Now that many of the major social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Google +) support hashtags, using hashtags in social media promotions has become more popular — and beneficial to brands looking for greater engagement.

This became evident during the 2014 Super Bowl, during which 57% of ads included hashtags, up from 50% in 2013, as reported by Marketingland.

The big winner of the “hashtag bowl” was undoubtedly Esurance, which seeded social media networks with promoted tweets hashtagged #EsuranceSave30, promising a giveaway to be announced in the first ad after the Super Bowl. The premise behind the giveaway? Esurance saved 30% on its TV ad by running it right after the Super Bowl, and promised to pass along its savings – $1.5 million – to one person who included the hashtag in a tweet. Millions of tweets and retweets poured in, increasing visibility for the brand on Twitter and generating 36 hours of buzz.

Some brands used hashtags across multiple social channels to unify their message and bring conversations together. Bud Light, for example, used the #UpForWhatever hashtag in its commercial, on Twitter and on Facebook, and then pulled traffic to a microsite that allowed fans to register for updates from Bud Light with the promise of forthcoming adventures.

How Hashtags Can Benefit Your Branded Promotions

A survey of nearly 500 people by media-buying automation company RadiumOne revealed that 58 percent of respondents used hashtags regularly, and 71 percent of those did so from their mobile devices. Using hashtags in your promotions can help you with:

Searchability
Hashtags give people the ability to search for all of the posts hashtagged with your brand, your product or your promotion name. A hashtag is like the equivalent of SEO for social media.

Visibility

Hashtags allow your content to be discovered across social media channels by people who may not actually follow your brand, increasing your visibility and potential for engagement.

Memorability
Hashtags offer the opportunity to be creative. They’re like a jingle or slogan that can add humour and interest to an otherwise average post.

Cross-channel Conversation

Using hashtags in combination with a social media promotions platform can allow you to pull together conversations from multiple channels and house them all on a single landing page where fans can congregate.

Ready to run your hashtag promotion? Our social promotions platform offers Twitter and Instagram hashtag integration with support for images and video. Contact us for more info.

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