Do you use hashtags? It’s a simple yes or no answer. Some people love them, totally get them, and use them until their heart’s content. Some people hate them, don’t get their popularity, and post Facebook status’ dedicated to their hatred about them (I’ve seen them; they’re vicious)!
It’s time to hash out all the reasons why hashtags are an effective piece to your marketing plan. But always remember, useless hashtags are just that: useless! Put some thought into your hashtags and take some advice from the latest Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake skit. They pretty much sum up all the wrong ways to use a hashtag here. It’s perfect.
Discussions
While I’m sure your organization has a Twitter account where fun, exciting, and informative things are posted around the clock, you may not be using it for all it has to offer. Twitter alone is a great tool for interacting with your prospects and clients and getting to know them on a more personal level — but we can take it one step further.
Start a discussion on Twitter with all of your followers about your upcoming conference. Ask them who they would like to see as the keynote for this year’s event. The best way to do this is to send out a tweet, in 140 characters or less, and say something like “Who would you like to see as our keynote for Conference2014? Tweet us your answer with #AHConf2014.”
To receive all of your responses all you have to do is click on your newly created hashtag and scroll down your list of ideas. It’s such an easy, smart, and, best of all, free way of interacting and collecting data.
Trending
Let’s say you just downloaded the iOS 7 for your iPhone and you want to see what others think of it. You want to hear some ideas and opinions from other users, but none of the people you are following on Twitter and Facebook are talking about it.
You can look up a hashtag and read all of the posts trending under that tag. For instance, you can lookup #ios7 and see how many people are talking about it and what they’re saying. You could do the same thing with #iphone or #appleios7. The possibilities are endless and you will almost always come up with a number of people talking about exactly what you wanted to talk about.
With more people using the hashtag, the more popular the trend gets and more people will participate. Go ahead, join in, but don’t forget to use your hashtag to be considered part of the trend!
Promotions
Twitter and Facebook have options to “promote” a tweet or a post. You can purchase a timeframe, a hashtag, a demographic, etc., and your post will show up exactly when you want. One that has resonated with me lately is the #itcanwait hashtag.
It is a promotion by AT&T to keep people from texting and driving. When you click the hashtag to see all of the related posts, there are tons of posts from people from all walks of life. You are given a link to sign a pledge to not text and drive that also has a texting and driving simulator, stories, videos, and so much more. This is starting to sound like my own promotion for #itcanwait but it’s just a great example of how one tiny, little hashtag can make something that much more powerful.
There are so many different ways that hashtags can help you and your organization get recognized. It’s so simple and it’s free! Why not add them into every tweet, post, pin, and picture you upload into the cyber world? Hashtags are being used on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, and others. If you’re taking advantage of social media to reach your prospects and clients, you should also be taking advantage of hashtags. It could #changeyourlife.
