Twitter long ago began taking over our personal lives and it’s now infiltrated the working world too! So many businesses have become hooked on the quick social media gratification that a tweet or retweet provides for them. In brief, a hashtag is a way to direct your tweets towards a specific topic – and if you’re popular or creative enough it can help you get your topic trending across the internet. While they were really only intended as a clever filing system on social media, they are rapidly emerging in our everyday lives too! Keep your ears open as you wander down the high street and you’re bound to occasionally hear people verbalising their feelings with the word hashtag actually appended to them! #Awkward! #Weird!

1. Are hashtags replacing
meaningful conversation?
Rosie Evans
Rev Marketing

2. What is this about?
Twitter long ago began taking over our personal lives and it’s
now infiltrated the working world too! So many businesses
have become hooked on the quick social media gratification
that a tweet or retweet provides for them.
In brief, a hashtag is a way to direct your tweets towards a
specific topic – and if you’re popular or creative enough it can
help you get your topic trending across the internet. While
they were really only intended as a clever filing system on
social media, they are rapidly emerging in our everyday lives
too! Keep your ears open as you wander down the high street
and you’re bound to occasionally hear people verbalising their
feelings with the word hashtag actually appended to them!
#Awkward! #Weird!

3. History of hashtags
The invention of hashtags is laid firmly at Twitter’s door
but over time as people began incorporating hashtags
into their normal (at first online and now seemingly any
form) conversations, other social media platforms
realised they needed to adopt this powerful tool.
Facebook, Google+ and Instagram promptly jumped on
the bandwagon.

4. How hashtags work
Think of a hashtag like a filing system. You’re basically
labelling your content to make it easier for people (and
now even search engines) to find. People can simply
search for specific hashtags or click on ones they notice
appearing in their news streams to find more related
content.

5. Hashtags gone wrong!
The social media trend has generated some news worthy stories, as
companies have their serious hashtag attempts hijacked by the Twitter
public. Here are just a couple of our favourites:
#McDStories was created with the aim of inspiring heart-warming
stories about Happy Meals. Unfortunately, it instead produced a
stream of less than complimentary commentary by consumers and the
campaign was pulled within two hours. This hashtag has since become
a case study of what can go wrong with hashtags and kept alive by
consumer tweets using the #McDStories hashtag.
#WhyImVotingUkip was supposed to be used by UKIP members to
explain why they were voting for Nigel Farage's party in the summer
2015 general election. However, the Twitterati instantly saw an
opportunity to swamp the feed with an array of creative posts to
ridicule the political party…not quite the exposure they were hoping
for!

6. How #hashtags are taking over
The real game changer was the integration of hashtags into
mainstream media, like TV shows. It’s now commonplace for big TV
shows such as #BBCF1 or #Strictly to intersperse their hashtags
throughout the programme to generate live banter on Twitter. In this
world of instant gratification, we no longer need to wait to discuss our
favourite TV moments around the watercooler.
Brands such as Coca Cola have taken it one step further by displaying
#showyourheart on their packaging as part of their new marketing
campaign. The hashtag trend has now spread its wings from social
media and embedded itself into the whole of pop culture.
#Hashtags are just one element of how social media has evolve the
way we live and interact. Customers now turn to social media to
complain and expect instant and public solutions – are you one of the
companies who are getting social media service right?

7. What now?
For more information go to our website