Courtesy: Funsubstance.com
By: Mindy Chung
Hashtags originated on Twitter, but they can now be seen across all social media. What started as an experiment transitioned into a social media phenomenon that not only helps public figures and major brands on Instagram spread their posts like wildfire, but also gain exposure for important topics and information.
Courtesy: Expedia.com
Ever heard of Expedia’s #ThrowMeBack campaign? Or #ShareACoke? These companies created some of the most recognizable and successful hashtag campaigns to date. What made them so successful was their ability to get people involved.
Expedia’s #ThrowMeBack campaign asked contestants to tag nostalgic throw-back posts with the hashtag #ThrowMeBack, in order to be entered into their contest where 10 winners would have the opportunity to visit the location the photo was originally taken and recreate the photo. The contest ended up getting more than 5 million impressions with hundred of thousands of entries as people were seeing an influx of throwback Thursday posts with Expedia’s hashtag. By playing on people’s emotions, Expedia had a clever spin on the preexisting #ThrowbackThursday phenomenon.
Courtesy: Coca-Cola.com
Coca-Cola is notorious for its successful marketing endeavors and its #ShareaCoke campaign is no exception. In the mid 2010s, Coca-Cola began replacing one side of their bottles with the words “Share a Coke with,” followed by someone’s name. They launched this across multiple countries using each country’s most popular names. This was effective because it led people to look for their names and their friend’s names. It almost became a quest to find your name on a Coke bottle; people began posting pictures on social media and sending images to their friends if they found their names. This led to a resurgence of people drinking Coke, about a 28% increase, because they were bombarded with images of these personalized Coke bottles. The hashtag #ShareaCoke garnered over 250,000 posts last year.
Courtesy: intersezione.com
That said, hashtag campaigns can brutally highlight the public sentiment surrounding a brand. Before taking the plunge, companies must assess their chosen hashtag in its entirety (including how the phrase reads as one solid word, with no spaces) and consider how widespread opinion may manipulate the trend.
Take McDonald’s, who in 2012 launched an early venture into social media advertising called #McDStories. Ideally, twitter would alight with users recalling the last time they had a satisfying McDonald’s meal, and maybe a fond memory or two of the restaurant chain. Instead, their feed flooded with tweets such as these:
As Keyhole states in their assessment of the failed campaign, avoid “open-ended calls-to-action” when inviting public opinion to the table.
In today’s technology-driven branding picture, hashtags are the new caption. They are not only a great way to organize online information, but also an amazing way to rope consumers into a brand message and campaign.
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