A hashtag is a word or a group of words joined together with or without an underscore “_” to form a tagged piece of content that helps social media users acknowledge what topic they are talking about and it also supports analysts in research and audits. Technically, a hashtag is a form of metadata tag, which is an Internet bookmark, that helps describe an item, and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching on a specific microblogging site or social network such as Twitter, Google+, Instagram, etc...
I have seen recently several misuses and misconceptions about the uses of hashtags by organizations, brands, and surprisingly, “social media experts”, and for that, I thought to share with you the ultimate 9 steps to think of when creating a hashtag, a source of information given at one of our social media engagement training courses at The Social Clinic:
1. Unless you are supporting a cause with an already predefined hashtag, you should own the hashtag. Don’t take over some other campaign’s hashtag.
2. Figure out what you want to use a hashtag for: Why #Jeddah when you are specifically talking about a campaign in #Riyadh? Creating buzz #anywhere will not benefit your campaign.
3. #Don’t #overdo #the #hashtagging: Especially on Instagram! What is the difference between #picoftheday & #photooftheday? If your photo or image is good enough, people will find it and they will “like” it... don’t be too needy, it shows!
4. #Makesureyourhashtagisshortandconcise: A hashtag is meant to be searchable and found, if your hashtag is not, then it is useless.
5. Don’t change the hashtag halfway through a campaign.
6. Promote your hashtag on your other social networks.
7. Integrate your #hashtags into #sentences. #hashtag #sentence
8. Remember your hashtags are accessible to everyone #GonnaBeADad.
9. Archive! Report! Make Profit! Unless you’re not a business, you should be able to use hashtags to run campaigns and ultimately make money!
— Bilal Hallab is general manager and head, Social Business Strategist, at The Social Clinic, a social business consultancy based in Jeddah. @bilalhallab
