Using branded hashtags + their benefits
There’s no doubt about it: Hashtags can make or break your social media strategy. Including hashtags in your posts allows you to take part in a conversation happening. They also give users (past, current and potential) a new way to get in touch with your business on social.
Branded hashtags are a whole other ball game. These will build your brand’s following and should be used to encourage your followers to share content with. When mixed with broader industry-relevant hashtags, your content could reach those who might not otherwise see it.
For more information on hashtag use, check out our previous blog post about it here.
Whether the hashtag you come up with is a branded term, phrase or call to action, be sure to make it short, memorable and inclusive. They should reference your brand but also be broad enough to be used in dialogues outside of your business or organization. Watch out for an increase in your social media engagement and brand awareness.
Benefits of Branded Hashtags
Track your engagement
Just like any other hashtag, brand hashtags help you collect all of the discussion around your brand in one place. Simply by searching the hashtag, you can see content and use it as a baseline for measuring what types of people are engaging with your brand, their opinions, and how you can interact with them in the most effective and meaningful ways.
Make sure that you use your branded hashtag across all of your social media channels to get your audience accustomed to it. The more familiar users become with your branded hashtag, the easier it’ll be for your target audience to use it when they talk about your brand.
Build conversation
There are few things more effective than a custom hashtag when it comes to building a conversation around your brand.
The Pennsylvania Wilds’ #pawilds ongoing campaign is a great example of an effective branded hashtag. The hashtag is clearly branded, but the visual aspect they based it around included their audience and facilitated a uniquely personal approach. On top of that, the hashtag is also an effective CTA, as it outright encourages the customer to share a photo of their product.
Publicize events and promotions
Are you launching a campaign, promotion, or contest? The perfect catalyst to publicize the event, while promoting your brand and easily tracking the progress and involvement will be your branded hashtag. Be sure to include it on any other marketing materials.
A healthy mix of hashtags (branded, industry and local) will allow users to search you through the keywords they’re interested in. Branding your hashtags can be the key to maximizing their effectiveness. They will also help you easily organize all of your content so that anyone who comes across your hashtag will have easy access to the rest of your content. What are you waiting for?
If you need some ideas to get your hashtag list started, our continually updated list of hashtags might come in handy.
About the Author:
Katey Crean is a Social Media Specialist at Hello Social Co. When not organizing content, she can be found teaching kiddos musical theater.
Tags: Facebook, hashtags, Marketing, small business, Social Media, social media management, social media marketing, social media posts, using hashtags