a hashtag can be used in a negative way. An example of this was the hashtag created by Waitrose: #WaitroseReasons, when they asked their customers to complete the sentence, “I shop at Waitrose because…” - this resulted in a number of jokes about the brand’s “posh” image (worth Googling, if you haven’t already!).
HOW WILL A HASHTAG HELP MY BUSINESS?
Using hashtags will draw attention to you. You will find your brand exposed to a much wider audience of like-minded people and, from here, you can start building relationships. Once you have a grasp of why the concept of a hashtag exists, you can really begin to use them to your advantage to promote brand engagement.
A hashtag can be a powerful tool; Create one carefully, use it wisely, and see where it takes you.
If you need any advice on social media, get in touch with a member of The Creation Lab team here.
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