Decoding Hashtag Marketing
What is the first thing you do when you open your eyes in the morning?
I’m sure you check out your phone or feel tempted to check out your phone for new notifications, unless you are super evolved super human! This post is anyways for a common man!
After an hour of realising that you have actually woken up, you get a feeling that “I have wasted my precious time in something useless!” isn’t it?
Well, the good thing is that you are not the only one feeling this way! A study by Deloitte Digital Media: Rise of On-demand Content in 2015 showed that digital consumption in India has increased by 100% from 2010 to 2014 while the consumption of Television, Radio and Print has remained the same.
Listen to this content on Spotify app
In other words, in 2010, Indians used to spend approximately 2 hours on Digital media and in 2014, Indians spent 4 hours on Digital Media. I’m sure this figure must have only increased by now!
My question for you is that how many of those 2 or 4 hours of digital consumption is actually useful for you? Is that consumption helping you break the clutter and gather information relevant to your personal or professional growth?
Does online consumption of content help you grow personally or professionally?
If the answer to the question in the above graphic is a no or makes you think hard, then you must read on!
Habits die hard!
Fact of the matter is that Digital consumption has become a way of life for you. You have been nagged by your friends, loved ones and family enough times to keep your phone down or tablet away and pay attention in the real moment! So, you may like to optimise your screen time instead!
In times of Lockdown situation, spending time with the loved ones’, friends an family becomes a necessary and we all know such moments of togetherness are far and few. So, why not spend quality time with them and quality time online?
Introducing Hashtag Marketing
Presenting to you the mode of marketing that will make your life easier online and will help you dig out content that you really need!
Hashtags are the in-thing these days! Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
Defining a Hashtag
Hashtag is a label that is used by organisations or change makers or individuals to discuss specific events and relevant issues. They are short and easy to remember and act like channels to help conversations converge to the common topic of discussion.
History of Hashtags
In 1988, Jarkko Oikarinen came up with Internet Relay Chats (IRC) which was nothing but an Application layer in the Internet Protocol Suite (just like HTTP). IRC promoted communication in the form of a text! During 1990’s and early 2000’s, IRC developed and spread wide but was exposed to abuser attacks and other security concerns. By mid 2000’s, IRC had given way to the modern social media networks as we know them today- Twitter, Facebook etc.
In 2007, Chris Messina, a social technology expert, first posted the hashtag #barcamp. Messina came up with the hashtag with the purpose of gathering discussions and online exchanges regarding Barcamp, a technology unconference gathering activity that spans worldwide. Thus, Chris is credited to have come up with the very first hashtag on Twitter.
Types of Hashtags
Brand Hashtags:
Brand hashtags are typically the signature taglines or symbols of the brands and have a high brand recall. Do you remember the advertisement by Kitkat? It goes like this, “Have a Break, Have a KitKat!” So, #HaveABreak is a branded hashtag that is mostly used by Kitkat brand or Kitkat community. These branded hashtags are concise, catchy, well heard of and have a low possibility of being altered!
Community Hashtags:
Community Hashtags are typically not usually initiated by a particular organisation but by a set of people or influencers who care about the cause or wish to raise awareness. In the times of COVID 19, the best example of Community Hashtag would be #StayHome which is spearheaded by Spain and Italy. The Hashtag is widely promoted in different languages and Social media platforms like Instagram are also lending support in the form of a catchy icon and story feature:
StayHome feature introduced by Instagram in the midst of Corona Virus 2019 outbreak.
Campaign Hashtags
During specific seasons of a year, some sectors see an opportunity in augmenting their business transactions. At such times of the year, such business owners run campaigns for enhancing their social footprint. A visit to our Case Studies section will give an idea on how the campaign hashtags fare for a business.
Event Hashtags
MICE events keep happening throughout the year and such events see a lot of activity in the build up to the event resulting into physical footprint of the event.
Social Buzz Case Study Taiwan Expo 2019 : Use of Hashtag #TaiwanExpo
Trending Hashtags
Trending hashtags are usually the hashtags that we see trending on Twitter like #MondayMotivation, #ThursdayThoughts, #WednesdayWisdom, #FridayFeeling etc.
Listen to the full podcast on Buzzsprout or on Spotify
Utility of Hashtag Marketing:
For you and me:
As stated (read “screamed at the top of my voice”) earlier, Hashtags help us focus our consumption of online content to a few content buckets.
For Brands:
Using a relevant hashtag and keeping it simple can go a long way in improving the brand recall. Even while launching a new product or service (especially for the Telecom sector), a brand new hashtag is way to gain prominence and to stick in the consumer’s mind longer!
For Influencers:
In today’s day and age, where social media channels are making or breaking a brands’ popularity, influencers play a key role in making a specific hashtag popular! #IndoorsShotonOnePlus has become a hit on Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok with due credit to effective use of Influencer marketing!
I hope that tomorrow when you wake up and start checking out online content, you shall make use of Hashtags to better utilise your time and energy!
Sources of inspiration:
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/in/Documents/technology-media-telecommunications/in-tmt-rise-of-on-demand-content.pdf
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/instagram-launches-stay-home-story-co-watching-feature-amid-covid-19-outbreak/356960/#close
Hashtags are helpful when people search something. Now, I will include hashtags on my day.
Yoo!!! That’s the spirit. My blog post was intended at raising awareness and increasing curiosity! I’ll be happy to see hashtags in your posts.
Wow,it never crossed my mind to do a research to who invented or started the hashtags.. great blog, thanks!
See….they dont call me the greatest of the great bloggers just like that!! Haha … just kidding!
Now that you know the importance of hashtags I’m sure you will use them!
Hashtags are extremely pivotal for growing any social media. I try to always use and mix up new hashtags on all of my posts!
Kileen
cute & little
Glad to know that you know the importance of hashtags… I am glad you mix and match them up!!!
Although, I use hashtags hundred times in a day and still I didn’t know about the history of Hashtags. This is such an informative post!
Haha….mayuri.. many times we use so many things in day to day life before gathering information about them..
I love using hashtags with my posts,great article about it.
Hashtags are a content creator’s best friend!!
It never crossed my mind to research who ever started hashtags either. When I started using Twitter in 2008, they just were.
Also very interesting how people’s time spent on digital media increases so dramatically.
I’m glad that I could bring out the history of hashtags in front of you!
Hashtags are so important from growing on social media.
You bet they are really important! They help you form a discussion thread.
You bet they are!!!
Content is king and hashtag is the queen! I absolutely agree with how important hashtags are on social media. If you want to be seen, then # it out.
Aptly put!!!! Thanks for summing the blog post so well!
Bullseye! Hashtags enable us to create engagement and also initiate conversations between the businesses and the target audience. Through the content attached with hashtags we publish, the audience comes to know about our brand, and this way there is the establishment of greater brand awareness. I have been using hashtags for a long time and it helps!
Yes you are right and I’m glad that you have been using hashtags in order to engage with audience..
I always try to remember to use hashtags when posting, but I never thought of researching to see who started the hashtag. Thanks for the tip!
Hashtags are indeed a great help when you want your content to be found!!