The hashtag has been around for a while now and we even wrote an article about how social media is being used to promote movies four years ago. But did you know that hashtags didn’t even exist 12 years ago? The rise of the hashtag only began in 2007 when a user by the name of Chris Messina advocated the idea of using a hashtag for awareness on Twitter.
In the past decade, the hashtag has completely changed the way society communicates with one another. Hashtags are now a modern tool for people to present themselves all over the world, regardless of the language they use with their hashtag. Today, you can say that by including a hashtag in your own ‘tweet’ or Instagram caption, it will become part of a larger conversation that consists of the same hashtag. This method, is used by many companies from cosmetics companies, to sports teams and even online gaming brands looking to get online visitors signed up with a bet365 bonus code.
When we look back at the evolution of the hashtag, we learn that at first, the idea of a using a hashtag was rejected by Twitter and their fellow users because some thought it was ugly and unnecessary. Nevertheless, it was slowly adopted within Twitter’s own community of users and eventually Twitter recognised the hashtag as a symbol for their success. As a result, by 2009 the hashtag was made to be an official feature of Twitter.
Later, the hashtag evolved and is now present in almost all the social media channels including Facebook, Instagram and Google+. Nowadays, if you are a brand and you are promoting a product both offline or online, you will miss a trick by not using a hashtag along with your promotion.
Therefore, whether you’re promoting a brand, or want to share a viral joke or even if you want to be part of a political movement, the use of a hashtag within social media is a must in order to garner the attention you require. This means that you can easily become part of any online community you want to belong in with the use of relevant hashtags.
Advertisers see the hashtag as an effective tool for marketing and with its use, an opportunity to increase brand awareness and revenue. The hashtag is a prominent feature in most of the advertisements we are seeing today. The hashtag can be seen as a short and memorable tagline for the brand or product and if used correctly, it can enable a conversation between brand and consumer in an age where ‘fake news’ are often meddled with trustworthy facts.
In the past decade social media has been a predominant channel for brand and product promotions which is why advertisers and media organisations work together to maximise the productivity of audiences.