Today’s world is substantially influenced by the term ‘Social media’ – an online platform which is open for all to share everything about themselves and others too. People like to socialize with like-minded people and communities on different social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and others. However, the increasing engagement of users on social media has generated a plethora of content on all these channels which makes it a little difficult to search about a specific topic. But there is always an easy solution to every problem! Isn’t it? ‘Hashtag’ is the solution to this one!
Hashtag & its Power in Digital Marketing
A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the symbol ‘#’, written within a social media post to simplify its search. In these recent years, it has created a buzz amongst the social media users and has embedded itself in almost every post, comment, review, and feedback. Today, not just the general audience but big brands also strive to make the best use of a hashtag to boost their presence and sales on social media platforms. Hashtags offer multiple benefits to a brand in terms of digital marketing like-
- Boost User Engagement
- Increase the visibility of a specific brand
- Extend reach to a larger audience
- Spread Brand Awareness
But the journey doesn’t end here. There is a lot more to explore in this hashtag world. Once you are capable of choosing an appropriate hashtag for your marketing campaign, then comes the role of a Hashtag Aggregator to scale up your business.
What is a Hashtag Aggregator?
A Hashtag Aggregator can be simply defined as a social media aggregator tool which compiles all those social media posts which contain a specific hashtag. For example, if on Twitter, we search for a specific hashtag say #travel, then we see that there are thousands of users who have incorporated the same hashtag in their feed. A Hashtag Aggregator brings together all these feeds in one single frame.
But why is there a need to collate this user-generated content & who is the beneficiary here?
As mentioned earlier, every small or big brand today believes in the power of social media marketing more than anything else. And the best way of doing this is to leverage user-generated content in the right place and at the right time. A hashtag aggregator makes it super easy to get this scattered UGC under one single roof, thus allowing a brand to reach its target audience without any hassle. A brand can easily embed its aggregated social feed either on its website or showcase it on big live screens. These large & bright screens, which you must have seen installed in big events or concerts, display the real-time aggregated UGC from different social media channels & are known as social media walls. These social media walls when displaying the feeds containing a specific hashtag are termed as Hashtag walls.
Role of Hashtag walls in Digital Marketing
The world around us is transforming into digital at a very fast pace that we don’t even realize it. From books to newspapers & online bookings to bill payments, everything is done digitally. So how the field of marketing could have missed this digital revolution? Marketing has always been about connecting to the audiences and it should always be done at a place where the customers spend most of their times. These days, social media is the platform which has successfully managed to get hold of a wider range of audiences. And everyone who is active on these platforms is well aware of the fact that today no social media post is complete without a hashtag. So to harness the power of this small but worthy symbol, ‘#’, business marketers involve themselves into different hashtag campaigns.
A hashtag wall is one such campaign that boosts the digital marketing of a brand. It displays unique user-generated content available on different social media platforms on one screen. Let us consider an example to have a better understanding of what a hashtag wall exactly does! One of the recent Sunburn festivals was organized in Delhi. It witnessed the participation of thousands of youngsters. To make this mega-fest more interesting & connected to its audiences, Taggbox – one of the best social media aggregator tools, provided its hashtag wall for the event attendees. They were asked to share their event experience on their social media using the hashtag #SunburnArena. The digital hashtag wall displayed the real-time feeds posted by the audience and made the event an even bigger success.
A hashtag wall contributes to digital marketing in numerous ways:
Builds a Brand-User connect – When a brand itself displays the content created by its user on a big screen which is accessible to thousands of other people, it makes the user feel rewarded. This, in turn, builds a strong connection between the user and the brand.
Drives more engagement – When a hashtag wall displays the user-generated content during an event or promotion, it encourages other users to post their feedback, comments, & pictures thus driving more engagement to the brand.
Increases the visibility of a brand & expands its reach – Some businesses also use branded hashtags to increase their visibility on social media platforms. Posted by one user and read by another, these branded hashtags become popular in the blink of an eye.
Promotes sales – Suppose, a brand is currently running a promotional post on its social feed. Now, displaying these promotional posts on a digital wall using a branded hashtag will not just expand the reach of that brand but will also boost its sales.
Out of various online marketing strategies running these days, the use of these hashtag walls is one brilliant idea which will definitely scale up your business. So, don’t miss this amazing digital marketing trend and get ready to ace your business game with it!