Riding the hashtag wave right

Brands leverage Social Media in myriad ways. As platforms grew, brands started experimenting with various formats to reach out to Social audiences. Estimated number of Facebook users in India amount to nearly one-fifth of India’s total population. 270million is indeed an awful lot of people, don’t you think? In a previous world, media offering such huge OTS would be considered a Godsend.

Today, brands use Social platforms to curate their image, engage stakeholders, track their reputation, even shape consumer perception about the category they operate in.

Brands are putting their best creative foot forward, on Social

Consider how brands leveraged the ‘#10YearChallenge’ explosion on social platforms. As people caught onto the hashtag, it became hugely used and followed, across popular platforms. Brands also jumped onto on the #10YearChallenge bandwagon. Some brands were literal, others more layered in their interpretation of the challenge.

ThinkBumblebee’s analysis of hundreds of #10YearChallenge posts uncovered multiple themes that brands used, to leverage the hashtag:

· ‘we taste the same’ — a promise to deliver consistent user experience, in an ever-in-flux world

· ‘we look the same’ — a reminder of the brand’s visual assets eg. logo, tagline

· ‘we deliver the same’ — an assurance about consistently delivering to the brand’s promise

· ‘we help you look the same’ — a stance adopted by Anti-ageing brands

· ‘look how far we have come’ — Tech brands indicating paradigm shifts in product design

What does this mean for Digital-inclined brands?

Social platforms constantly provide fodder to brands, to develop engaging content for brand followers. Social listening and monitoring enables brands to spot such opportunities. However, developing content to ride such trends comes with its own do’s and don’ts:

· Keep it simple. Short attention spans on Social, are a reality. Respect that, keep your messaging quick and crisp.

· Sync your post. With previous communication. With visual assets of the brand (color/ logo). With the brand’s overall messaging. No one registers messages that do not remind them of the brand, as they know it.

· Timing is everything. Stay ahead of other digitally active brands, in creating content around trending hashtags. Because amid so much clutter, the faster your brand latches onto a trending hashtag, the more effective your post in terms of delivering brand recall.

· Be a part of the larger conversation around the trending hashtag. A single post is not enough. Typically, hashtags trend for short periods. Finetune your social listening, to fetch more and more opportunities to plug your brand into ongoing conversations around the hashtag.

At ThinkBumblebee, we apply a Consumer-first approach to analysing Social Data. Reach out to understand how your brand can leverage consumer-generated Social Data.

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