Social media explorer: Hashtags! Remember the time when everyone was pouring ice buckets over their heads? #IceBucketChallenge took over the world, and it’s all thanks to the hashtag feature.
So, whether you’re chilling on Instagram or tweeting away on Twitter, hashtags are invisible threads that connect your brand with your customers, taking the marketing game to another level.
In this blog, we will explain why you need them, tips to remember, and pitfalls to stay away from. Plus, we’ve got a bunch of amazing hashtag campaigns from recent years to give you some serious inspiration.
Get ready and start your learning journey!
How Hashtag Campaigns Make A Difference?
Running a hashtag campaign can offer your brand a variety of advantages; here are some reasons to consider running an Instagram hashtag slideshow content at your event and website.
Broader Visibility
Hashtag campaigns can increase your brand awareness and spread on social media platforms. When users engage with a hashtag created specifically for your marketing campaign, product, or event, their posts become part of it and pull in more significant conversations, exposing the brand to a broader audience.
Furthermore, displaying your hashtag content on the website or at events using social walls can help you boost your conversion rate and dwell time.
Customer’s Engagement
It can be difficult for a brand to increase interaction, but you can enhance your events through social wall integration, get them to participate in activities and contests, and take positive action toward its sales. This is where you can run a hashtag campaign.
Hashtags are a secret tool for creating and building buyer communities around a brand or a specific event or product. Successful campaigns encourage users to participate, share their experiences, and connect with like-minded individuals.
Multi-Channel Promotion
As we already know, your brand can benefit double if promotion is done on multiple social media channels, which direct visitors to your website, eventually leading to higher traffic and increased chances of conversion.
Hashtags are not confined to a single social media platform. They can be used across various platforms, allowing brands to implement cross-channel marketing strategies and reach a wider audience.
Brand Identity in The Market
Hashtag campaigns shape a brand’s identity for its potential customers and positioning in the market. The choice of hashtags, the associated content, and the overall campaign message can influence how the audience perceives the brand.
As a brand, you can incorporate a social wall at events that showcase your hashtag campaign content, posts, and stories your followers share to build a positive brand image.
Tips To Keep in Mind For A Successful Hashtag Campaign
As we move forward, learn how you can benefit from Instagram hashtag walls at events to display real-time content. To bag other advantages, incorporate the following elements in your hashtag campaign to make it a success.
Go ahead and read them below.
Keep It Authenticity
Authentic content can help you move toward your success as it allows you to showcase genuine content that resonates with your current users and can pull in more potential customers.
Whether it’s sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses, actual customer posts, or stories, authenticity builds trust and credibility among your followers, which can also lead to spreading your brand reach.
Relatability Matters
Knowing your audience goes a long way, as you can cut out your campaign to their preferences and experiences. A relatable campaign aligns with your target demographics.
Make sure to use language and content that speaks directly to them. Attract them using incentives and contests on their selected products and services.
Use CTAs
Provide a straightforward and clear call-to-action that guides users on participating. Whether using the hashtag in a specific context, sharing user-generated content, or taking a specific action, a well-defined CTA simplifies the user journey and encourages participation.
Using social wall CTAs in your event while flaunting the hashtag content can increase content creation as a bonus.
Set Measurable Goals
Clearly outline measurable goals for your campaign. It’s aiming for a certain number of mentions, shares, or user-generated content submissions; having specific benchmarks helps you calculate the success of your campaign and measure its impact.
This can be achieved through social wall analytics and can help you gain valuable reports and insights and highlight what can make your next hashtag campaign successful.
Stay Clear From These Common Mistakes
This section contains some common pitfalls brands can encounter when implementing hashtag campaigns. These could include a lack of planning, neglecting to monitor and respond to user-generated content, or choosing a complex hashtag to remember or spell.
Get a better understanding of what to avoid and not get into the trap.
Never Ignore User-Generated Content
Failing to engage with user-generated content can decrease the impact of your campaign. Be sure to actively respond, share, or showcase user content to foster a sense of community.
Ensure that you pay proper attention to your customers and their content, as it plays a positive role in luring others to become a buyer.
Don’t Overlook Moderation
Neglecting to monitor the use of your hashtag can result in unwanted or inappropriate content being linked with your brand.
To avoid this and showcase only highly influential content, implement the practice of social media content moderation to maintain a positive and on-brand campaign environment on your website or events.
Don’t Complicate Your Hashtags
Opting for a complex or hard-to-spell hashtag can hinder user participation. Keep it simple, memorable, and easy to type. Complicated hashtags may lead to misspellings, reducing the effectiveness of your campaign.
Now that we have understood the tips to remember and mistakes to avoid, let’s move on to the next section of our blog and learn about the new trends you should keep an open eye for.
A Look at The Latest Trends in Hashtag Campaigns
Read about the latest proven successful trends, including interactive elements like polls or quizzes and incorporating social causes or movements into campaigns.
Go With Interactive Elements
Integrating interactive elements like polls, quizzes, or games into hashtag campaigns enhances user engagement. Adding gamification to hashtag campaigns makes participation more enjoyable. Gamified campaigns tap into the human desire for competition and reward.
Brand Collaborations Go A Long Way
Collaborating with other brands or influencers on a hashtag campaign can amplify its reach, especially when flaunted on social media walls at events or on websites. This trend leverages your content to a new audience and makes cross-promotion easy.
Campaigns With Stories Win
Hashtag campaigns are increasingly using storytelling as a central theme. Brands share narratives that resonate emotionally with their audience, creating a deeper connection and encouraging user participation. You can profit from this strategy as it enhances brand-customer connection.
Apart from these trends, one strategy you can implement in your plan is to create a social wall that displays your hashtag content from multiple social media channels and catches your audience’s attention.
Hashtag Campaign To Get Inspired From
In this last section, you can read about brand hashtag campaigns of social wall examples on websites and events, which helped them gain a wider reach into an active audience and spread their brand awareness like fire.
Go ahead and read about them below.
#WantAnR8: Audi
When Audi unveiled the R8, a Twitter user and a big fan expressed her wish to experience driving an R8 by sharing a post with the hashtag #WantAnR8 in her tweet. The brand responded by surprising her with the opportunity to drive an R8 for an entire day.
This hashtag gained popularity as the brand utilized it to generate buzz around the car’s launch. As time passed, more users took part and employed the hashtag in their posts.
The brand took advantage of this trend by surprising some of them with a chance to drive an R8 for a day.
Audi listened to their customers and turned them into enthusiastic promoters of the new launch and brand on social media channels.
#OatlyBreakfastChallenge: Oatly
This social media campaign was initiated by Oatly, a famous brand known for its oat-based products, particularly oat milk. The campaign encouraged people to participate in a challenge by sharing creative and nutritious breakfast ideas using Oatly products.
Participants were invited to showcase their culinary skills with Oatly in their breakfast recipes, whether in oatmeal, smoothies, pancakes, or other breakfast dishes.
The goal was to highlight the diversity of Oatly’s products and eventually increase sales.
By encouraging user-generated content, Oatly increased engagement, built a sense of community, and showcased the product in various breakfast scenarios.
#WorthSaying: L’Oreal Paris
The brand encouraged women to speak up and share important issues using the hashtag #WorthSaying in their social media feed.
This movement empowered women to discuss matters that genuinely mattered to them openly. The campaign gained popularity, drawing active participation from celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Blake Lively.
This hashtag served as a powerful reminder to brands about the impact of supporting social causes. By standing up for something meaningful, brands can tap into people’s emotions and inspire widespread participation.
Note: As a brand, you can also share content by creating a social wall design and themes as per your website to give out a more appealing look.
#ShareACoke: Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola’s #ShareACoke campaign was a marketing initiative that began with the simple but powerful idea of personalizing Coke bottles.
The brand replaced its iconic logo with famous and most common names, encouraging consumers to find and share a Coke with friends and family.
As part of the campaign, Coca-Cola invited people to share visuals on social media using the hashtag #ShareACoke. It made the campaign a social media sensation, with people excitedly searching for bottles with their names or creating customized ones.
To enhance the interactive nature of the campaign, Coca-Cola implemented social walls at events and on its website. These social walls displayed a live feed of user-generated content tagged with #ShareACoke, showcasing the diverse content of people who participated in the campaign.
#AirbnbPhotoWall campaign: Airbnb
As part of this campaign, Airbnb encouraged guests to share their most memorable stay moments using the hashtag #AirbnbPhotoWall.
Users eagerly posted photos capturing their unique experiences while staying in Airbnb accommodations.
To create a visually captivating experience, Airbnb implemented a social wall on its website and featured a collection of user-generated photos.
The #AirbnbPhotoWall became a virtual travel gallery, providing a glimpse into the authentic moments that guests were enjoying through Airbnb.
The #AirbnbPhotoWall exemplifies how brands can turn their community’s visual stories into a compelling and interactive showcase, enhancing the overall brand experience.
#BeyondFiveStars by Uber
This hashtag challenge was a game-changer in the brand’s social media strategy. The campaign encouraged Uber users to go beyond the usual star ratings and express their appreciation for outstanding service by using the hashtag.
What started as a simple call to action became a social media hit. Millions of Uber riders took to platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, sharing heartfelt posts thanking their drivers for their services.
The brand strategically leveraged the abundance of user-generated content by featuring it in advertisements. This added a personal touch to their marketing and showcased the stories of appreciative riders.
Highlighting the #BeyondFiveStars became more than just a hashtag; it acted as social proof, creating positive feedback that benefitted Uber.
Let’s wrap up!
As we conclude that each part of a hashtag campaign brings you closer to your goals.
Your hashtag campaign is like a story that can help you get closer to your community. Make it a good one—authentic, up-to-date, and complete of activities now!
