Anyway, what is a hashtag?
A hashtag is defined as a useful word or phrase preceded by a pound sign ‘#’. It is most commonly used on social media sites to link posts or content to the specific word or phrase identified by the hashtag. Hashtags allow you to group messages or posts linked to the hashtag. The power of a hashtag is in the ability to search for the hashtag and generate a set of messages or posts that contain the hashtag.
Why use a hashtag?
From prospective marketing, the use of hashtags:
- Increase your promotional reach
- Expand your brand or company awareness
- Focus your message on your target market
- Increase the likelihood that people will find your content
- Improve your search engine optimization results
How can you use a hashtag?
You must first determine the goal of your marketing message and identify who you are targeting with the content. Once you’ve defined these requirements, consider the following types of uses for hashtags;
- Company or brand – this is usually unique to your company or product brands. You can also create this type of hashtag with your company slogan or brand slogan. A couple of simple rules for any type of hashtag is KISS: keep it simple and short. An example might be #EzineArticles for a business name or #BetterMarketingResults for a tagline. Remember that there are no spaces between words in a hashtag.
- Campaign or Promotional – select a unique phrase that best defines your promotional campaign for memory retention purposes. Your chosen hashtag must support the promotional campaign and must be used in all your marketing messages during the promotional campaign. You should participate using your hashtag and encourage your target audience to use the hashtag in their own communications and posts as well. # ThanksThursdays by Telstra and #NoLagToLondon by Air New Zealand are examples of campaign or promotional hashtags.
- Informational or content – In general, the use of this type of hashtags is not unique to your company, but refers to words or phrases that your target audience normally uses when searching for content related to your business on the Internet. Examples for business-to-business (B2B) are #SEOTips and #ContentMarketing. Consumer-centric companies will use lifestyle-oriented hashtags like #fitness and #fashionista.
- Event or activities – Common use is for business events such as conferences, exhibitions or seminars, while community meetings or celebrations also attract the use of hashtags. # CeBIT2014 was recently used by the CeBIT Australia IT Conference with #AdobeSummit used at the Adobe Digital Marketing Summit.
- Geographical or location – For a geo-based company targeting local customers or a larger corporation with multiple geographic locations, the use of geographic or location hashtags is very relevant to targeting your messages with potential customers within these geographic company locations.
Your success in getting #BetterMarketingResults with the use of hashtags will be the result of keeping these hashtags simple, easy to remember, and relevant to your target market. Also, be sure to use the hashtags in your marketing messages and promotional content, and at the same time, encourage and engage with your recipients by using your hashtags.
Tags: #hashtags, #BetterMarketingResults
