Hashtags are everywhere, and I do mean everywhere!

Yous can now notice them on every major social network (excluding LinkedIn), and more than likely, your customers or clients are already using them in some way or some other.

There really are many means that you lot can employ hashtags for your business'due south social media marketing, simply in the interest of time, I'chiliad going to focus solely on using them for your events.

Let's take a look at how a hashtag should be incorporated into an event, and, but outset, permit me explicate why using a hashtag at your consequence is so important.

Why should I apply a hashtag for my event?

As a small business owner or nonprofit professional, you are putting on all kinds of events to show your expertise, acquire new clients, or build out your network of supporters for your cause. It's time to use hashtags to increase awareness and the visibility of your events.

Past including a hashtag in your promotions, commentary, and mail service-consequence thank yous, yous're non just pulling a chat together, but you're also making information technology easy for people to find photos and attendee interactions with your event.

How exercise I create a hashtag for my upshot?

Creating a hashtag is uncomplicated. The starting time pace is coming up with a hashtag that will be piece of cake for people to use and bulldoze more visibility to your event.

Your issue hashtag should exist:

  • Unique: Search Twitter for the hashtag you have in mind. If it has been used recently, you will need to rethink it. If not, have at information technology!
  • Short: Remember, on Twitter y'all only take 280 characters to use. Because that'due south where most of the chat will be taking place, you demand to make sure to keep your hashtag short.
  • Related: Your hashtag should reflect your issue. Ex: Small Business Calendar week (#SBW2020) or a Constant Contact Holiday Planning Event (#CCHoliday).
  • Memorable: You want your attendees to use this hashtag when they are talking about your event. This means that you lot want them to be able to retrieve what hashtag is associated with the effect, without them having to attempt and find it every time they desire to talk about your effect.

Here are some good examples of popular issue hashtags:

  • #SXSW is the evergreen hashtag used by the South by Southwest (SXSX) festival
  • #CMC2021 is the official hashtag of the 2022 Content Marketing Conference
  • #BiotechWeekBoston is the effect hashtag for — you guessed information technology — Biotech Calendar week Boston

How will anyone know well-nigh my hashtag?

Similar to any other marketing campaign, if yous practice non properly promote it no one volition know information technology exists. The same goes for your new hashtag.

Your hashtag should exist everywhere! But let'south break it downwards a little more:

Before your result

  1. Build sensation: Your hashtag should exist included in all social promotions of your result.
  2. Listen: Track your hashtag on social sites then you tin thank people who use your hashtag when mentioning that they'll be attention your result (or better nevertheless, promoting your event for yous).
  3. Be visible: Make sure to include your issue hashtag on your registration page, informing attendees to "Join the Conversation."

During your event

  1. Create conversations: Utilize a plan similar tweetbeam.com (that'due south my favorite) to project the conversation on a screen. This will entice others to join the conversation during your event.
  2. Invite: Accept whatsoever and all of your speakers denote the hashtag and point out your tweetbeam stream.
  3. Bring together in: Brand sure to engage with your attendees who are using the hashtag. Retweet them and ask questions. Just brand sure you're not too invasive. This is non the place for you to annunciate your business.

Tip – Don't think you'll take time to appoint during the consequence? Schedule a couple tweets around your event content before the event begins.

After your issue

  1. Write digital thank you cards: You now take a social list of all of your engaged attendees. Take the time to thank them individually for joining you lot at your consequence.

    Tip – Make certain to follow all of the attendees who used your hashtag and create a list specifically for event attendees so you lot tin can remember who they are down the road.

  2. Keep the conversation going: Proceed to follow the hashtag until the chat dies. You'll be surprised how much people volition continue to talk almost a great event. Continue to retweet and mention the pieces of great content your attendees are sharing.
  3. Assemble multimedia from the event: Searching for your hashtag on individual social networks or using a program like Storify to pull all networks together allows y'all to view all images and/or videos that were shared (along with all other great content) around your consequence.

Tip – This content can exist used for a new Facebook anthology, on your website, or on a Pinterest Board.

How practise I manage my event hashtag?

Hashtags can be very visible, only like all social promotions. Moderating is the central to a successful hashtag. The last thing you want is someone promoting your event, or worse, asking you a question about your event and no i is in that location to answer.

Managing events tin be hard enough, so make sure you lot create a plan to as well manage your event hashtag.

Tip – Creating a stream specifically for your effect hashtag on a platform like Hootsuite can really help you proceed track of the conversation.

Does using a hashtag expose my business organisation to spam?

Yes, it can. Still, you should pat yourself on the back if this happens. The only time you'll find spammers using a specific hashtag is if information technology'south a "trending hashtag."

A trending hashtag is a hashtag that is existence used more than than they were previously. The trending listing is on Twitter to help people find "breaking news" from beyond the world in real-time.

So if you lot've made the "trending list" and begin to have spammers invade your hashtag, DO NOT PANIC! This means you are wildly successful!

Tip – Post about the fact that there are spammers, so your attendees don't accidentally click on anything the spammers are sharing.

Wondering what a hashtag stream looks similar?

Why not take a couple minutes correct at present, to check out the #SmallBizSaturday stream? The best way to learn a new concept on social media is to just jump in and see how others are using it.

Want to learn more?

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