Wanted To Know About Hashtags

So, every time when you log into your social media account, you see the trending topics with a pound, the hashtag sign (#) at the end. You immediately post your selfie with a pout, upload it with hashtag or share news with a hashtag at the end and become the trend. No doubt, a hashtag helps an individual or an organization to increase their reach, but did you ever wonder, how all this works, when or by whom was it used for the first time and how can it help you to go trending?

Online marketing is now entering in a new phase of development and hashtag forms an important part of it. Without hashtag, social media cannot survive. In order to stay ahead in this ever-growing online industry, a well-planned social media strategy is quite vital.

The social media team at UIPL is finally going to unveil the secret behind hashtag and let you know from A to Z about social media hashtags.

The Genesis

The brainchild behind the origin of the hashtag is Chris Messina, a developer who tweeted his proposal to Twitter to use hashtags to cover an important event. Initially, the idea was rejected, but it was in 2007 when it became a rage after journalists began to use hashtags in Twitter to cover the political happenings. The rest is history; today the pound symbol is a rage in social media. From advertising campaigns to social media strategies, hashtag has emerged as the superhero.

How to Choose A Hashtag?

For a social media novice, it’s a challenge when it comes to choosing the right hashtag. We present to you some of the important things, which you need to keep in mind while choosing a hashtag.

1. Have A Unique Hashtag – Use a hashtag that has never been used before, when you want to reach your targeted audience especially if you want to promote any important event or webinar. On the other hand, if you want to connect with individuals, then make sure that your hashtag is more unique and has never been used before. Using general words for hashtag will barely help you.
2. Easy to Remember – Choose a hashtag that is very easy to remember, as easy as ABC. Today, there are millions of hashtags that are doing the rounds in social media, so if the name of your hashtag is too complicated, people will hardly remember. To cut it short, hashtags should be easy to pronounce and most importantly, easy to spell.
3. Take The Help Of Social Media – You have really tried hard, to find a hashtag so why not spread it across the web everywhere. Social media gives you the power to spread your trending hashtag, so use it across all platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
4. Search For The Hashtag Before – Is your hashtag being used anywhere else? That’s really embarrassing then, so it is better to do a research about the existing ones and then proceed.

Whoa! Even You Can Use Your Own Hashtag

Did you know that even you could use your own hashtags? Amazing isn’t it? Use a special hashtag that has never been used before. Inform all your friends and remind them to use it in all tweets related to your topic. Keep it short and simple, so that it becomes a trend and goes viral.

Where Can I Use Hashtags?

Today, a major number of social media platforms use the hashtag, but where will you use them? Given below, is the list of social media platforms where you can use hashtags.

1. Twitter
2. Facebook
3. Instagram
4. Google+
5. Tumblr
6. Pinterest

Hashtag Tips From The UIPL Social Media Team

1. While creating the hashtag, always keep in mind that it has to be relevant to your topic or the genre that represents you or your product, else it will be difficult to reach the audience.
2. Hashtags are similar to spam if you use them too frequently. Always refrain from using the same hashtag over and over again. It looks repetitive and the reader loses interest.
3. Do not solely depend on the hashtag to promote your post. Use some call-to-action words or whichever language, you prefer the audience would like to read.

How To Use Hashtag To Promote Your Business ?

Most of the well-known brands in the world are on Twitter these days. Even if you want to promote your business by using hashtags on a social media platform, then follow the following methods:

1. Have a separate business account that will represent your business or brand. Select one employee from your organization and endow on him the responsibility of consolidating all your tweets.
2. Follow all those trends that are currently trending. When you follow a particular trend, keep in mind that it should be relevant to your brand or business.
3. Find out what are your competitors using and device your hashtag strategy accordingly.

Hashtag Is Here To Stay

Whether it is through promoted tweets or chats, hashtag helps to increase the visibility of the brand and helps to get more followers. It is one of the ways to get visitors to your website. Research suggests that hashtags are a powerful weapon for brands that are launched for the first time. They help to increase the reach of the product crossing geographical boundaries.

Over To You

If you think that we have missed any important point related to hashtag, then you are welcome to give your suggestion.