Every day 125 million hashtags are used on social media platforms. Hashtags are not just a convenient way to see related content, but a powerful tool for organizing and tracking branded content. As a social media marketing tool, hashtags have the capacity to drive traffic and increase your brand awareness. If used correctly, your brand can adopt its own hashtag that is so effective, that it goes viral. For these reasons, companies have started to use branded hashtag campaigns to promote their products. In terms of social media marketing, you may be wondering: what is a branded hashtag campaign?
First, what is a branded hashtag?
A branded hashtag is an original hashtag that you create for your company. This is different than just hashtagging the name of the company. The frozen food company Tattooed Chef may put #tattooedcheffoods on their posts, but they would create a specific hashtag for their campaign.
How do I use it?
Branded hashtags can be used as a social media marketing tool for various reasons like giveaways, announcements, launches, events, and so much more. They are a way to promote interaction with customers. They also help manage content and collect data as you can track the amount the hashtag is used.
Now let’s look at two different branded hashtags that were successful in social media marketing.
It can be a call to action
The best-branded hashtags usually have a call to action that acts the followers to participate in the movement somehow. For example, Coca Cola created a viral hashtag campaign showing their excellence in social media marketing with the hashtag #ShareaCoke. This led to people retweeting and sharing that hashtag to show who they were drinking their coke with.
Use it as a giveaway tool
These are successful at driving traffic because people will use that hashtag and submit a photo to win money. The purpose behind this is to spread the word about Expedia and get people excited about the prospect of winning.
Now go out and create a hashtag that is sure to help your brand gain some fast traffic. Now that you understand branded hashtag read this article about paid versus organic content here.
