The importance of hashtags and social media

1. Streams

Many social media users leverage dashboard tools such as Tweetdeck and Hootsuite to organize the information that they consume. These tools allow you to set up “channels” to monitor and organize your followers (e.g. donors, media, colleagues), manage outgoing communication drafts, and follow keyword hashtags.

Much of my content is discovered by my use of hashtags that I know my audience follows: #hesm (higher education social media), #HEmkting (higher education marketing) #ismarketing (independent school marketing), and #emchat (the hashtag used for a Thursday night chat by enrollment management professionals).

I discovered these hashtags by using Hashtagify.me, an online database that organizes popular hashtags and provides related and relevant hashtags to consider. I found my options by analyzing the hashtag #highered. Remember that choosing hashtags is an important process in your strategy, and you should find tags that are in circulation to associate with your organization.
2. Search

A number of users also take advantage of the search function within social media networks to discover accounts to follow based upon their hashtag usage. Hashtags can improve your search engine optimization within the network.

Many Twitter users leverage the hashtags not only in their communication, but in their profile descriptions for this reason. Much like the streams, search is a way for your message to be discovered and followed in an easy way for your users.
3. Gain Influencer Notice

Another reason to leverage hashtags is to gain the attention of influencers. Within the Hashtagify.me tool set, you’ll find the ability to identify the most influential users for a particular hashtag. This is important because every time an influencer retweets or engages with your communication, it is amplified to their audience and to possible followers for your organization.

Understanding and building relationships with these individuals can create dynamic opportunity for your messaging.
4. Advertising

Pay-per-click advertising within social media is heating up and producing strong returns on the investment. A strategy for amplifying your message is to include trending or popular hashtags with your advertisement.

Again, turning to online tools to best understand your target audience and the hashtags that they are using can yield improved results for your campaigns and conversions. This should be a part of your social media strategy.
5. Online Chats

In their book The Art of Social Media, Guy Kawasaki and Peg Fitzpatrick outline an excellent strategy for Twitter chats – organized discussions monitored by hashtags to allow users to follow conversations. I encourage admissions offices to consider developing and scheduling prospective student and parent chats throughout the fall months. This could also be used for advancement and alumni relations to organize meet-ups and other question/answer times with key leaders.

Developing your own hashtag as part of that chat strategy is recommended, and using popular hashtags to initially promote it would be part of the marketing strategy.
6. Newsjacking

During Superbowl XLVII, the power went out in the New Orleans Superdome. One tweet from Oreo Cookies stole the show and was remembered as one of the brilliant advertising moves of the night. They did not pay the millions of dollars for an elaborate 60-second ad.

David Meerman Scott, in his book The New Rules of Marketing & PR discusses the new trend of “newsjacking” and how by strategically using hashtags around a news event, an organization can essentially hi-jack some coverage by inserting themselves into the news stream. While this is not for everyone, nor should it be an early part of your strategy, it may be a future option for more mature social media experts.
7. Offline Promotion = Viral Opportunities

Indiana University leveraged hashtags as part of a brilliant admission promotion. The simple use of the hashtag #IUSAIDYES on bright, bold red envelopes produced a viral social media campaign when students began posting selfies with their acceptance letters:

Creative thinking with hashtags may result in wider audiences for your marketing messages.

Hashtags are a key tool in your social media strategy. These seven ideas are just some of the reasons you should use hashtags and understand them in a greater degree. With planning and strategy, hashtags should become a regular part of your social media practice.