#Hashtag to Promote Your Cause

Hashtags. Internet language has evolved considerably over the past few years as social media has taken off.

Hashtags are a huge part of this evolution. You see them everywhere on social media and even in television and radio ads, billboards and websites. What began as an organic, grassroots custom has turned into A REALLY BIG DEAL in nearly every social network. Entire services and tools have sprung up in response to the ever-widening use of hashtags in modern social communication.

What is a Hashtag? Hashtags are words or phrases prefixed with the hash symbol (#); #FightCancer for example. The hash symbol creates a hyperlinked word. Clicking on the hashtag performs a search for other posts with that tag.

Here’s a list of popular hashtags used by nonprofits:

• #activism
• #advocacy
• #charity
• #charitytuesday
• #csr – corporate social responsibility #donate
• #foundations
• #fundraising
• #grant
• #grants
• #grantwriting
• #ngo – nongovernmental organization
• #nonprofit
• #nonprofits
• #npcons – nonprofit consultants
• #nptech – nonprofit tech
• #philanthropy
• #sm4sg – social media for social good
• #sm4np – social medis for nonprofits #socent – social entrepreneur or social enter-prise #video4change
• #volunteer
• #volunteers

WHY #HASHTAG?

What began on Twitter has now spread to Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Google search, and almost everywhere in between. There are two reasons to use hashtags.

GET FOUND – Want to jump in to a relevant conversation on Twitter? Attract followers on Instagram and Facebook? Use hashtags. They help your content and posts get found by people who are searching for that hashtag. Use a popular hashtag in your post and you’re more apt to get comments, clicks and shares.

FIND – Where are all the good conversations and content? Find the hashtags that are meaningful to your interests – like #FightCancer. Do a persistent and regular search for a popular industry hashtag – #fundraising – and you have access to all the conversations across all platforms that use that hashtag.

Start Talking

Conversations about you, your issues, your influencers, your volunteers and donors are already happening on social networks by you and many others. Better to know them and join in and let them join in with you. Hashtags can help you with that. Start by following a hashtag you know is relevant to your nonprofit. This is your entry hashtag. Don’t hesitate to also create your own hashtag and use it in conjunction with your entry hashtag. Observe who uses this hashtag and what other hashtags are commonly used with it and add them to your collection of hashtags to monitor.

You can search for hashtags through Twitter Advanced Search, hashatit.com, Hashtagify.me, RiteTag, Tagboard and Google+ Explore.

Practical Use of Hashtags

Starting a campaign with a social media component? Hashtag it, hashtags help you promote and track a campaign throughout channels, from advocacy to awareness to fundraising campaigns, Hashtags can be a big part of your campaign, a way to participate and meet your goal. Ask followers to tweet a hashtag to raise awareness, funds and advocacy from social media.

Hopefully this blog has given you an understanding of the different elements of developing your social media strategy. Our goal is to give you the information to understand how to best use social media as part of a larger marketing plan. We have worked with clients and their social media campaigns and have seen it work. Social media is the most cost effective advertising and marketing you can do to reach the highest number of potential clients. If you have any questions or feedback, please email info@devlabllc.com.