TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction What Are Hashtags? How to Use Hashtags Why Use Hashtags? Hashtags for Contests Case Study: #ItsMillerTime Conclusion INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION 2
Hashtags have become nearly ubiquitous in online communication. Once only a Twitter phenomenon, users have now adopted hashtags across many social media channels to categorize and organize posts by topic and track discussions. For brands, they are a way to build awareness around products or services. In this guide, we ll discuss hashtags what they are, why your brand needs them, and how to measure their impact on your marketing campaigns. We ll also discuss strategies used by brands that have had success using hashtags. WHAT ARE HASHTAGS? Hashtags are terms used in Tweets, on Facebook, on Instagram, and other social networks that are searchable, clickable, and measurable. Many brands incorporate them into marketing plans for a number of reasons. Though they can be overused and implementing them as a tactic can be confusing, when it comes to campaign management, organization, and branding, it s hard to top the simple power of the hashtag. Hashtags: Clickable terms within posts that begin with the pound sign - #. HOW TO USE HASHTAGS 3
Hashtags allow marketers to engage with users they might not otherwise and build branded campaigns of their own. Here are some ways hashtags can be used in social media marketing: 1. Campaigns When conducting a specific campaign, use hashtags to help recognize engaged users, search for activity around keywords, and promote your product or company. For example, we might brand a Simply Measured giveaway on Twitter with the hashtag #SimplySwag and ask users to tweet using the hashtag for a chance to win. 2. Increased reach Hashtags for topics are often searched and monitored by marketers and users with specific interests. For example, tweeting a piece of content with the hashtags #SocialMedia and #Twitter increases the chance of reaching social media marketers who likely search for content using those hashtags. 3. Twitter chats Users and brands host regular Twitter chats, which use specific hashtags to help users organize and participate in the conversation. For example, to host a regular conversation about social media trends, a brand might choose the hashtag #SMTrendsChat. Doing this, the brand promotes a searchable term that allows users to interact with anyone else getting involved in the chat or conversation. 4
4. Discovery When doing research, hashtags can be searched to discover interests, sentiment, attitudes, and demographics of the users engaging with the hashtag. 5. Comparison It s possible to measure and compare activity around different hashtags to identify trends, growth, or disparity in performance. This is important for recurring campaigns and competitive analysis. WHY USE HASHTAGS? Hashtags now serve as an easy way to connect with your fans, followers, and users across multiple social media channels. Clickable hashtags started out on Twitter. Then, when Facebook adopted the trend, a new era of cross-channel marketing through hashtags began. Facebook s clickable hashtags introduced a way for brands and users to create context for their posts there. According to our research, in the two weeks after Facebook hashtags became clickable, 56% of the Interbrand Top 1 Brands made at least one post that included a hashtag and 18% of these top brands made five or more Facebook posts with hashtags. Organized, searchable content on Facebook helped drive users to discover what was happening in real-time, just as they did on Twitter. Eventually, other social networks did the same and now brands can link their social audience to conversations taking place on Twitter, Google+, Facebook, YouTube, Vine, Instagram, and other social networks. % of Interbrand Top 1 Brands Top Brands Using Facebook Hashtags 1% 9% 8% 7% 6% 5% 4% 3% 2% 1% Posted To Facebook Posted With a Hashtag Have Sent 2+ Hashtag Posts Posts made between June 12th and June 24th, 213 Have Sent 5+ Hashtag Posts Have Sent 1+ Hashtag Posts In the two weeks after Facebook hashtags became clickable, between June 12 and June 24, 213, the Interbrand Top 1 Brands made more than 25 posts with Facebook hashtags. 5
Efforts to engage fans with hashtags on the channel of their choice allows brands to maximize engagements with social media campaigns and leads to more unified brand messaging and social presence across channels. A single hashtag can now connect brand messaging across each of the major social networks. Porsche has seen success in using Facebook hashtags to drive cross-channel participation. 6
HASHTAGS FOR CONTESTS Contests are fun way for brands to engage with fans, foster creativity in their communities, and reward fans for their loyalty. Contests are also enormous engagement drivers. However, the rate of adoption as a marketing tactic has been low because hashtags can be difficult to track. Fortunately, there are tools available that can simplify the process of tracking hashtags. Facebook Facebook has made it easy for marketers to run contests using hashtags. The network offers custom apps that implement calls to action, making it simple to require Page likes, as well as track submissions. Set up the right app and a contest can more or less run itself on Facebook. The results are typically very positive with an increase in Likes and engagement. New Fans Page Fans Over Time New Fans 6.k 5.k 4.k 3.k Total Fans 2.5MM 2.MM 1.5MM 1.MM Total Fans 2.k 1.k 5.k 1/27/12 1/28/12 1/29/12 1/3/12 1/31/12 7
Twitter & Instagram Compared to Facebook, running contests on Twitter and Instagram is less efficient, but possible. Community managers often run their contests across channels by tweeting about their great new contest with a link to their Facebook app. Though hashtags are a great way to brand and share content, conversion rates go down anytime you require people to switch platforms. Even for those who make the effort, you can t attribute entrants back to Twitter so measurement is difficult. Most importantly, you don t offer the opportunity for engagement on their preferred social media channel. The result? A Twitter strategy that s devoted to earning more Likes and Facebook engagement, while Twitter and Instagram growth stagnates. Engagement Engagement Over Time 25.k 2.k 15.k 1.k 5.k 4/4/13 4/5/13 4/6/13 4/7/13 4/8/13 4/9/13 Using a set of sample data, this chart shows a spike in Facebook engagement, but not Twitter or Instagram, after a hashtag contest launched on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. 8
To run effective contests on Twitter and Instagram, you need the right tools and the right approach. It all starts with a hashtag. This is your identifier and it should be unique #contest will not differentiate the conversation you re facilitating. If your brand doesn t lend itself to a unique identifier, employ a keyword string to focus your participants: #[company name] #contest. Now you ve got something traceable. There is a conversation you own that you can influence, measure, and learn from. The next step is to leverage the strengths of each channel to run a social campaign not an app-based campaign. Ask your followers to share specific content and to tag it with your branded hashtags in order to register their contest entry. On Twitter, take advantage of all 14 characters by asking your followers to share a list, a lesson, or complete a phrase. On Instagram, simply ask users to share a photo or video of them with your product. Then, have contestants use the contest hashtag to register their submissions. With a tool like Simply Measured, you can monitor contest #hashtags to track submissions, follow up with influencers, or Retweet a submission. As a brand, you can show your audience that you care, you re listening, and you identify with the same values as your customers. In turn, your customers become active brand ambassadors, projecting a positive image of your brand directly to their friends and family. This is social at it s best. Keyword String: A keyword string is a search engine optimization (SEO) term used to describe a grouping of words that a user might search for. Since hashtags can be searched like keywords, it s important to consider words or groups of words that will make post content easier for users to find. Before you start handing out free t-shirts, check out Simply Measured s guide to running a social contest to learn more about all the fine print. 9
HOW TO MEASURE A HASHTAG CAMPAIGN #SetYourIntention. How are you measuring your social media campaign s progress on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook? How are hashtags involved? The open frontier of social media marketing leaves plenty of room for experimentation in defining and measuring the ideal impact of hashtags. By analyzing the data behind past, current, and competitive hashtags, it s easy to set objectives by showing what works, monitoring progress, and keeping track of audience reaction. Whether you re interested in a high-level view or deep-dive data, the best way to set informed goals is to start with the numbers. Though pulling hashtag data manually can be a chore, hashtags are easy to track using the Simply Measured Twitter Activity Report, or Stream Snapshot report, and can be trended over time to measure volume and activity. This information helps you research opportunities, identify successes, and measure causes of peaks and lulls in activity. For example, this Twitter Activity Report compares three consecutive years of Tweets using the Consumer Electronics Show s branded hashtags for the first two days of the event. For 213, the hashtags were #CES, #CES213, #213CES and #CES13. When trended over the same amount of time, we re able to identify growth trends and determine the events that caused specific spikes and drops in activity. You can see that usage statistics for the branded hashtags are much higher in 213 than the two previous years. CES Year/Year Twitter Comparison: Days 1-2 Tweets from 213 Tweets from 212 Tweets from 211 1.k 8.k 6.k 4.k 2.k 12am 4am 8am 12pm 4pm 8pm 12am 4am 8am 12pm 4pm 8pm 12pm A comparison of the volume of branded hashtags used in Tweets in the first two days of the Consumer Electronics Show over a three year period. 1
To measure how your planned hashtag campaign is performing, the key is knowing what performance metrics to track and what gives a meaningful bird s eye view. If you must choose three metrics, choose one that s essential, one that dives deep, and one that s purely comparative or to put it in a social media context: Tweets Stream Tweets Over Time Retweets @replies Mentions 1.k 8.k 6.k 11 Number of mentions Potential impressions Relative volume by term Why these three metrics? Let s take a look at these metrics on Twitter. How many times your hashtag is used: Number of mentions First, we re looking for number of mentions. Using the Simply Measured Twitter Activity Report, look at the Stream Tweets Over Time section. Or, you can perform a manual collection to see the overall volume, Retweets, @replies, and mentions of any chosen hashtag. Finding out how many times a hashtag has been used and in what way gives an idea of whether a hashtag is going viral or going nowhere. Be sure to look at your usage numbers on a weekly basis for a long-term campaign, and on a twice-daily basis for a short-term campaign. How many times your hashtag is viewed: Potential impressions Once you know how many times a hashtag has been used, you ll need to know how many people have seen it and how many possible impressions you ve made. 4.k 2.k 2/25/14 2/26/14 With Simply Measured's "Stream Tweets Over Time" report you can view the number of Retweets, @replies, and mentions that include a particular hashtag over a period time. Potential Impressions Potential Impressions 6.k 5.k 4.k 3.k 2.k 1.k 2/25/14 2/26/14 With a Simply Measured Potential Impressions report you can view how many people are likely to see a hashtag you ve used on Twitter or another social media platform. 2/27/14 2/27/14 2/28/14 2/28/14
For instance, we ll say that NFL running back De Anthony Thomas tweets your hashtag #DuckLove. That s one mention you have that number already. But then his friend Snoop Dogg retweets that Tweet. Now Thomas s original Tweet is going to show up on the feeds of all Snoop s followers, too. You can measure that by looking at your potential impressions on a Simply Measured Twitter Account report. Potential Impressions 5.k #seareads #pdxreads How your hashtag is faring compared to other hashtags: Relative volume by term Make sure you know where your hashtag stands in the competitive space around your brand. You can do this by looking up your relative volume by term. Research your competitors hashtags and your own and track both on the same chart. This information gives an idea of how your brand stacks up and maybe even how you can take advantage of the lulls in volume for a competitive hashtag. 4.k 3.k 2.k 1.k 4;3pm 4:4pm 4:5pm 5:pm 5:1pm 5:2pm 5:3pm 5:4pm 5:5pm 6:pm With a Simply Measured "Potential Impressions" report you can view how many people are likely to see a hashtag you've used on Twitter or another social media platform. 12
CASE STUDY: #ITSMILLERTIME With so many options for contests and other campaigns, which brands have found success moving products and increasing engagement with hashtags? Let s take a look at Miller Lite s successful #ItsMillerTime hashtag campaign. Miller Lite launched their first-ever, user-generated TV commercial with Twitter s help. The campaign started just before summer. Miller Lite used the themes of nice weather and summer parties to generate brand awareness around the #ItsMillerTime hashtag. Users submitted photos via Twitter of themselves drinking Miller Lite and included the hashtag in each post. These photos then had the chance of being featured in a TV commercial in the fall. The hashtag was tweeted almost 5, times in the first month after the campaign began. Twitter Volume #ItsMillerTime Mentions by Day 8.k 7.k 6.k 5.k 4.k 3.k 2.k 1.k Miller Lite made some other great choices to promote their contest. First, they offered incentives to contest participants. The brand planned to give out $1, prizes to 1 lucky submissions each day for 1 days. Second, one of the most compelling parts of this promotion was that if fans wanted to get involved, they needed to actually purchase Miller Lite. Not only did fans Tweet, they bought the product. 5/1/14 5/7/14 5/14/14 5/21/14 Shortly after Miller Lite released a video announcement of its #ItsMillerTime contest, the hashtag racked up almost 5, mentions on Twitter. 5/27/14 13
CONCLUSION Hashtags are an important tool for marketers, though they can be overused or difficult to implement. Brands that have adopted hashtags have much more unity in their messaging across channels, and they ve had success in driving engagement. As they ve been adopted by social networks and marketers, hashtags have become important to measure to track campaign performance, monitor trends, and drive campaigns that help promote both brands and products. By measuring and analyzing the performance of hashtag campaigns, many major brands have been able to demonstrate how these campaigns help marketers achieve their goals. 14
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