What the # is up with #hashtags?

I did get this actual question from a client with some letters surrounding the symbol along with a few other symbols. You know, like in comic strips when somebody stubs their toe and says something the writers don't want to explicitly show.

So for the uninitiated, hashtags (a word preceded by the # symbol) originated on Twitter as a way to organize conversations or topics. So in theory, it became shorthand or a shortcut for people to find a topic that they were interested in, users to see what topics are trending and for image-obsessed brands (personal or otherwise) to see if they were trendy, trending or whether they needed to start or jump on a trend before there were forlorn and forgotten.

But lo and behold hashtags starting appearing in other social channels like Facebook and even Google+, which I always believed to be the hippest and least trendy of the social channels and only in part because it was the least used (I always was a sucker for digging bands that nobody else had heard of). And I think I overheard people walking down the street actually talking in hashtags the other day and not just those who were wearing those goofy Google Internet goggles.

In any event, as a practical matter hashtags can be tricky. I find them annoying because they invariably take up a crucial character in a tweet that puts me over the limit. And if your hastagging a phrase, it's all run together, like #everydaymarketingadvice. If you are hashtagging inclined, you should a) see what's already out there that your tweet or post can tag onto (pun semi-intended) or b) create a hashtag that you think will be of topical interest to people who are searching. This article on Social Media Examiner has some helpful tips.

The premise behind all of this is that people are actually searching for stuff on social media, but are they? Ah, the topic for yet another future blog post.

How socially effective are you?

No, I don’t mean whether you invariably spill drinks on people at parties or find it hard to start up conversations with strangers (although there are probably virtual equivalents to both). I’m referring of course to your social marketing efforts.

Plenty of businesses spend lots of time on social marketing. Some measure effectiveness by the amount of followers or likes, how many comments they get, reach, or how many “influencers” they create (people that can affect other people’s purchase decision). Others even trot out the vintage Larry Tate (of Bewitched fame) or Madmen adage of brand awareness. Few can tell you what they're actually getting out of it when it comes to booked business.

Many do it because they read they should be doing or because they like it (hey, I’m on Facebook and Twitter all the time anyway). This is the equivalent of a job candidate saying I like to work with people because I’m a people person.

This article from Web Marketing Today makes a valiant attempt to give you a framework for putting some metrics around social. What strikes me is that of all of those listed, only one -- clicks to the website from social channels and the resulting conversions -- are hard metrics. That’s not the fault of the author, it’s simply the nature of the beast. From social interaction through engagement to the sale is a complicated chain and it can be difficult to discern what generated the behavior that resulted in a sale. A person could go to your website directly or through branded search (typing in your business name). There is no definitive way to know what generated that behavior -- advertising, social influence or even a prior search.

So the bottom line is, you have to be careful to calibrate the money, time and resources you put toward social with what you think you are tangibly getting out of it. Now if you can marry social with the search dynamic, that’s a whole other story. And yes, the topic of a future blog post.