The massive 1.15 billion user base of social media titan Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) provides best of chances for news to go viral amongst masses by the use of Hashtags. Even if 50% of Facebook users, brand advertisers learn and make best usage of Hashtags to discuss or promote any news/info, virality will be much more than the total number of users of any other social media sites such as Twitter (500 Million users, 232 Million MAUs) and LinkedIn (200 Million users). Usage of Hashtags is important for online brands as it provides users to join the discussion stream to voice their opinions, and analyze the prevailing trend.
The below infographic from piJnz highlights few interesting facts and information about the usage of hashtags for online brands.
- Hashtags help you to expand your reach, as people interested in niche topics are able to find each other and join the conversation.
- Online brands should create their own special hashtags, to spread the message about any new idea or product or promote any special event to the masses. It acts as a major tool in brand amplification and helps other brand fans to capture voice/opinion of other people.
- It also helps in reaching like-minded individuals and potential leads within key audience and get them to engage with brand page.
- Brand page admin must encourage people to make their posts with brand related hashtags public to widen its reach.
- Hashtag shouldn’t exceed beyond One Word, and its usage must be limited. There should relevance between Hashtags used and  Promoted event/product. Brand advertiser should use shorter hashtags to make it easy for users to remember.
Majority of social media platforms, like Twitter and Facebook, has introduced hashtag feature to enhance user experience. Usage of hashtags is growing prominence and most of the brands are using it for product promotion and ad campaigns. As people get more aware about its usage and benefits, majority of online brands can expect heavy traffic on their site and brand visibility will scale up. It’s important for advertisers to learn to use hashtags wisely to direct potential users to main stream and educate them with prevailing trend.
