Hashtags have become an integral part of a brand’s social media strategy. When used right, it’s one of the most powerful marketing tools. When used right, it could become a powerful brand recall strategy and could create an identity in itself. Here, we list down a few rules to be kept in mind:

1.Select keywords relevant in accordance to your business – the basic rule, this simply puts your brand’s tweets on the map when the hashtag is used for search.

 2.Create a unique hashtag for your brand and use it in all your tweets!

3.Build conversations using hashtags – using the selected keywords, build a personal one to one conversation with users who tweet with your selected keyword:

4.Unique hashtags for campaigns – campaign or contests, create a unique hashtag for the same that serves as a personal identity for both the campaign and your brand!

Here, Urban Tree uses the #UrbanChennai hashtag for their Bloggers meet campaign!

5.Make use of most commonly searched hashtags – accompanying the most popular and used hashtag used in your tweet will benefit your brand by creating a lasting impact on the minds of audience and automatically creates a brand recall strategy! Here, Urban Tree Infrastructures uses #Chennai in almost all of its tweets.

6.Tweet about trending topics – talking about current affairs puts your brand on the limelight – after all, it is a common topic that the entire country is buzzing about!

7.Twitter Chats – tweet chats in short, hosting tweet chat not only positions your brand as a thought leader and engaging brand but also shows that you listen to your audience. Dedicate a hashtag and invite your target audience to interact with you for crowd sourcing content; you can also build a influencer relationship!

8.Make use of hashtags in offline communications – don’t forget to use your brand’s hashtags on offline communications as well! This once again creates brand recall, serves as an identity for your brand and promotes the hashtag as well! Adding a call to action along with the hashtag in your communication generates more usage.

9.Don’t use too many hashtags – the minute you send out your tweet with more than one too many hashtags in your tweet, your tweets will be filed under the “spam” folder. Keep to a maximum of 3 hashtags for each tweet!

10.Keep it simple – to make a successful hashtag, simply keep it simple. Avoid long hashtags or complicated ones and avoid one that resembles a sentence.

Remember, at the end of the day, how well you use your hashtag is only in your hands! Use it wise and well! 🙂