The Evergreen Hashtag

Chapter 7 of Guy Kawasaki’s “The Art of Social Media” offers a variety of tips regarding the best ways to socialize events and increase popularity, whether it be online or in person. One of the tips that I found to be most interesting was tip 70, “Pick a Short, Evergreen Hashtag”. This tip points out that during events, avoid using hashtags that will have a short lifespan and will only be used for a few days (his example was #MotoXMexico2013). Instead, he advises us to pick a hashtag that people could talk about indefinitely, and people who are not at the event can still feel a part of (his example was the simple #MotoX)

I found this to be interesting because I had never thought about the use of hashtags in that way before. In my mind, using specific hashtags would grab the attention of people scrolling through social media and make them wonder what event they were missing out on, and therefore research the purpose of the event as a result. However, it now makes sense to me that using a simpler, “evergreen” hashtag allows people who were not even in attendance connect with the event. The hashtag has the chance to gain popularity, and if it’s short and sweet, people will be more willing to use it and have an easier time finding posts like it. It’s a very interesting and quality piece of information to share about hashtags.

In my opinion, there are a few events where you would probably want a more detailed hashtag that may have a shorter lifespan. For instance, sometimes weddings will use a hashtag for their guests to use when posting pictures of themselves at the event, and this allows everyone to search the hashtag and find only the pictures from that specific wedding (for example, #BryanSierraWed16). However, private events such as the one I just named wouldn’t have much of a reason to attempt to socialize their event (unless of course it was a public celebrity wedding, in which case everyone would want to be in on the action), so it makes sense as to why they wouldn’t want to use an evergreen hashtag.

In my future career, I believe I will need several socializing techniques to publicize events for businesses, and I believe this simple yet effective tip will serve me well in those endeavors. Who knew a hashtag could be so powerful?