Riding On the Horse Of Hashtag in Social Media Marketing
February 13, 2014
Neha Bawa
They say advertising is one of the oldest professions in the world. And being the oldest naturally, it has evolved over decades to become what it is today. And these past recent years have seen social media become one of the prime weapons in any marketing company’s arsenal and the medium of choice for many companies looking to execute an elaborate ad campaign.
The evolution of Facebook and Twitter over the years has given birth to and shaped social media marketing to what it is today, a highly effective means of reaching out to a specific target audience, resulting in better outcomes.
Gary Vaynerchuk is a social media marketer who successfully runs his agency VaynerMedia, which is based out of Manhattan. Vaynerchuk has many big names under his belt. He has run social media campaigns for companies such as PepsiCo, G.E. and Del Monte. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook is the title of his upcoming book subtitled “How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy, Social World.” Jab, Jab, Jab Right Hook translates to Give, Give, Give, Ask, which is his ideology do engage consumers. “A funny thing happens when you give value up front,” he says. “You guilt people into buying stuff.”
Some Strong Hashtag Campaigns
1. Companies in India also seem to be following in their foreign counterparts’ stead and jumping head first into the social media marketing bandwagon. Online retail giant Homeshop18 is one such company who is very active in social media. The company has run many successful social media campaigns like Samsung Galaxy and Shopper’s Bag to increase consumer engagement and understand the consumer behavior, which has resulted in a positive impact in sales for the company in the past.
Now the company has launched the #OnlyOnHS18 campaign on Facebook and Twitter to promote the launch of Micromax Canvas XL A119 smartphone, which is going to be an exclusively offering through HomeShop18 after a merger between itself and the rapidly rising smartphone manufacturer. Micromax is reaping the benefits of this deal by getting the promotion for the Canvas smartphone through not only HS18’s website, but also through their TV channel.
The #OnlyOnHS18 was used to make it clear that the Canvas would exclusively be available only through HomeShop18.
To gather momentum, the cover image for HS18’s facebook page was changed to announce the launch of the campaign and a post was updated on their page which was followed by regular teasers until the campaign was launched on 18th January.
The three hours preceding the launch of the campaign saw the hashtag being tweeted 3900 times. Since the launch of the campaign, the hashtag has been see trending on Facebook and twitter while gathering an estimated outreach of near about 4 million.
The hashtag contains Homeshop18’s name, which has made it work effectively in establishing a brand awareness and creating recall value on Facebook and twitter. An online retailer’s prime expectation from a social media campaign is always focused on sales. Homeshop18 seems to have gone by the book on its campaign.
2. Domino’s, the pizza chain also successfully made use of the hashtags and twitter in their UK market. The campaign that called for tweets with the hashtag #letsdolunch was about dropping the price of their Pepperoni Passion Pizza by a pence every time someone tweeted with their campaign hashtag.
Photo – 8020dev
The countdown was set and after receiving 85,000 tweets until the deadline, the prices dropped to 7.74 pounds almost half of the original prize. Eventually, completely winning over the customers with cheap food as the gratification. The best part: the gratification was not for a bunch of people. It was open to everyone who came into the store during the times stated. Crowdsourced efforts and evenly put across awards.
Additional Read: Find out which Social Media platform is better for Business – Instagram vs Facebook vs Twitter vs Snapchat
Written By:
Jenny Corteza is an avid reader, managing socialmedia-management and different blogger communities. Her blog posts are a mix of information with a pinch of satire. Her post on the info-graphicdesign got her many new fans and was shared by many on their social feeds.
Photo Credit: kunocreative