Hashtag is a word in English that when translated into Spanish "hash" means numeral or pad and "tag" label. It is a string of characters that form one or more words, this makes it become a metadata tag headed by a character, in order for users or systems to identify it quickly. In addition to this, it is used in the main social networks available on the web, to classify its contents and thus achieve greater interaction among other users interested in the subject.
What is a Hashtag
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Hashtag is a communication tool that is basically used in the publications of videos, texts, images and audios, which are made on social networks, such as instagram, facebook and twitter, with the aim that the publications are grouped, classified and ordered according to their content and topic.
With the use of this pad, also called numeral (#), all the contents that have the same label can be presented in an organized way, in a timeline, allowing different users to handle the same information on a certain topic or situations and turn between them.
Where does the Hashtag come from
The hashtag symbol known today as the hashtag or numeral exists from the keypads of landlines. Although it is very common to see this symbol on the social network twitter, it was not who created it, its creator was a web developer from the United States called Chris Messina.
In the 60s, the company Bell Laboratories, manufacturer of the first landline telephones with buttons, carried out a study in the main cities of the United States, in order to find out among their potential customers, what were the symbols they wanted on these devices. The result is known to all, we still see the asterisk and numeral signs on digital keyboards. At that time the company called it "octothorpe", this name is a derivative of its eight sides that make it up.
In 1978, Dennis Ritchie, a C language programmer, decided to use the pound sign (#) to designate keywords that should be used with priority in a C processor. After this, many programming languages began to use this hash mark in various functions.
In 1993 the hashtag began to be used to form channels dedicated to specific topics, for example, #France, refers to the place where the meeting will be held, or #AA, where the meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous will be held. Fundamentally, the hashtag was used at that time to search for content relevant to a category.
In 2007, Chris Messina, an IRC user and advocate of "open source", proposed using a hashtag for Twitter, with the purpose of tagging different topics of interest in this social network. In October of this same year, this label gained popularity, when the residents of San Diego, California, used it during the forest fires, creating the hashtag #sandiegofires, from this moment many people began to follow this trend.
The popular hashtags among the users of the different social networks, to identify different events, are:
- #WCM, Woman Crush Wednesday, translated into Spanish "female crush on Wednesday" used to upload photos of attractive girls.
- #MCM, Man Crush Monday, in Spanish means "male crush on Monday" is used for the publication of photos of handsome boys.
- #TBT, Throwback Thursday, you mean, go back in time on Thursdays, and it refers to the publication of old photos that usually allow us to remember pleasant times.
- #FBF, Flashback Friday, has to do with, going back in time on a Friday, also from times past.
The Hashtag according to each social network
Currently one of the best strategies to attract followers and greater luminosity of Internet publications, is to use the hashtag in the most popular social networks, when sharing content.
As noted above, the hashtag was used for the first time on twitter, but is currently used on other social networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, google +, Vine and. However, users have a different behavior in each of them.
The hashtag for Twitter
The pad represented by the pound sign (#) before a word is used to index words or keywords in specific topics on twitter, with this function users of this social network can follow the content that interests them.
This pound sign (#) in front of important keywords in tweets, categorizes them and allows tweets related to the topic to appear easily.
Clicking or tapping a twitter hashtag in a post will bring up all related twitter.
They can be included anywhere on Twitter and when they become very important and popular, they tend to become a trend, also known as a trending topic or hashtag of the day.
The hashtag on Instagram
It is one of the best ways to make an account increase its followers and grow on the internet platform. Only up to 30 hashtags can be used for each of the images. These don't just work on photos, they work on stories too.
Instagram is a social network, which also works as an application for mobile phones. It allows users to upload and share photos and videos of short duration and with photographic effects such as colors and frames, with the followers of the account.
The publications with at least one hashtag for Instagram, can get an average of 12.6% more engagement, than in the publications without these.
There are different types of hashtag for Instagram, the most used are, branded, personalized for events and community hashtag.
By having correct hashtag combinations for Instagram, you increase the chances of:
1. Get new followers.
2. Increased engagement.
3. Improve the results of the account.
4. Get more likes.
Among the famous hashtags and with the highest number of posts on instagram are:
- #Love, has been used in more than 1,200 million publications.
- #Instagood, has been tagged in over 700 million posts.
- #Photooftheday, more than 450 million posts.
- #Fashion, has been used in more than 400 million publications.
The hashtag on Facebook
Facebook is characterized by being a social network for social relationships, in it the friends of the users are family members and fellow students. It should be noted that it is not necessary to have much in common with these users. However, this pad creates a union between interests and people, that is, it allows you to categorize posts and comments by topic.
To create a hashtag on Facebook, as in other social networks, you just have to write the # symbol before the word that defines the topic. The hashtag works as a link and when you click on it, this social network shows all the comments and publications related to the topic. However, it does not show posts, or comments from profiles or private accounts, which are not accessible, in other words, which are not part of registered friends.
It is advisable, before creating a hashtag on Facebook, carry out a search to make sure that it is not being used by others and in this way avoid inconvenience to other users and discomfort in the conversation.
Use of the hashtag on facebook
- Despite not being as important as hashtag for twitter, using it on facebook will give more relevance to posts.
- Using one or two per post is sufficient.
- They should be short, since very long make reading difficult.
- Create your own and specific hashtags. When using them for an event or promotion they must be unique.
- With the hashtag you can draw attention to a text, since on Facebook you can not use italics or bold.
If a person wants to get more “ likes ” and followers on their social networks, using traveler hashtags is a good option, for example on Instagram, with the publication of photos referring to trips with #alldaytravel, #instatravelling, #aroundthworldpix, #travelgram, #backpacking.
Hashtag classification
The hashtag and digital marketing
With the internet revolution, digital businesses have gained great relevance and social networks have become the new way of marketing products and brands, so digital marketing is the best strategy provided by these spaces to publicize, both small, medium and large companies.
This is why the use of hashtags when applying digital marketing becomes a great strategy to achieve brand positioning.
Benefit provided by the use of the hashtag in marketing strategies:
- Groups the topics and makes it easy to follow them.
- Speed up the search for content.
- Allows Internet users to find the content.
- Makes it easy to keep track of conversations.
- Increase the visibility of the post.
When social movements are named with Hashtag
A social movement is an informally organized group of people whose purpose is to fight for social change. They are large groups that focus their attention on specific political or social issues, provide a form of social change within nations.
The main social networks such as twitter, Facebook and Instagram, are not only used to interact with friends, acquaintances and followers of commercial brands, in these a variety of social movements have also been created and spread throughout the world.
There are popular hashtags to be used to tag important social movements around the world, among them are:
# YoSoy132, this movement was born in the Ibero-American University of Mexico, as a protest against the candidate for that moment: Peña Nieto, during a conference within the institution. The movement was popularized through this hashtag.
#MeToo, in 2006 a movement emerged to found Just Be, an organization created to support victims of sexual harassment and abuse. In 2017 this hashtag became popular, when actress Alyssa Milano addressed her followers saying: “if you have been abused or harassed, write #MeToo in response to this tweet”, obtaining more than 60,000 responses and unleashing an international movement.
#TakeAKnee, movement started by United States NFL player Colin Kaepernick, where he began to silently protest by refusing to stand during the national anthem of that country placed before the games. The reason for their protest was against racism and police brutality against African Americans.
Celebrities and the use of the hashtag
The relationship that exists between celebrities, whether they are from the artistic, political or social world and the hashtag, is that using this pad and its label, they manage to teach on social networks such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, their day to day and in a faster way, they update their followers on their projects and results of the activities they carry out.
Sometimes these hashtags become news, either because they are controversial, because they refer to sad moments or because they have been censored. However, the ones that occasionally go unnoticed are those that accompany the photographs.
Celebrities also use the hashtag to add a bit of humor to their posts, others express their moods and thoughts.
The opportunities hashtags provide for startups
The secret to gaining more likes in the publications made on social networks is knowing how to use the different hashtags, because in this way you will highlight these publications.
It is essential to identify the best hashtags to monitor the brand or company and thus be able to fulfill the commitments with the public. In addition to that, it facilitates placement in conversations related to the brand and interaction with the audience or target.
The main function of this pad and its numeral, is to group in a semantic sense the photographs and content that people constantly upload to social networks, so that when third parties search for them, they appear immediately.
This type of strategy is used mostly by companies that want to connect with an audience of young people, in order to show them all the services and products they offer.
How to promote my brand or product with a hashtag
In online marketing strategies, the hashtag has become an indispensable element. It can be said that there is not a brand, product or service that is not using this label.
Brands with their own hashtag get the following benefits:
- Do live chat or Q&A.
- Activate conversations with the brand's following public.
- Promote new product launches.
The steps to identify a brand with a hashtag are:
1. With a work team, make a list of possible hashtags based on your brand name.
2. Think about how you want to use them, as a generic hashtag for the brand, or for a specific event, or product. However, it should be short and easy to read.
3. You must make sure that the hashtag has not been used. If what you want is to create a community around a brand, you should choose a hashtag that is unique, so that it is not confused with others already used in brands and events.
4. When promoting the hashtag and making it public, email, blog, social networks and any other means of communication should be used to inform that it exists and where and how it will be used.
