The ubiquitous hashtag has turned 14.
On August 23, 2007, at 11:25 pm, Chris Messina had tweeted “how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?“ and the rest is history.
The intent of the hashtag was to help users find specific relevant content. So naturally, it became a marketer’s go-to tool to encourage and curate user-generated content.
Today you can follow hashtags like individuals on social media. Here is a feed for the #AbuDhabi channel on LinkedIn. People put this in the search bar and actively look for it, and follow it. Adding this hashtag (almost 689k+ followers at the time of posting) gives your post exposure to a much wider set of individuals. Then why in the heck would you use #Our_Awesome_Product, which no one is looking for?
If you don’t have Apple or Amazon level recognition, better use hashtags as a strategy for reach, not branding.
You can still make #Our_Awesome_Product work for you if you’re using other offline channels to promote it.
Use Hashtags wisely. And don’t be spammy.
No one likes a spammer.
