How can you Cash in on trending hashtags?

Hashtags are here to stay, learning to embrace them can have a positive impact on your social media strategy.

You know that hashtags are here to stay when they are being written into almost every comedic show and movie being made – even kids shows have characters dropping hashtags in conversations.  Whether you love them, or loath them, using them in your social media posts can be a great way to help you reach your target audience and increase your brand awareness.

But how do you know which hasthags to use? How many of them should you use in a post? These, along with many others are great questions to ask when considering using hashtags as part of your social media strategy.  While there might not be a wrong way to use hashtags, not using them well can make you look silly.  Hashtags used out of context might not cause you to loose a large amount of followers, but it can risk causing your audience to tune you out.  Because of you don’t want to risk missing the mark with your audience, it’s helpful to put some thought into your use of this popular social media tool.

Hashtags haven’t taken root in every social media platform. 

Those that embrace hashtags: Twitter and Instagram

Those that haven’t: Pinterest and Facebook.

Like I mentioned before, using a hashtag on Facebook won’t cause you to lose followers, but it might make you look silly.  People might stop and think “What are they doing?” or the ever popular “Who’s running that account?”.  On the other hand, making a joke of hashtags or a specific popular one, can be funny and resonate with your audience.

History of the Hashtag

A brief history of the hashtag reveals that these were originally designed and still used as a way to help find relevant or related content on social media profiles.  They’ve gone from related content, to being leveraged as a way to host group conversations, chats and contests.

Twitter Chats: By utilizing a themed or relevant hashtag a group of users can create a conversation in a feed on twitter at a specific time, on a specific day.  Two of my favorite twitter chats are #creativecoffeehour and #createlounge.  I also love joining the outdoor themed #campchat, #hikerchat and #adventurechat.

Branded Hashtags: Brands have realized the power of the hashtag and harnessed it by creating their own.  One of the best examples is the popular outdoor gear retailer, REI, who launched their hashtag #optoutside as part of an explanation to their customers about why they would be closed on Black Friday.  This branded hashtag is now a great way for fans and followers to submit photos – providing the company with user generated content and social engagement.  #OptOutside is now printed on tags and printed marketing materials by the store to garner even more use.

How to capitalize on trending hashtags

Keep an eye out on Twitter and Instagram for hashtags that are gaining in use and popularity – otherwise known as trending.  Not all of these will be relevant to your branding, or used by your target audience.  When you do find one that you could relate to your brand and messaging, run a search on the hashtag to make sure, before you tweet it.  Sometimes something might seem simple or innocuous, and only later do you find out that it meant something different all together.

Once you do your due diligence, you’ve found the hashtag, done your research, now you are ready to craft your tweet.  Here is the tricky part.  You want to be relevant to the hashtag, but you also want the tweet or the post to be on message for your brand.  Craft something that your audience will find interesting, educational, funny, or even provocative – but make it about your audience.