Beloved by many, little understood by others and even abused by thousands, the hashtag has earned an important space in the online world (and offline too). We see it on social networks, on television, even in magazines. Do you know what its origin is?
Don’t worry, I promise not to get bored. Its origin, something particular, dates from 1978 when the symbol of the numeral (#) is introduced in the programming language “C” in order to highlight keywords that had to be processed before any other element by the C preprocessor.
There was also another important moment that I calculate was leading to further massifying this element and they were the famous IRC chats where thanks to the use of the numeral, chat rooms were created according to the theme. For example #Singles #Teenagers #Love
Anyway, it is with the arrival of Twitter that the symbol of the numeral is transformed to become what we know today as hashtags, an element that would mark a before and after in the world of online marketing. But let’s get to the point.
Top 10 reasons to use the hashtag in online marketing.
- To tag messages or conversations
As it told in the hashtag story, the numeral was always used to tag or highlight certain keywords. Therefore, it is important to use the hashtag in online marketing to “tag” the messages that are published and thus give it context.
- To create a trend
Surely you ever heard of Trending Topics, those topics that on Instagram cause a furor and that everyone talks about. Using the ideal hashtag within a message can trigger it for some reason to become a trend.
- To find influencers
Using the hashtag in online marketing when searching for profiles on some social networks that allow it, can be a great help in finding influencers. Influencers usually understand the importance of using this tool and therefore, it becomes part of their day to day.
- To find certain content
Just as thanks to the hashtag we can find influencers, we can also find content on different social networks. Nowadays people have gotten used to including the hashtag in their posts to tag the content and thus make it more striking and relevant. But from the side of the one who searches, this becomes a fundamental tool.
- To find what is said about the competition
As the hashtag in online marketing is being used more and more and on different social networks, an excellent idea is to use it to see what is being said about our competition. For example, when searching on Facebook, we can see what our contacts are talking about a certain brand.
Depending on the type of social network, the results will vary, but everything works for the marketer who is researching about the competition.
- To create or join a chat
Believe it or not, on Instagram you can chat (Well, something like that). For this, many people started using #Instagram so that anyone can participate and join the conversation. From an online marketing point of view, this can be a very good resource to interact with our favorite followers or accounts.
- To find “target audiences”
One use that we can give to the hashtag in online marketing is to be able to find certain segments of users of our interest. Remember that many people use the hashtag to tag the message they are posting, but many also use it to show which “tribe” they belong to. For example, searching for a national or international event could show those who share the same tastes.
- To cure content
When searching for something, using the hashtag as a content duration element can be an excellent idea. Since you know that many people use it and that the more “poster” you are, the more you understand its importance, so you can take advantage of this. For example, if I’m doing research on Growth Hacking, simply using different hashtags could help me a lot.
- To personalize your campaign.
Although using the typical hashtag on different social networks can serve to give context to a message, there is a much better idea: USE THE HASHTAG IN ONLINE MARKETING TO CREATE A UNIQUE CAMPAIGN.
As simple as inventing your own hashtag and promoting it in many ways. For example Baileys promoted the hashtag #This Book to promote the award for the best women’s fiction story, encouraging people to share their experiences.
- To encourage your community to participate
It’s not all about using the hashtag in online marketing to find you. It is also about motivating your users to interact and participate with your brand, creating content, in a raffle or simply for fun. A very interesting example is the case of the clothing brand Levi’s that motivated its Instagram users to use the hashtag #IAmLevis to find the new face of the brand.
I hope you liked these 10 reasons for using the hashtag in online marketing and obviously you learn to use this powerful tool very well.