A Beginner’s Guide to ROCKSTAR HASHTAG Use in Social Media

06 Mar A Beginner’s Guide to ROCKSTAR HASHTAG Use in Social Media

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably more than familiar with the word Twitter. And, if you know about the social media powers of this widely utilized social platform, you’ve probably heard or even used hashtags. Say what?!

What are hashtags????

Let’s get the facts from the source itself! Twitter, and the powers that be, have constructed this marketing ROCKSTAR, divulging the hashtag as the following:

Definition: The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.

This categorization has proven to not only be effective in the online marketing forum, but further quite viral and FUN if you’re doing it like a ROCKSTAR. Everything from corporate business, catch phrases, themes, and jokes can be used as a hashtag: #truestory.

However, the trick to effectively deploying hashtags among your social media is to know the basics. Utilizing a hashtag incorrectly could lead to a MAJOR SOCIAL MEDIA BUSINESS BLUNDER, as displayed by OTV’s Long Island, New York web design blog post!

So let’s just start from the beginning and cover all of our bases. #hashtagsforbeginners

Strive to be Unique

Using hashtags is one of the best ways to not only engage with your community, but also engage with people based on desired interests. By specifying the category of your tweet in a unique, focused hashtag, you run the likelihood of scoring a less crowded tweet stream, exclusive participation, and distinction from your competitors. And, distinction is a necessity in this activity-dense, tweet-rich environment.

For instance, stamping your commentary with a lackluster #business hashtag is great; so long as your tweet is about business and you welcome the millions of disorganized conversations participating in your new discussion. The reality is that you want to weed out the individuals who aren’t focused on your precise discussion, and simultaneously target those interested. THUS, you should implement a more specific hashtag, which strategically targets the core of the theme you’re discussing. Suppose you’re promoting business tips on your blog! Rather than simply stamp your tweet with #business, consider #businesstips as a more focused discussion.

Employ Simplicity

Sometimes, hashtags that feed into pop culture catch phrases diverge from simplicity. But, it’s because of their viral nature that we remember them anyway. In general, for your business, the simpler your hashtag, the easier it is will be for followers to remember.

Since Twitter only allows 140-characters per tweet, it makes sense that your long hashtags operate best by abbreviation. For instance, the Twitter stream will be rampantly fueling #tgif hashtags on a Friday (Thank God It’s Friday) and the like. Why “tgif” and not the entire phrase? Well, it’s easier, faster, and more effective in an immediacy-demanding culture.

In the world of digital marketing, categorizing hashtags via simplicity is critical, because people are more likely to engage and share easy hashtags, as well as utilize them in their own social media campaign.

Market Hashtags across ALL Social Media Platforms

Much like any strategic marketing campaign, using all of the various social media platforms is a great way to market the rest. Even thought Twitter created the viral nature of hashtag usage, employing your business’s tags on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and the like helps target an entirely new audience.

Suppose some of your followers on Facebook don’t use Twitter. By deploying your #businesstips campaign on Facebook, you leverage the reach of your audience as well as increase likelihood for shares.

By cross marketing your hashtags, you also help individuals remember your tags because they might be seeing it more than once. And, let’s face it, with all of the countless tweets, hashtags, and social media notifications, our memories quickly absorb and then release information.

Choose Valuable Hashtags That Reinforce Your Campaign

Sometimes, hashtags can be obscure. If you’re trying to target a specific audience within your industry, you will want to make sure that you’re implementing the right tags. This will often involve utilizing more than one hashtag. You might notice people getting a little “tag crazy” and bombarding the entirety of the 140-character Twitter message with hashtags! BEWARE OF THIS! By loading up on hashtags, you might run the risk of deterring an audience altogether.

Think about your message and construct a few savvy tags that resonate with the theme. If you’re promoting business tips about web design, you might consider tagging any of the following: #businesstips, #webdesign, #socialmedia, #branding, #onlinevisibility, #onlinemarketing.

Research Hashtags Before you Use Them

One of the BEST ways to ensure correct usage of any tag is do a tag-related search prior to implementing it yourself. For the most part, if you research your competitors and pay kind consideration to your followers, you’ll know that the tag is right for your message. However, if you don’t know, do the research!

Not to scare you away from tagging altogether, but one of the biggest social media blunders of 2012 was when Celeb Boutique inadvertently featured the #Aurora hashtag. They falsely believed it was trending in response to their garment (Aurora dresses). At that moment, they failed to understand that the reason #Aurora was trending was because of the devastating Colorado movie theatre massacre. #epicfail

So, bottom line, cover your bases and do the quick, behind-the-scenes work!

Aside from strategically marketing your content and reaching a specified audience, hashtags are fun! They also often allow businesses to exercise their wit and be playful. Further, you show your widespread audience that you’re staying up to par with all of the latest digital trends and topics. This is clutch for online visibility and business growth.

At the end of the day, using hashtags can really only help you be found. If you employ the above tools and just simply start playing the hashtag game, you will undeniably notice increased user response.

Get the facts on ROCKSTAR hashtag usage via OTV’s latest blog bit.ly/XPKLbw #rockstar #hashtag

— On Top Visibility (@ontopvisibility) March 6, 2013