#HashtagRollOut

Everyone has their preference. Everyone follows their own system. At the end of the day, it is more than just a filing cabinet. Grouping your documents in a way that makes it easier for anyone to find what they are looking for. But now we don’t use a filing cabinet but rather laptops; however, our desktops still abide by the same law of physics. Have you ever come to think that maybe one day your content will fall into the same structure. The digital age is, in a nutshell, your life made simpler…only if you let it. Today’s consumer is overwhelmed with an infinite number of posts from brands across various industries. So naturally, the marketers around the world went to thinking.

?Thankfully, in 2007, Chris Messina, a web marketing specialist at Twitter, had an idea to create a way to group content together making it easier for individuals to find exactly what they are interested in. Now we are able to move past the football recaps and random kitchen hacks to get to our memes in peace. With the launch of the hashtag, Chris Messina took to Buffer to state his opinion on the rise of the new tool; “Used sparingly, respectfully and in appropriate measure, I think that the value generated from the use of hashtags is substantial enough to warrant their continued use.”?

????????????As the concept of the hashtag began to grow, other platforms have taken to use this as a method of directing a conversation or tab, in a sense. Sadly, while your filing cabinet was tailored to how you want to classify each item; hashtags are not customizable. Using hashtags for your brand has become a key aspect to raising brand awareness; but just like every aspect of social media, there is the effective and ineffective way of using the tool. Every platform, while all serving a similar purpose, contains a personalized method to the hashtag game.

With the rise of a trendy hashtag, comes along the trendy misconception. We all went through a phase of hitting our heads against the wall with yet another new game changer. A common misconception states that using popular hashtags is the key to ensuring a higher number of views. The purpose of hashtags is to group common pieces of content together so that your brand’s post does not get lost in the shuffle. But what happens when you use a hashtag that is general and common; your brand still falls into the same trap. The secret lies in the balance