Well, it was destined to be. Nothing lasts forever, especially if you’re a small business taking full advantage of the new, now, next and free of digital tools and tactics. It’s no coincidence that as social platforms and productivity applications formalize revenue streams (advertiser or subscriber), they’ve got you. You either have to pay to play or exit the sandbox. The decline of organic reach is one such example, requiring small business content publishers to rethink their approach. The use of the hashtag and its diminishing impact is another.
In the article Hey Twitter Advertisers — Want More Clicks? Lose the Hashtag!, Kurt Wagner summarizes a report that revealed Twitter direct response ads with a hashtag did not perform very well. Here are a few excerpts:
The simple explanation: All of the other clickable parts of the tweet are distracting people from doing what the advertiser wants, explained Anne Mercogliano, head of SMB marketing at Twitter.
What’s ironic is hashtags are synonymous with advertising on Twitter. It seems as though nearly every Twitter marketing campaign includes one. But Mercogliano says while hashtags may not be ideal for these specific types of ads, that doesn’t mean marketers should ignore them altogether.
“If you’re trying to join a conversation, you should absolutely use a hashtag,” she explained. “But for driving for a specific click that you’re looking for off Twitter, the less noise that you put in between [the better].”
Read the article at Recode.net.
Shadi Rahimi, producer for the cable network Al Jazeera (AJ+) and a Poynter Institute online columnist, makes excellent points about the higher performance of keywords, bad hashtag etiquette and saturation in the article We’re Using Hashtags Less than Ever. Here’s Why. A few excerpts:
I’ve noticed something over the past year: We’re using hashtags less often in tweets. By “we” I don’t just mean AJ+. I mean everyone. In recent months when I’ve checked Topsy or Twitter trends before tweeting, I’ve often seen a keyword(s) for a particular story trending higher than a hashtag.
Twitter officially added hashtags to their platform two years later[2009], and Instagram, Vine, Google+ and Facebook followed suit. Soon, everyone was using and abusing # to join or start conversation streams. Annoying newbies continue to drive us all nuts #withsentencelongpointlesshashtags. Don’t get me started on Instagramers who use 25 hashtags per photo.
One of our two resident social media queens at AJ+, Stephanie Ivy Whiteside, describes bad hashtag etiquette by the media like this, “A lot of media organizations jumped in, and lot of people who didn’t understand hashtags were using them thinking it was a magic bullet to get ideas across. Now, people have gotten a lot closer to using them for their original purpose — classification used to group overarching topics with lasting impact, like #BlackLivesMatter. It’s really about cataloguing conversation.”
“But when big events come up and we want to jump in on the conversation, we still need hashtags.”
Read the article at Poynter.org.
So what’s a small business marketer to do about the latest hashtag revelations? Well, don’t run for the hashtag hills or jump on a fire-breathing dragon just yet (yes, I am a #GoT fan). The hashtag is far from obsolete and very much relevant. It’s still a great small business tool for search, content organization, following chats, discussions and events, customer service and feedback, reputation, and real-time engagement.
In a previous post, we profiled a few companies that found hashtag success. You can read about them here.
In this episode of LGK’s The Marketing Mojo Show, Kristen Curtiss, social media specialist for Constant Contact, discussed small business hashtag marketing. Here’s a clip from the podcast:
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The infographic below, courtesy of SurePayroll.com, includes more than ten terrific hashtag tips.
Finally, a word to the small business wise. Like any other marketing tactic, hashtags must be commensurate with the company’s strategy and effectively integrated. If your strategy lacks a plan for paid, earned, shared and owned media (PESO), go back to the drawing board. In the meantime, enjoy one of my favorite #hashtag parodies from The Tonight Show Featuring Jimmy Fallon.
What are your thoughts about the future of hashtags? Are you using them more, less or strategically? Feel free to share your experience or suggestions in the comments section of this post.
GB O’Brien
LGK Principal
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Title graphic photo credit: mikecogh / Foter / CC BY-SA