10 Reasons Why You Need to #Hashtag
Hashtags – originating from Twitter, in recent years these so to speak social media bookmarks have also become increasingly popular throughout other networks like Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook.
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Hashtags are keywords and phrases with the prefix “#” and they function as filters for various categories of information online. Incorporated in advertisements, television shows and even everyday jargon (generally with an ironic intent), hashtags have become imperative elements of a digital marketing campaign and a brand’s presence online. We have summarised the top 10 reasons why we think businesses need to embrace the #hashtag.
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1) Promotions
According to a RadiumOne survey, 51% of its participants would share hashtags more often if they knew that advertisers gave discounts for sharing product-based hashtags. This can be extremely beneficial to smaller businesses, as Twitter is a free tool and the results are mainly dependent on one’s imagination.
2) Unification
With the help of new tools such as Tagboard, HootSuite and TweetDeck, businesses can keep track of trending and of their own hashtags across all the social networks, unifying and organising their social dashboards.
3) Engagement
Hashtags enable business’ online engagement with customers to significantly increase through the creation of conversations enhanced via relevant hashtagged keywords and phrases. 34% of respondents in the RadiumOne survey use hashtags to follow and search categories and brands of their own personal interest.
According to a RadiumOne survey, 51% of its participants would share hashtags more often if they knew that advertisers gave discounts for sharing product-based hashtags. This can be extremely beneficial to smaller businesses, as Twitter is a free tool and the results are mainly dependent on one’s imagination.
2) Unification
With the help of new tools such as Tagboard, HootSuite and TweetDeck, businesses can keep track of trending and of their own hashtags across all the social networks, unifying and organising their social dashboards.
3) Engagement
Hashtags enable business’ online engagement with customers to significantly increase through the creation of conversations enhanced via relevant hashtagged keywords and phrases. 34% of respondents in the RadiumOne survey use hashtags to follow and search categories and brands of their own personal interest.
4) Targeting
Hashtags further enable more targeted advertising and marketing actions. For instance Twitter allows brands to target ads on their network by specific topics of interest (for example, pet owners interested in pet accessories), where users can as a consequence actively engage in social conversation online.
5) Innovation
The easy and flexible use of hashtags enables creativity and an increasing number of businesses find innovative ways to utilise those features. For example, in 2013 American Express launched Amex Sync, an innovative program that enables cardholders to shop by using hashtags.
6) Trending
Trending hashtags on Twitter (the top 10 trends visible on the left hand side of a Twitter homepage) can be of significant benefit to companies that manage to successfully engage in tags relating to their business. This way a content update can be seen by your fans, followers, and anyone else who clicks on the specific trending hashtag.
7) Content
Content hashtags can make a difference to a business’ SEO (search engine optimisation) of posts and tweets. Those hashtagged keywords are not brand-specific, however they entail common topics of interest that can be lifestyle, product, location and event-related. For instance, users searching for information relating to #socialmedia or #summer could stumble upon your post content which includes the same hashtag.
8) Branding
Branding your business through a hashtag is of especially vital importance to smaller businesses and start-ups where the company name or the company tagline makes up the brand hashtag. This brand hashtag would be unique and it would define a business, so that it can be remembered and recognised online by customers and social media users.
9) #ConsumersTrustHashtags
According to a CrowdTap study, younger consumers (millennials in this case) tend to trust user-generated content (such as the type used with hashtags) 50% more than traditional advertising, like TV or print. So the right hashtag can be highly powerful in the hands of the right target audience.
10) #FollowFriday
The #FollowFriday movement, also popular as #FF, enables a Twitter account to gain more followers through a recommendation by another Twitter account, expressed in a tweet posted on a Friday. These tweets can either express a complement, a recommendation, or simply a personal preference, that acts as a free promotion for high standard and useful content generating accounts.
#TheFutureOfMarketing
Hashtags further enable more targeted advertising and marketing actions. For instance Twitter allows brands to target ads on their network by specific topics of interest (for example, pet owners interested in pet accessories), where users can as a consequence actively engage in social conversation online.
5) Innovation
The easy and flexible use of hashtags enables creativity and an increasing number of businesses find innovative ways to utilise those features. For example, in 2013 American Express launched Amex Sync, an innovative program that enables cardholders to shop by using hashtags.
6) Trending
Trending hashtags on Twitter (the top 10 trends visible on the left hand side of a Twitter homepage) can be of significant benefit to companies that manage to successfully engage in tags relating to their business. This way a content update can be seen by your fans, followers, and anyone else who clicks on the specific trending hashtag.
7) Content
Content hashtags can make a difference to a business’ SEO (search engine optimisation) of posts and tweets. Those hashtagged keywords are not brand-specific, however they entail common topics of interest that can be lifestyle, product, location and event-related. For instance, users searching for information relating to #socialmedia or #summer could stumble upon your post content which includes the same hashtag.
8) Branding
Branding your business through a hashtag is of especially vital importance to smaller businesses and start-ups where the company name or the company tagline makes up the brand hashtag. This brand hashtag would be unique and it would define a business, so that it can be remembered and recognised online by customers and social media users.
9) #ConsumersTrustHashtags
According to a CrowdTap study, younger consumers (millennials in this case) tend to trust user-generated content (such as the type used with hashtags) 50% more than traditional advertising, like TV or print. So the right hashtag can be highly powerful in the hands of the right target audience.
10) #FollowFriday
The #FollowFriday movement, also popular as #FF, enables a Twitter account to gain more followers through a recommendation by another Twitter account, expressed in a tweet posted on a Friday. These tweets can either express a complement, a recommendation, or simply a personal preference, that acts as a free promotion for high standard and useful content generating accounts.
#TheFutureOfMarketing
By Stasi Georgieva