Although it may seem easy enough, it’s not a simple task when it comes to creating a brand-oriented hashtag. If you expect to build any kind of buzz around it, it needs to be used consistently and by the right people. It also shouldn’t be created arbitrarily. Intimidated? Don’t be. Here are the three things a hashtag needs in order to be effective and usable for a specific brand/event.
It needs to be short.
Thanks to Twitter’s 140-character limits, you need to have a hashtag that is as short and concise as possible. Keeping it short will give followers more freedom in crafting questions, responses and general posts that have to do with that hashtag, and it will give you (as a brand) more space to create your posts. It will also be easier for users on both sides of the brand to type, reducing the chance that tweets pertaining to the brand or event will get lost.
It needs to be easy to remember.
The easier it is to remember, the more likely the brand and your followers will be to use it. If it’s self-explanatory, then there won’t be any questions, and you’ll get more activity. Remember, a lot of people regularly access Twitter from their mobile devices. If it’s easy to remember, and doesn’t require users to copy and paste it, it’ll get used more.
It needs to be unique.
You need to create a hashtag that is unique to your brand and the topic/event that it’s associated with, but also one that people not affiliated or familiar with your brand will be unlikely to use. For example, the hashtag #interop is excellent because it is clearly tied with the expo of the same name and it’s not a hashtag you would expect to see the average non-Interoper using. #digitalmarketing, on the other hand, is a poor hashtag from a brand-specific standpoint because it’s too general and people that use it range from being digital marketers to disgruntled students taking a digital marketing course.
New to the world of hashtags? Learn the ins and outs of hashtag marketing with our guide.
