One of the first questions, I’m asked when working with someone on church social media is, “What’s a hashtag and should I use it?”. While some might scoff at hashtags, they are extremely useful at tracking conversations, creating awareness and meeting new people.
However, you need to be careful when creating hashtags. While hashtags can create value for a conversation if they are not carefully constructed they can create confusion as well. Of course, there’s not a perfect science to creating hashtags, but there are some best practices that you will want to adhere to.
The Shorter the Better
Why would you want a short hashtag? First, it allows for more room people to compose their tweets. Second, it reduces the chances of error since you are dealing with less characters. Finally, shorter makes the hashtag easier to remember.
It Needs to Make Sense
This might seem obvious to some, however, it’s easy to start using acronyms and insider language when creating a hashtag. While the hashtag may seem applicable to your audience, if you make the hashtag too difficult to understand, then you reduce the number of people who might join in the conversation.
Do Your Research
When picking your hashtag make sure you do your research. Your hashtag needs to be unique so it’s not confused with another social media event. For example, I was recently running a campaign called #athome for our new family ministry at church, however, I did not that #athome is also used by people who exercise at home as well. So when searched #athome, you might get a stream of tweets with people in their workout clothes. Not exactly my plan.
Strive for Consistency
It can be a small thing, but decided on the front end what characters will capitalized which ones will not. There is not a technical difference, however, you want to there to a visual consistency in the materials you have produced.
Question: How do you use hashtags for your church? Click here to comment below.