The Advertising Power of Hashtags

Part I: How Hashtags Work

The word hashtag is in such common usage in modern times yet it only became part of the English language recently. By definition, a hashtag is a word that begins with the sign #. Social media users utilize hashtags to connect the post to a larger conversation. The concept of hashtags commences on Twitter, the first mainstream social media platform to include publicly posted content. According to Skaza & Blais (2017), Twitter generates about 500 million posts per day, which may make it difficult to find content about a specific subject, hence the usefulness of hashtags. Hashtag usage has spread to all major social networks including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. As the three social networks vary from each other, the use of hashtags also varies from between the networks, even when the same company uses a similar hashtag in all three networks (Kolowich, 2017). In spite of the differences, hashtags remain an important tool for bringing together content by different users of the same social media platform who wish to address a similar subject.

Generally, in the three platforms Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, hashtags are a single word that begins with the # sign. The single word can be a combination of several words or a combination of the word and numeral (Kolowich, 2017). Further, a hashtag in all three platforms cannot have a punctuation mark within it. When a punctuation mark appears, it ends the hashtag. When a user adds a word that begins with the # sign, it immediately becomes a link when the content is posted on either of the three social media platforms. Clicking onto that post leads to a page that displays content under the same hashtag by different users of the same platform. The page that opens upon clicking on a hashtag varies depending on the social platform as outlined below.

The Twitter page for a specific hashtag has the hashtag as a title. It then opens up to the sub-page titled “top” which contains the most popular tweets under the hashtag. Unlike Facebook and Instagram, Twitter uses hashtags for promoted content for paying customers. When a customer has paid to promote content under a hashtag, the posts of that user will top the list. Other available sub-pages include “latest”, “people” and “Photos” which present varying content under the same hashtag (Kolowich, 2017). Another difference between Twitter and other platforms is the ability of users to create their personalized tweets under a sponsored platform (McFarland, 2016). For example, a popular brand such as Budweiser will pay for a hashtag with a special feature such as a photo. Ordinary Twitter users can then make their own versions of the same add. The finally for Twitter and Instagram, most of the posted content is publicly available as opposed to Facebook. Therefore using a hashtag makes content automatically available to all users. However, for Facebook users, it is necessary to select the option that makes the content publicly available.

Hashtags on Facebook work in a similar way as those of Twitter save for the publicity difference. The other difference lies in the page that opens when a user clicks on a hashtag of Facebook. The link on the hashtag leads to a page containing only the posts with the hashtag that is public or belong to the “friends” of the user (Kolowich, 2017). The first sub-page to open is titled, “all” and contains all the posts under the hashtag with a priority on the most popular uses of the hashtag or the users who are friends of the individual how open it. Just as with Twitter, other options include “latest”, “people” and “Photos”.

The Instagram version of hashtag links also open to a dedicated page for posts under that hashtag. The page prioritizes the posts that the user has been tagged in under the subpage “tagged”. Other available options include “top”, “people” and “places” (Kolowich, 2017). In each of the three social media platforms, it is possible to enter a direct search for a specific hashtag. Such searches lead to the pages featuring posts under the hashtag, just as clicking onto the hashtag link. Hashtags on Twitter vary from those on Facebook and Instagram because Twitter uses Hashtags as a mode of promotion and thus a source of revenue.

Part II: The Budweiser #Budlight Hashtag

Among the most successful hashtags in advertising is Budweiser hashtag, #Budlight. The #Budlight hashtag appears in all three of the featured social media platforms Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The primary focus of Budweiser in the instant hashtag is on Twitter, where the hashtag varies exponentially from other platforms. First, each time a Tweet appears with the #Budlight hashtag, the link automatically includes the picture of a miniature bottle of bud light. In spite of the specialized nature of the hashtag, Budweiser allows its free use by different Twitter users including distributors of bud light and private Twitter users. Most users post pictures of themselves taking dub wise as a means of participating in the promotion.

#Budlight is also popular on Facebook. Clicking on the #Budlight link in Facebook leads to a page titled “all” that begins with links to the Budweiser Facebook page. Secondly, the page contains links to Budweiser webpages that contain important events promoting the bud light. Budweiser thus uses the business-to-business advertising approach to attract Facebook users to its websites as reflected in Holliman & Rowley (2014). The page also has the most popular posts under the #Budlight hashtag. Finally, on Instagram, the #Budlight appears as a normal hashtag without the embellishments added on Twitter. Clicking the hashtag leads to the hashtag page but without the links and prioritized content that appears on Facebook and Twitter.

References

Holliman, G., & Rowley, J. (2014). Business to business digital content marketing: marketers’ perceptions of best practice. Journal of research in interactive marketing.

Kolowich, L. (2017). How to use hashtags on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram.

McFarland, T. (2016, January 11). Twitter Introduces Hashtag Ads. Retrieved from https://smallbiztrends.com/2016/01/twitter-introduces-hashtag-ads.html

Skaza, J., & Blais, B. (2017). Modeling the infectiousness of Twitter hashtags.  Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications ,  465 , 289-296.