How-To: New Ways to Use Hashtags

Jul 29, 2015

Perhaps your company has a hashtag strategy. We kinda doubt it, though. It’s more likely that you’re using hashtags in an appropriate way, adding them to the end of your tweets. It probably looks something like this:

Yep, we’re guilty of it, too: using hashtags in boring, old, typical ways. Want to try out new ways to use hashtags? Read on.

New Ways to Use Hashtags

Create a Hashtags for your Customers to Use

Create a company-branded hashtag that your loyal followers can use when they’re tweeting about your brand. Think of Charmin’s #tweetfromtheseat hashtags. Sure, the brand uses it all the time, but its followers use it, too.

Or, you can try creating a specialized hashtag for a product launch, company event or some other exciting thing coming from your company. Or, what about creating a hashtags to curate ideas from your audience? What do they want to see you blogging about? The hashtag will let you know.

Spark Conversations

Twitter is a real-time,  always-updating social network. Use it to your company’s advantage by having conversations with your audience. Host a Twitter chat or respond to customer questions. Set up a specific customer service hashtag so that you can field complaints, concerns, questions.

How-To: New Ways to Use Hashtags

Photo Credit: mag3737 via Compfight cc

Join Conversations

In truth, you can join any conversation anywhere – just as long as it makes sense for your brand. Many companies have capitalized on huge, nation-wide events (like the Super Bowl) to join in on the flurry of conversation going on in the Twittersphere.

Perhaps it doesn’t make sense for your company to join in on the Super Bowl tweets, but we can guarantee there’s a large-scale event your company can get involved in. Do some research to find out.

Find Out What Others are Talking About

Let’s just say you read this blog, find it very interesting, promise to start using these techniques…and then go right back to using hashtags in the traditional way. That’s fine! Really, it is. Especially when you take it one step further and click through the hashtags that you’re using (#marketing #socialmedia) to see what other conversations are going on around those topics. You can find new accounts to follow, get more ideas for blog topics and Twitter conversations and maybe even scope out some competition.

So, even if you don’t use these new ways to use hashtags, at least find out what others are talking about. Even that simple step will elevate your company’s hashtag strategy.