What is a Hashtag?
Hashtags are popularly used on social media platforms. The idea of using hashtags was first mooted by Chris Messina who wanted to change the way we communicate on social media. So he proposed using a hashtag, to be a form of label for similar content, so that it becomes easier for users on social media to locate similar content.
Today hashtags have become a powerful tool in increasing reach and brand visibility. A hashtag can be generated for a trending topic and all posts related to that topic will be clubbed in the same group if the user uses the trending tag. For example #USelections can be a possible tag that can skyrocket on social media platforms during the election period. Hashtags are used almost on all social media platforms but is most effective on Twitter.
So anyone searching for the topic can search for the label and find various opinions and stories under the same label. It has been observed that many big stories were amplified and reached a larger audience with inputs from several citizen reports under the same label.
Not just trending topics or news but marketers have also used this tool to make their brand a trending story on social media.
How Do we Create a #hashtag
Here are a few technical points on how to create or use a #hashtag
No Spaces
Hashtag can be a word or an abbreviation. It can be a combination of words or a phrase that relates to the story. There can be no spaces between the words or the alphabets. Hashtags also cannot be entirely made of numbers.
The label has to start with the # Symbol
A hashtag has to start with the symbol ???#???. Once you prefix the symbol before the word or the phrase, it automatically categorizes it under the targeted label.
Anyone can create a hashtag
So you can make any number of hashtags and start using them in your stories and messages. The hashtag can be featured anywhere in the story. A single story can have multiple hashtags as well. Marketers can create a campaign using a particular hashtag and if the campaign goes viral, it amplifies the reach of the brand.
Create Unique Hashtags
Marketers can strive to create new and unique hashtags but there is a possibility that such a hashtag is already in use. On social media no one owns any hashtag so you are free to use any hashtag. A lot of people also use general hashtags such as #digitalmarketing or #facebook. Alternatively you can use an existing hashtag if you want to be part of a trending discussion. By using the hashtag you simply become part of the discussion.
Short Hashtags and Easy to remember
Try to make a short and easy to remember hashtag. The first reason being that Twitter limits the overall number of characters, the shorter hashtag the better it is. A hashtag that is easy to remember can be searched easily by a user and stories linked to the label are easier to locate.
How Not to Use Hashtags
Avoid overusing hashtags in a single line. It is bad etiquette and people might report you as spammer. Hashtag pollution also makes it difficult to read and doesn???t serve the purpose to highlight only the topic of discussion.
