Benefits of Branded Hashtags

As a Twitter user, I’m sure you are comfortable with the concept of hashtags by now. So how about going one step further and create your own branded hashtag? There are many benefits to such.

An extension of your brand

Many organizations use branded hashtags to promote Tweet Chats but that’s not their only function. Indeed, they are a memorable way to promote products, services, regional entities, events and even your company as a whole.

Increased findability

Branded hashtags can make your tweets more searchable but providing users an easy way to tie them to your brand. It’s a simple concept but such is often ignored.

Trackability

On the other end of the spectrum they can facilitate your analytics reporting and social monitoring. Analytics packages such as Hashtagify can find and analyze influencers, usage patterns and other key metrics for every hashtag you may use. Social media management software such as Hootsuite and Zoho Social often come with hashtag monitoring.

Flexibility

When short and memorable, branded hashtags are truly medium agnostic. You can smoothly integrate them in your Marketing mix: online ads, TV ads, outdoor displays, merchandise such as T-Shirts, video games, virtual and augmented reality environments and the list goes on.

Visualize a display on the back of a bus: #MeetPhilSiarri looks terrific versus “Meet Phil Siarri on Twitter.com”.

Usable beyond Twitter

Even though hashtags are king on Twitter, consider cross-using your branded hashtags on Instagram and Facebook for greater reach if you are using those networks.

Legal considerations …

Branded hashtags are on the rise and as such they are increasingly trademarked by companies. If your brand awareness is already strong you should definitely consider going that route.

Now let’s be clear: trademarking will not prevent most social media users from using your branded hashtags but it can offer some level of protection. For example: a competitor using a branded hashtag designating your slogan or product may be prompted to stop using such.

Branded hashtags come with clear benefits and can help organizations with their marketing efforts.

This article was originally published on LinkedIn.