#HashtagsRCool

Guy Kawasaki talks about hashtags in his book, “The Art of Social Media.” Everyone should be fairly familiar with the idea of a hashtag and why they are used. Some people might think that hashtags are used to make your post look cool or interesting. This is part of the case. Others may think that hashtags are dumb and not purposeful. To be honest, I was one of those people. I hated to look on Instagram or Facebook and see someone put 30 hashtags on one post. I didn’t see the purpose of it. I know that I never took the time to read them or even click on them to see what they were linked to. If I was doing that, I know that there are others out there who were thinking the same as I. After reading this one chapter about hashtags and how to use them/ their purpose in social media, I decided that hashtags were a good thing that people should use within reason.

Guy tells us in his book that when we use hashtags, we need to make them short and sweet. I think that this was my problem with hashtags before. They were too long and I felt like there was no reason for anyone to read them. I think this point is very important for everyone to know. People are going to remember a short hashtag rather than one that is a mile long cited in MLA format with 3 references. When it comes to using a hashtag to share a company event or organization, keep it short. It will be easier to remember, more eye-catching to anyone viewing a post with this particular hashtag, and more beneficial to the company or organization that the hashtag is being used for.

Kawasaki also tells us to put this hashtag everywhere. Every social media platform you use, put the hashtag there. I think this could be a little much. I know that if I worked for a company and they asked me to put a hashtag on all of my social media platforms, I would be hesitant. I have personal accounts and business-related accounts for a reason. I wouldn’t mind if I posted a picture on my personal account of an event that I went to that was for work and used the hashtag in the post, but to broadcast it on all of personal social media would be different. I understand though that if I work for a company, I should dedicate all of me to them. I guess that would be a “cross that bridge when I get to it” scenario.

Another thing that he told us was that when an event is being held somewhere, make sure there is wireless access. I thought this was brilliant. I think everyone has experience with going to a concert or to a game or wherever and not being able to access the wifi. If you can access it, it is slow because so many other people are using it as well. Wireless access is a necessity, especially if you are going to provide a hashtag and want people to use it so they can help promote whatever it is they came there for. If you provide a hashtag and ask them to use it, how is it beneficial if they can not access the internet? This was a super strong point and I hope that more people and companies recognize this and integrate it into their event planning. #FreeWifi