
These days Hashtags are everywhere! Even the simplest of products or even just images have hashtags to go with them. This trend of #hashtags has made promoting as well as searching much-2 easier for both the product/service providers and the customers.
As a marketer you can’t ignore them. It’s important to know how to strategically place these tagged topics such that they gain maximum reach. The most advantageous and interesting thing about hashtags is that once they catch on with the targeted public, your product or service will market itself!
For example, KitKat has a simple tag line “Have a Break”. They encouraged the public to use the hashtag #haveabreak in all the pictures they upload with their product to get featured on their official pages on social media. If you now follow this hashtag, you’ll find millions and millions of people promoting the product with this hashtag than the company itself! Its quite intelligent actually.
The whole #hashtagthis #hashtagthat fiasco was started on Internet Relay Chats (IRC’s
were live chats and messaging – kind of a precursor to the social sites we use today). For more technically inclined people, you might know this as metadata tags.
There are 3 key aspects to hashtags that needs to be kept in mind while using them for marketing purposes specifically.
- Brand and campaign specific
- Tending
- Content