“If you’re satisfied with your message, please press the pound key before hanging up.”
This message may sound a little dated as the act of physically calling someone on the telephone receding as incoming wave of texting and email continues to rise. Yet the pound key is being re-invented through the world of social media to become the “hashtag”.
Who do we have to thank for adding the power behind this tiny symbol? Twitter. In 2009, Twitter added the code to hashtags to hyperlink words attached to that symbol, allowing them to aggregate these to reveal what’s trending. The hashtag, according to hashtag.org, is used to highlight words or topics, making it easy for people to categorize, find, and join conversations on a particular topic.
The other platforms of social media including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and even Google +, were not far behind with utilizing this powerful little symbol. When you attach a hashtag to a photo on Instagram, it makes the photo easier to find and more likely to be discovered. By using hashtags in Google + articles, it will improve your search engine results when people search for a particular topic. Companies who are beginning to use the power of social media are learning it’s important to use a unique hashtag for their company. Your company will benefit from the use of hashtags as it not only creates brand awareness, such as allowing your followers a way to tag you in photos taken by them, but also allows them another way to find you when they are searching other social media platforms.
Picking a relevant hashtag is very important if you want your brand to be discovered. But how long is too long? You want to keep the words and phrases you hashtag concise. There is no need to hashtag an entire sentence or hashtag every word in a sentence in your status on Facebook or the caption you are attaching to a photo on Instagram. Although there is no magic formula to exactly how many hashtags to use, the key is to be consistent.
The use of correct hashtags keeps your brand in the trending topics and is crucial for success in search engine results. There have been companies that have had huge success in launching new products by using a key hashtag in boosting engagement in their campaign. So if you’re ready to see how powerful hashtags are in growing your brand through social media, we at #newmediadigital are here to #helpyousucceed.
