4 ways PR and marketing pros can use hashtags

The hashtag is one of the most fundamental elements in social communications, with 83 percent of all social campaigns in the past year featuring nothing more than a prominent hashtag. PR and marketing professionals should pay attention, because they will be the key to campaign success in 2015.

Here are 4 ways brand managers can use hashtags to get the best results:

1. Increase your brand’s engagement.

Tweets with hashtags receive two times more engagement than those without, and tweets with one hashtag are 55 percent more likely to be retweeted.

Hashtags act as simple signposts for the social community, directing them to content (including yours) that is relevant to their interests. Despite the broad reach of social media, hashtags help to create an engaged follower base through specificity.

They’ve also now become a staple for journalists, both in sharing news to drive website traffic and for monitoring a developing story. Turn on any TV-news channel and you will likely find breaking news stories that were informed by or use photos and videos from Twitter. Trending topic #JeSuisCharlie appeared in 5 million tweets in the first three days alone, first appearing just a matter of hours after the attack on Charlie Hebdo.