Why a clever hashtag can be key to making your marketing work well
For anyone who isn’t aware, hashtags are used on social media to categorise tweets or posts. People follow certain ones that they are interested in, such as #construction, by simply typing it into the search bar and any post that includes it in the copy will come up. This creates an easy method of tracking social media conversations around a certain subject and is a great way for companies to target a particular audience for free.
When they first came about, hashtags gained a mixed reaction. Some loved them, many hated them but now whatever people think of hashtags one thing is certain; when it comes to promoting a product, brand or service they can work really well in helping to generate more engagement for your digital marketing campaign.
With this in mind, most businesses, brands, celebrities and even TV shows now use hashtags as an everyday marketing tool.
Every now and then however someone develops one which, at a first glance doesn't read quite how it's meant to and can make people assume it is a mistake, but in essence is actually a genius and somewhat risqué move made by the marketing team.
Take #susanalbumparty for example, the hashtag went viral across the globe in 2012. It was developed to promote Susan Boyle’s newly released album. However, due to the lack of capital letters to separate the words, many read the hashtag wrong and so conversation about it began to rise, along with awareness of the new album as a result. This was believed to be a genuine mistake made by the publicist, but accidental or not it certainly increased engagement and conversation about the album.
Fast forward to today and we have been treated to another hilarious, and as we suspect ‘not-so-accidental’ hashtag. This time #amazonshitcarshow, which like Susan’s can be read in two ways, is trending on Twitter. The hashtag has been created to raise awareness of the launch of the new series of The Grand Tour; Amazon’s leading motor show presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.
In a promotional clip shared ahead of the show’s launch, Richard Hammond and James May joined forces to ‘choose’ a slogan for the third series. Eventually after some toing and froing, they agree on something that they describe as “snappy, plain talking, simple, clear”.
Then, this morning the hashtag appeared and Twitter has gone into a bit of a frenzy (while writing this sentence a further 90+ posts using #amazonshitcarshow have gone live).
For anyone that hasn’t seen the show or is unaware of the sense of humour that the three presenters possess, they are very matter of fact, mischievous and often like to be ‘tongue in cheek’ about things. Which is why this hashtag is not only genius but also perfectly ‘on brand’. It is also a great example of how thinking outside the box when it comes to your social media marketing can work.
Now we’re not saying to go away and purposely come up with a hashtag that creates swear words or crude phrases. We are however advising anyone looking for their next big social media push to think about how their strategy can be more creative and eye-catching to result in a high volume of conversation about your business or product amongst your target audience.
Here at Dragonfly PR, our social media team have more than ten years’ experience developing successful and very creative digital campaigns that generate results. If you’re interested in speaking to our team about your social media strategy for 2019, we would be happy to help. As a dedicated Sheffield-based Public Relations, digital marketing and social media agency, we have extensive experience in working with business to business companies including construction and manufacturing to ensure we can deliver robust, consistent campaigns that meet your business objectives.
For more information, email our team at hello@dragonflypr.co.uk or call 0114 3495345.
**Image Source: Ellis O'Brien/Amazon