Hashtags are an essential part of any social media marketing campaign, providing a quick and easy way to group content and increase visibility. Branded hashtags are an effective way to promote a company’s brand and engage with its audience. Companies can use a few strategies to create and implement a custom hashtag. The strategies can help increase brand awareness, drive engagement, and grow an online community.
Defining Objectives
Before creating a custom hashtag, it’s important to define the company’s objectives. That means thinking about what the company wants to achieve with its branded hashtag. It can be things like increasing engagement, driving traffic to the website, promoting new products, or simply building brand awareness. By identifying the goals, companies can create a hashtag that aligns with their objectives and resonates with the audience.
Choosing a Unique and Memorable Hashtag
Once the company has identified its objectives, creating a unique and memorable hashtag is time. The key to a successful branded hashtag is to keep it short, simple, and easy to remember. It should also be unique and not already in use by another company or organization. Companies should avoid using numbers, special characters, or obscure words that may be difficult to spell or remember.
Researching and Testing the Hashtag
Before launching the branded hashtag, it’s important to do some research and testing. This way companies can ensure it’s not already in use and that it resonates with the audience. There are a few different tools that companies can use to research the chosen hashtag and see how it’s currently being used. Businesses should test their hashtag on different social media platforms and with different audiences to see how it performs.
Promoting the Hashtag
Once the company has chosen and tested its branded hashtag, it’s time to promote it to the audience. This can be done through social media posts, email campaigns, and other marketing channels. Companies can use visuals like images and videos to showcase their hashtag and encourage their audience to use them. They can offer incentives like discounts, prizes, or exclusive content for those who use the hashtag.
Tracking and Analyzing Results
To measure the success of a branded hashtag, it’s important to track and analyze the results. There are a few different social media analytics tools that companies can use. Platforms like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, or Buffer can help track the hashtag’s performance. Many of them can track things including reach, impressions, and engagement. Companies can then analyze the results to see what’s working and what’s not and adjust accordingly.
Measuring the Success
As with any marketing campaign, it’s important to measure the success of the custom-branded hashtag. Companies should analyze engagement metrics with native social media analytics tools too. They should look at metrics such as likes, comments, and shares to determine the effectiveness of the hashtag. Then, they can use this data to adjust and improve their hashtag strategy in the future.
Engaging with the Audience
Finally, it’s important to engage with the audience and foster a sense of community around the branded hashtag. Companies should monitor the hashtag’s usage. They should also respond to user-generated content to build relationships with their audience. Companies can share user-generated content on their own social media channels to showcase their community and encourage others to participate.
The author, Matt Caiola, is Co-CEO of 5WPR.
