#Whyhashtag?
What’s the #hashtag have to do with my business?
#HashtagHistory
The hashtag was first introduced through Twitter by people who were looking for a way to categorize conversations. Twitter has a constant stream of information and before hashtags, it was easy to lose track of a discussion or completely miss it altogether.
By using the pound sign (#) and putting in a phrase with no spacing, people were able to stay in a conversation by searching the key phrase of the hashtag. It enhanced the experience of Twitter to such a degree that after about a year of people using hashtags, Twitter restructured its algorithm to promote clickable hashtags. Soon after, other social sites began incorporating hashtags. Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Google Plus are among the top social sites that have hashtag capability.
#HashtagsInAction
Creative hashtag use is limitless. Its main purpose is to have relatable information shared through a discoverable outlet. Adding a hashtag to your post maximizes its chances of being discovered by those interested in the same topic. While the world of social media has no hard and fast rules, there are three basic ways to a hashtag: general, specific, and humorous.
For instance, if you are a baker posting on Instagram, a popular hashtag to use would be #bakersofinstagram. This would be considered a general hashtag because it is a broad and on-going conversation. It gives people who don’t follow you an opportunity to discover your brand when they view all the images that populate with #bakersofinstagram.
A specific hashtag is one made for a clearly defined purpose. This type of hashtag is what businesses use for promotional events or slogans, politicians use for their campaigns and individuals use for weddings or family vacations. The benefit of the specific hashtag is when the hashtag is searched, only those pictures or posts with that specific hashtag will be viewable. This is a great way to build brand awareness with a hashtag you “own.” Check out Facebook with #lovetheflavor: that’s the slogan we gave our favorite pizza place, Benito’s Pizza. (Yes, you WILL love the flavor!)
Hashtags are also conversation starters, event promotion, and community building tools, encouraging others to join in by using a unique hashtag. (That’s why your niece had #wagnerwedding in her wedding invitation. Friends who post pics of the wedding on social sites can use this hashtag and the bride can way view all of her guest’s pictures by searching for her unique hashtag.)
Finally, humorous hashtags are those that sum up an idea with a clever phrase and it often leads to conversations. For example, #whymychildiscrying has some hilarious contributions and is a continual conversation. Parents all over the world are able to connect with funny and relatable stories of their crazy moments with crying kids.
#WhyHashtagForMyBusiness?
Is this a beneficial trend for your business? Though hashtags are a trend, it is not one that will be going away anytime soon. Just like social media for business is a must now, hashtags are a very important tool to use. There are clear and basic benefits of hashtags for businesses. From Forbes magazine, “tweets with hashtags get two times more clicks, retweets, favorites, and replies than tweets without hashtags.”
In addition to having a very practical purpose in interacting with potential clients, hashtags are relevant. They add interest to your post and shows that your company fits naturally into the social media realm. (If you’re finding social media a challenge for your small business, you’re not alone, there’s help for you here!)
#CreateYourOwnHashtag
Creating a unique hashtag for a brand awareness campaign, or to go along with a promotional event can be a simple and effective way of spreading the news. It influences the reader to click the hashtag and see the conversation taking place. Coupling this with an incentive can drive people to follow you.
The search capability on the major social sites gives your business the opportunity of reaching non-followers and building an interest-based following. Rather than asking “why hashtag?” ask, “what is unique to us that we can get people talking about?”
#HashtagCaution
There are ways hashtags can be misused or abused.
1. The saying, “if one is good, more is better!” does not apply to hashtags. Many people reading your post on Twitter will stop after reading the first two hashtags, so stop there. Though Instagram is different than Twitter (the more hashtags used, more groups in which photos will be included), Twitter and Facebook users will most assuredly look down on a post with too many hashtags. Businesses that use a dashboard like Hootsuite or Hubspot to schedule the same post to multiple sites know that it is safer to play “less is more.”
2. If you want to create or use a specific hashtag for an event or promotion, search the hashtag before using it. This will eliminate many simple mistakes. The hashtag may be associated with a cause or business that you do not want your business associated with or may already have been tried and failed.
3. It is also a good idea to run a new hashtag you are creating past someone and see if they read it the same way. When there is no spacing or capitalization, hashtags have the potential to be read in multiple ways and it is important to avoid an embarrassing or costly mistake.
#HashtagTips
Here are three quick tips to get your hashtag happening:
- Simple hashtags are preferable to long ones. There are always exceptions to this, but while the long hashtags were initially funny when hashtags first became a thing, most have since lost their humor-factor. It’s equivalent to hearing a Dad-joke one too many times.
- Make sure your hashtag is easy to replicate. The purpose of hashtags is to have others use them as well and people will be far less likely to use it if it’s difficult to remember.
- Don’t capitalize each word in your hashtag (like we did in this article). If it’s short and sweet, people will get it (still, refer to caution tip #3 above).
Give it a go! It may take some practice getting comfortable with using hashtags. Search your competitors and see how they utilize them, it will give you some ideas. Have fun and join in on the conversation! #keepbranding
Sources:
Hashtags.org
Wired.com
DigitalMarkting.com
Forbes.com
