Hashtags are the building blocks of social media marketing for an Event or brand. They combine social media posts that use a particular social media hashtag and hence are also known as a hashtag aggregator. Hashtags allow anyone to follow a hashtag campaign on social media. They also gather all the online conversations about an event for a hashtag wall.
Top Hashtag Mistakes and How To Avoid Them
Hashtags can also ruin the brand image if not chosen after careful analysis. We are explaining the key 5 mistakes that brands and businesses make while choosing and creating hashtag campaigns for their events-
1. Not Researching your Hashtag
A social media hashtag campaign for a brand event must be researched well to know if it exists or is in use on social channels. Brands certainly do not wish to get their event feeds mixed with another brand while running a hashtag campaign on social media. This may also confuse the event followers and attendees. The uniqueness of a hashtag must be thoroughly checked.
Open Twitter and Instagram to check if the hashtag that the company is choosing is already in use. If pictures and posts come up as your search for your hashtag, then you need to pick a different hashtag for your campaign. A thorough research saves a brand from trouble in the future. Hashtag research tools such as Ritetag, Hashtags.org and Tagsforlikes can be used by brands that are searching for a unique hashtag.
Always remember, simplicity is the key. Do not choose lengthy hashtags because they are difficult to spell and read. They’re even difficult to remember. Audience and followers only want to engage with the brand event and enjoy themselves. They don’t want to spend their time to understand the hashtag.
#10annualeventforourbrandinnewyork
Did that make sense?
Try #10AnnualBrandEventNY
Another important detail here is that Twitter limits the length of its tweets to 140 characters. The longer the brand hashtag, the fewer characters attendees will have to express about the brand event.
Avoid using multiple hashtags. Users do not bother to read through endless hashtags as they are complex to read. Overusing hashtags destroys the purpose of your post and readers ignore such posts.
Also Read – Best Hashtag Tracking Tools
Brands make the common mistake of using generic hashtags for their marketing campaign. Using popular hashtags makes sense but what if the hashtags are not relevant to your brand image and brand product or service?
Popular hashtags like #nature #travel #beautiful have high exposure and are highly searched, but do they don’t provide any meaning to the brand’s social media event?
Posts with general hashtags may get views or likes but not from the target audience or people who may be interested in your business and brand. Hashtags that relate to your product and service must be used. Also note, the context of the picture or the video must be kept in mind before using hashtags.
Now, this case is the worst of all wherein in today’s time a brand does not understand the usefulness of a hashtag. Hashtags drive user engagement, user traffic and augment greater customer base. Hashtags are typically a search function; hence using them for social media will help people to find your brand posts, product, services etc. Brands building themselves on social media channels must make use of hashtags for global exposure.
Tweets with of hashtags can generate 2x more event engagement than tweets without hashtags.
1 or 2 hashtags are ideal. Tweets with 1-2 hashtags attract 21% more engagement, but using more than 2 hashtags can drop engagement down by 17%.
Users are 55% more likely to retweet something with at least 1 hashtag. 25% of tweets get retweeted, but 40% of tweets that include hashtags get retweeted.
Also Read – Guide To Create Instagram Hashtag Campaign
5. Your Hashtag Conveys a Wrong Meaning
Is there a possibility of your hashtag being understood in a different way than you’re wanting it to be? Does it have the possibility of conveying an obscene meaning or being read in another way?
Check for such mistakes for they might happen unknowingly.
#therapist – This one is simple yet conveying two meanings-
Meaning – Therapist
Interpreted – The Rapist
This sparks conflicting conversations on the internet where people pay zero attention to common sense.
I hope the blog provides you with ideas on what to do and what not to when selecting the hashtag for your next event. Get the most out of your hashtag now!
If you want to aggregate all your social media feeds with hashtag then you can try Taggbox to display social media hashtag content across any marketing touchpoint, be it website, digital screens, emails etc.
Also Read: The Ultimate Guide to choosing a perfect Hashtag for your Wedding