The Rundown on Event Hashtag Strategies

As you plan your annual event (fundraising gala, customer appreciation day, what-have-you) don’t forget to create and promote an event hashtag!

Why? Well, every major social network, including LinkedIn, has hashtags now. And while there are many ways to use hashtags for your social media marketing, an #EventHashtag will help increase awareness and visibility of your event. Include it in your promotions and all communications (even after the event!) to pull together a conversation. Plus, using an event hashtag will make it much easier for people to find photos and interact with your company and the event you’ve spent the last ten months planning.

Four tenets of a successful event hashtag

Here are a few quick things that will help make your hashtag stand out and encourage engagement. Because there’s nothing worse than attending an event and being asked to ‘join the conversation,’ only to find the suggested hashtag is clunky or just plain doesn’t make sense. (Okay, obviously there are things worse than this scenario but in the worlds of social media marketing and event planning it’s a small atrocity. Or at the very least, a minor inconvenience.)

Want to encourage engagement and keep the conversation going? Make sure your event hashtag is all of the following:

• Unique

Okay, sometimes this is easier said than done but you want to check that your hashtag isn’t prevalent on your social platforms. Search Twitter for the hashtags you came up with. If it’s been used recently, get back to brainstorming.

• Memorable

You want event attendees to use the hashtag you came up with when they’re talking aobut the event so they really ought to be able to remember it, without having to search for it!

• Short

In an ideal world, your chosen hashtag is short…so that people can remember it.

• Clear

The hashtag you use needs to make sense and relate to your event. Keep it specific and concise so there’s no confusion what it’s about.

Double points to you if your event hashtag is something you can use year after year. For example, #SAEH2018 (that’s “super awesome event hashtag”) can become #SAEH2019. Planning your annual fundraising event or yearly summer campaign is hard enough so make it easy on yourself and come up with something lasting.

How to promote and build engagement with your hashtag

Jusy like most any marketing campaign, if you don’t promote your event hashtag no one will know about it. Be sure to let people know so they can use it.

Before the event, build awareness by including the hashtag on all social promotions. Track your hashtag so you can interact with people and thank them if they use the hashtag to mention that they’re attending your upcoming event. Additionally, you can increase visibility by including the hashtag on the invite or registration page.

During the event, invite people to join the conversation by using the hashtag. If you have any program speakers, ask them to announce the hashtag. Don’t forget to engage with attendees who are using the hashtag by retweeting or reposting!

After the event, keep the conversation going by continuing to follow the hashtag. See how many people are still talking about what a great event it was. Retweet or mention the content that attendees share. Search for all hashtag use on each social network to see what images or video were shared. Take the time to thank your engaged attendees individually for showing up and being awesome.

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Many things contribute to the success of an event but creating a hashtag for attendees to use is a simple technique for building engagement, creating excitement, and encouraging conversations.