We all know by now that Hashtags plays a very significant role in marketing strategies. It is one of the best ways to pull out customers from general audiences. But for those who don’t know about the true applications of hashtags, there is a brief introduction on what exactly they are.
What are Hashtags?
First introduced on the Internet Relay Chats (the ancestors of today’s social media), hashtags gained a lot of popularity since then. The first implementation of hashtags was done on Twitter for the ‘tweet chats.’ Basically, hashtags are words or group of words which are used after the # sign, which serves a particular purpose. Looking at the technical aspects, they are termed as metadata tags, but for the majority of the marketers, they are just a medium to be more engaging with the audiences.
Given below are the list of some of the ways in which hashtags are used for marketing strategies:
1) Hashtags for Brand or Campaigns
One of the most common marketing strategies when it comes to hashtags is to use them for brands and campaigns. A brand or campaign hashtags generally includes the name of the brand or campaign. It can also be related to the tag line used for marketing. The sole reason for the use of such hashtags is to create awareness among the audience.
Take the example of KitKat and how they use their brand hashtag. Their tagline is #HaveABreak, which they happen to use consistently across every social media platforms. This, in turn, creates awareness, and whenever people see the same hashtag, the only company that reminds them is KitKat.
2) Trending Hashtags
Trending hashtags are completely the opposite of hashtags used by the companies or campaigns. Instead of creating a hashtag and wait for it to go viral, people take advantage of the trending hashtags for their own benefits. Mostly trending hashtags are used by individual marketers or bloggers to turn the table in their favour.
You can just have a look at the top ten trending hashtags and mould your contents as per to that for more viewers in general. But always remember, don’t ever try to spam trending hashtags instead use then only on relevant posts.
3) Content Hashtags
Do you know that hashtags are now being treated more like an individual account? People tend to follow particular hashtags. Now, this is where the content hashtags come into play. Whenever you are uploading content over your social media account, using relevant hashtags tends to attract more viewers. That particular hashtag may not be trending at the moment, but it has its own set of fan following.
Thus, content hashtags can also help to improve the SEO of your posts. Take, for instance, which while organizing an event, using location hashtags is most likely to give you engaging audiences than anticipated.
Conclusion
When it comes to the use of hashtags, there are mainly three mindsets involved with it. Either hashtag could be used to create brand awareness, catch a trending topic that’s been going around or simply to expand the reach for your audiences. No matter for what purpose you opt to use the hashtags, but if used correctly has a great potential for your online presence.
