Report on Social Media

Marketing in India

Aman Verma | Masters in commerce I|

 Summary
Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining website
traffic or attention through social media sites. Indian marketers
are moving at a fast speed to tap the new normal ‘opportunity.
Social media has gone mainstream. And for businesses it
represents an unprecedented marketing opportunity that
transcends traditional middlemen and connects companies
directly with customers. Customer acquisitions remain to be the
prime goal of Indian marketers (59%). According to leading
marketers of India, the top three online investment channels for
2011 are Social media, Email marketing and Search marketing.
52% of the top marketers said that it is extremely important to
integrate email marketing and social media. This is why nearly
every business on the planet is exploring social media marketing
initiatives The focus of marketers is shifting from ‗sending the
message out‘ to start engaging with customers‘. In this context,
the role of a marketer is changing from batch and blast
‘processing to creating listening posts ‘and dialogue hubs ‘in
customer communities. A shift from isolated pure play
traditional platforms to an integrated multi-channel approach is
helping the marketers address the challenge of new consumers
‘expectations across many devices and channels. Indian
marketers are leveraging the power of various communication
channels and technologies- be it Email, SMS or Social Media in
their portfolio. Here we will see the main trend of Social media
marketing in India, The scope of it, The future and will undergo
a research to follow the Customer perception About Social media
for Brand management.

PAGE 1
 QUICK SUMMARY OF OUR PRIMARY FINDINGS:
Marketers place high value on social media: A significant 90% of marketers
indicate that social media is important for their business.
• Measurement and integration are top areas marketers want to master: One
third of all social media marketers want to know how to monitor and
measure the Return on Investment (ROI) of social media and integrate their
social media activities.
• Social media marketing takes a lot of time: The majority of marketers
(58%) are using social media for 6 hours or more each week, and more than
a third (34%) invest 11 or more hours weekly.
• A significant 77% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube
and video marketing, making it the top area marketers will invest in for
2011.
E-marketing forms the baseline for 86% of marketers in India.
Promotional communication and newsletters are the primary users of use of
e-Marketing channels in 2010
Customer acquisition is the largest driver of e-Marketing for 2011
36% of Indian marketers ‘invested more than 10% of their budgets in e-
Marketing
72% of Marketers have plans to increase investments in e-Marketing
platform.
After Social media, Email marketing and Search marketing are the
preferred digital channel

Introduction

Social media marketing

Social media marketing programs usually center on efforts to create content
that attracts attention and encourages readers to share it with their social
networks. A corporate message spreads from user to user and presumably
resonates because it appears to come from a trusted, third-party source, as
opposed to the brand or company itself. Hence, this form of marketing is
driven by word-of-mouth, meaning it results in earned media rather than
paid media.
Social media has become a platform that is easily accessible to anyone with
internet access. Increased communication for organizations fosters brand
awareness and often, improved customer service. Additionally, social media

PAGE 2
serves as a relatively inexpensive platform for organizations to implement
marketing campaigns.
Social media marketing tools
Besides research tools, various companies provide specialized platforms and
tools for social media marketing:
Social media measurement
Social network aggregation
Social bookmarking

Social analytics

Automation
Social media
Blog marketing
Validation

Different Methods of Social Network Marketing

Social network marketing is popularly called as Internet marketing. Today
you can find many ways for internet marketing. Many people who enter this
online marketing are less worried because of its guaranteed success. If you
see in Internet totally all types of products has been marketed online without
much effort. Internet attracts many business people to promote their business
online. Social network marketing is grown to such a height that today many
people can't earn without it.
Some of the most recognized network marketing tools are Face book, My
Space and LinkedIn. Twitter became regular place for people who have
newly entered the field of social network marketing.
1. Blogging: When you start Blogging or posting your data about any
product, you can see less response from clients. Later it will become big
business via blog. Websites and blogs are most powerful tools for social
network marketing when matched with other networking tools. Blog is an
amazing tool which provides many other facilities in addition to just
marketing your business. It also helps you to communicate with other clients
in case if you have any problems.
2. Personal website or blog: It is important to have private website if you
are a freelancer. Your website will help your clients to know about you and
it will make them clear that you are a serious freelance marketer and help to
make huge revenue via online marketing.

PAGE 3
3. Article selling: It is also best and cheap internet marketing method. It is a
mode of advertising our trade just by writing articles and attracting endless
number of users across world. We usually sell our articles to different article
database websites and article directories. Today it provided free business to
many advertisers and publishers and they are really benefited through their
articles.
4. Email sending: Electronic mail sending is the best way to marketing.
Collect list of email addresses through portfolio websites and email about
Your business to all internet users. Your Email should be attractive in such a
way that your recipient will be impressed to get back to you.
5. Use social networking websites: Social networking websites like Twitter,
face book can be used to promote your sales. These provide best platform
for all who are thinking of online marketing.
6. Video promotion: Use several video distribution websites for your
marketing. These websites uploads your service to the whole world. All that
you need to do is film a video about marketing and send it to video
uploading sites like You Tube. It seems it is the easiest way of marketing
than any other modes since many people will be interested in view videos
rather than word form of advertisement.
7. Press Release or media release: It attracts several public clients and
increases relationship among them.
8. Search Engine Optimization: It improves the traffic to your
website by providing quality web content. It uses RSS feeds and many
SEO techniques.

Social networking websites and blogs

Social networking websites allow individuals to interact with one another
and build relationships. When products or companies join those sites, people
can interact with the product or company. That interaction feels personal to
users because of their previous experiences with social networking site
interaction
Social networking sites and blogs allow individual followers to ―retweet‖ or
―repost‖ comments made by the product being promoted. By repeating the
message, all of the user‘s connections are able to see the message, therefore
reaching more people. Social networking sites act as word of mouth.
Because the information about the product is being put out there and is
getting repeated, more traffic is brought to the product/company. Through
social networking sites, products/companies can have conversations and

PAGE 4
interactions with individual followers. This personal interaction can instill a
feeling of loyalty into followers and potential customers. Also, by choosing
whom to follow on these sites, products can reach a very narrow target
audience.

Implications on traditional advertising

Minimizing use
Traditional advertising techniques include print and television advertising.
The Internet had already overtaken television as the largest advertising
market. Websites often include banner or pop-up ads. Social networking
sites don‘t always have ads. In exchange, products have entire pages and are
able to interact with users. Television commercials often end with a
spokesperson asking viewers to check out the product website for more
information. Print ads are also starting to include barcodes on them. These
barcodes can be scanned by cell phones and computers, sending viewers to
the product website. Advertising is beginning to move viewers from the
traditional outlets to the electronic ones.
Leaks
Internet and social networking leaks are one of the issues facing traditional
advertising. Video and print ads are often leaked to the world via the Internet
earlier than they are scheduled to premiere. Social networking sites allow
those leaks to go viral, and be seen by many users more quickly. Time
difference is also a problem facing traditional advertisers. When social
events occur and are broadcast on television, there is often a time delay
between airings on the east coast and west coast of the United States. Social
networking sites have become a hub of comment and interaction concerning
the event. This allows individuals watching the event on the west coast
(time-delayed) to know the outcome before it airs.
Social media marketing mishaps
Social media marketing provides organizations with a way to connect with
their customers. However, organizations must protect their information as
well as closely watch comments and concerns on the social media they use.
A flash poll done on 1225 IT executives from 33 countries revealed that
social media mishaps caused organizations a combined $4.3 million in
Damages in 2010.The top three social media incidents an organization faced
during the previous year included employees sharing too much information
in public forums, loss or exposure of confidential information, and increased
exposure to litigation

PAGE 5
An example of a social media mishap includes designer Kenneth Cole's
Twitter mishap in 2011. When Kenneth Cole tweeted, "Millions are in
uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now
available online at [Kenneth Cole's website]".This reference to the 2011
Egyptian Revolution drew objection from the public.

General Social Networking Statistics

• 62% of adults worldwide now use social media
• Social networking is most popular online activity, with 22% of time online
spent on channels like Facebook, Twitter and Pin interest
• 65% of the world‘s top companies have an active Twitter profile
• 90% of marketers use social media channels for business, with 93% of
these rating social tools as ―important‖
• 43% of marketers have noticed an improvement in sales due to social
campaigns
• 72% of marketers who have worked in social media for three or more years
said that they saw a boost in turnover due to social channels (the longer
you‘re working in it the better you get)
• 91% of experienced social marketers see improved website traffic due to
social media campaigns and 79% are generating more quality leads.
• The average time spent by marketers on social media is 1-5hrs per week
for those just getting started and 6+ hours per week for those with 3+ years
of experience
• The most popular social networking tool for marketing is Facebook – being
used by 92%, followed by Twitter (84%), LinkedIn (71%) and blogs (68%)
• LinkedIn is 4X better for B2B lead generation than Facebook and Twitter
• Only 10% of marketers are actively monitoring social media ROI
• Only 22% of businesses have a dedicated social media manager
• 23% of Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing corporate blog
• 58% of Fortune 500 companies have an active corporate Facebook
account, 62% have an active corporate Twitter account
• 47% of customers are somewhat likely to purchase from a brand that they
follow or like
INDIAN MARKET
• India‘s Internet economy is expected to reach Rs. 10.8 trillion by 2016, as
the country‘s growth rate in this segment is far ahead of many of the
developing nations, reported by BCG.

PAGE 6
• According to BCG, the India Internet economy contributed to 3.2 trillion
rupees to the overall economy in 2010, 4.1% of the country‘s GDP, & could
triple in 4 years’ time.
• More than 39 million Internet users who form 86% of the total Internet
audience, visited social networking sites in July 2011
• the total Indian social networking audience grew 43 percent in the past
year, more than tripling the rate of growth of the total Internet audience in
India
• India now ranks as the seventh largest market worldwide for social
networking India is adding Internet users at the rate of almost 5-7 million a
month, and at the current pace it will surpass the US, which has about 245
million users, in less than two years.
• Active user base per month in India is close to 30 Million marks which is
still a pretty large market but not as big as portrayed by some consultants.
• India has close to 10 million online shoppers and is growing at an
estimated 30%
• There are more Internet users in towns with a population of less than 5 lakh
than in the top eight metros put together.
• ―About 2 billion people worldwide access the Internet and 25% of them
are from China. India contributes about 6% to the world's Net population
and the US 12.5%.
• The survey found that more than 75% of Internet usage is among school-
and college-going students and those who have recently graduated
• Mumbai has the highest number of Internet users (6.2 million) followed by
Delhi/NCR (5 million), Kolkata (2.4 million) and Chennai (2.2 million).
The percentage of companies using social media in top 5 markets is:
• China: 82%
• USA: 71%
• India: 70%
• Brazil: 68%
• Canada: 51%
EMarketer estimates advertisers will spend $3.63 billion in the US and over
$4 billion more in the rest of the world on social networking sites this year.
And that‘s just paid ad spending. When the Association of National
Advertisers (ANA) surveyed US marketers this year, 90% said they were

PAGE 7
using social networks for their efforts—about even with last year, at 89%.
While this percentage has risen dramatically since 2007, when just 20% of
marketers used social media, growth has plateaued—and shifted to other
new digital media platforms instead.

Facebook statistics

Facebook continues to experience a steady growth in users in spite of

the occasional fluctuation. And according to the 2018 Sprout Social
Index, it remains the most favored social media platform among social
marketers. Take a look at the latest social media statistics specific to
Facebook:

1. 97% of social advertisers chose it as their most used and most

useful social media platform.
2. Facebook continues to be the most popular social networking site
in terms of number of active users. As of October 2018, it had a
little over 2 billion active users
3. Facebook no longer holds second place in the latest global
website rankings from Alexa and Similar Web. YouTube has taken
its place, moving Facebook down in third position.
4. Facebook usage among adults in the US has remained more or less
the same. 68% of US adults claimed to use Facebook in 2018, which
is the exact number of US adult Facebook users reported in 2016.
5. Three-quarters of these current users access the platform on a daily
basis.
6. Facebook usage among teens is dropping gradually according to
the latest social media statistics. While 71% of teens claimed to use
the platform in a 2015, the number has now dropped to 51%.
7. Facebook is the second favorite platform for consuming videos
after YouTube. 40% of consumers said that they watch the most
videos on Facebook.
8. The platform also appeals to social marketers as an advertising
platform with 70% of them choosing Facebook ads as the most
useful for achieving their goals.

PAGE 8
 9. So it’s no surprise that 83% pay for ads on Facebook.
10. The platform has managed to double its revenue per user in three
years. Its first quarter earnings for 2018 was $13.2 billion–a 42%
increase in revenue year over year.

11. The number of local business pages on Facebook has reached 65

million.
12. Brands see a median engagement rate of 0.09% per Facebook post.

Find out exactly what’s working in your social strategy with Sprout

You can tailor social stats and findings like these to your strategy when
you have a clear picture of what works for your brand.

Sprout’s comprehensive analytics and reporting features will help you

pinpoint the topics, themes and tags that your audience responds to the
most.

PAGE 9
Use Sprout’s monitoring features to track specific brand keywords that
get your audience talking.

Instagram statistics
Instagram has been experiencing a rapid and steady growth in the
number of monthly active users. The platform has also undergone
plenty of changes in terms of features and interface. One of the most
significant changes was the introduction of IGTV, which enables users to
share long-form video content with their followers.

Marketers need to be prepared with updated social media stats specific

to Instagram if they want to stay ahead of the curve in 2019. Here are
some stats to know for the platform:

13. The number of monthly active Instagram users has grown to 1

billion according to the latest social media statistics.
14. Instagram continues to attract a younger audience with 72% of
teens saying that they use the platform. This is an impressive
increase from 2015 when 52% of teens said that they used the
platform.
15. Since 2016, there’s also been a 7% increase in the number of US
adults who use the platform with 35% of them currently using it.
16. Even in terms of engagement, Instagram is ahead of Facebook
with a median engagement rate of 1.60% per post for brands.
17. But among marketers, Instagram still takes second place to
Facebook with 83% of them using the platform.
18. In spite of this, the ad spending on Instagram is 23% higher than
on Facebook according to an internal analysis by Merkle.
19. The platform is getting tons of activity with users uploading more
than 100 million photos and videos on a daily basis.
20. 2 billion Likes occur on the platform every day.
21. Thursday is the best day to post on Instagram for brands across all
verticals.

PAGE 10
 22. Instagram Profiles saw a follower growth rate of 17-33% during
2018.
23. Videos get 21.2% more interactions compared to images and
18.6% more interactions compared to carousels.

24. As of June 2018, there were 400 million daily active Instagram
Stories users. That’s 300 million more users since its launch in
2016.

Twitter statistics

PAGE 11
Twitter is still an important social platform for advertisers and immediate
customer service. So you should still keep a close eye on the essential
social media statistics specific to this platform.

25. 88% of social advertisers use it. This makes it even more popular
than Instagram.
26. The platform earned a total of $665 million in revenue during the
first quarter of 2018–a 21% increase year over year.
27. $575 million of this total revenue came from ads. That’s another
21% increase.
28. Videos accounted for more than half of this ad revenue.
29. Between May and June of 2018, Twitter suspended more than 70
million fake and suspicious profiles. This may have caused a drop
in the total count of users, but also served as a move to increase
the authenticity of the content on the platform and build user
trust.
30. There are currently 326 million monthly active users on the
platform.
31. Twitter users send out 500 million tweets per day.

LinkedIn statistics
LinkedIn may not see the same rate of growth as platforms like
Instagram, since it has a niche audience type that is different from that
of other social media platforms. But it continues to be the largest
professional network and provides B2B companies with an ideal
marketing channel.

Being informed on the latest social media stats relevant to the platform
will provide organizations with some leverage in 2019. Here are a few
stats to help you get started:

32. LinkedIn now has 590 million users with 260 million of them being
active on a monthly basis.

PAGE 12
33. LinkedIn performs 277% better than Facebook and Twitter when it
comes to generating visitor-to-lead conversions.

34. It’s also the platform most used by salespeople to engage with
their clients/prospects. 73% of B2B companies said they use it for
this purpose.
35. 80% of social media B2B leads come from LinkedIn.
36. The three major platforms–Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn
contributed to 90% of social traffic to B2B blogs and sites. And the
platform was responsible for half of that traffic.
37. 91% of executives believe that LinkedIn is the top choice for
professionally relevant content.
38. 89% of B2B marketers include LinkedIn in their digital marketing
mix.
39. 56% of professionals access the platform using multiple devices.

PAGE 13
 40. 62% of LinkedIn members engage with content on the platform
because they found it educational or informative.
41. 61% engage with content because it’s relevant to them.

Social media advertising statistics

With changes in social media algorithms, it has become a lot more
challenging for brands to earn organic engagement. Now paid social
media advertising has become a necessity for brands that want visibility
and results. Check out these social media statistics for your social media
advertising efforts in 2019:

42. Social networks are the biggest source of inspiration for consumer
purchases with 37% of consumers finding purchase inspiration
through the channel.
43. Social media advertising spend in the US is expected to reach
$18.4 billion in 2019.
44. EMarketer estimated that the ad spending on social video in the
US increased by 38.1% during 2018, reaching $7.85 billion.
45. Facebook controlled 84.9% of this social video ad growth.
46. Social media is the most relevant advertising channel for 50% of
Gen Z and 42% of millennial.
47. 57% of millennial feel that ads are becoming more relevant.
48. 45% of Gen Z and 41% of Gen X-ers feel the same, while only 27%
of Baby Boomers feel this way.
49. Non-customers are three times more likely than customers to visit
retailers from social media ads.

PAGE 14
 50. Non-customers are three times more likely than customers to visit
retailers from social media ads.
51. 50% of consumers said that seeing user-generated content would
increase their chances of buying products through a brand’s social
media.
52. 49% said that easy payment systems (like Amazon Pay) would
increase their chances of buying through social media.

Social media engagement statistics

Social media bridges the gap between consumers and brands by
providing them with a platform to engage with each other. Brands need

PAGE 15
to make the most of this and create opportunities for interaction and
connection. Otherwise, they could end up losing potential customers.

High social media engagement rates will also improve other aspects of a
brand’s performance. Keeping an eye on social media statistics
regarding consumer preferences and engagement trends is a great way
for brands to refine their engagement efforts. The Sprout Index cited
earlier highlighted some important stats on social media engagement.
Let’s take a look:

52. 80% of social marketers said that their key strategy is to increase
engagement across social channels.
53. Posts with links to more information are the most preferred type
of content on social media. 30% of consumers said that it’s the
content they like to see most from brands on social. 18%
preferred graphics and images, while 17% would like to see
produced video.
54. 61% of social marketers prioritize social media posts that teach.
58% focus on telling a story and 53% focus on posts that inspire.
55. This shows that there’s a huge misalignment with what consumers
actually prefer. 73% of consumers want to see posts about
discounts and sales. 60% want to see posts that showcase new
products and services. 59% want to see posts that teach
something.
56. 58% of consumers prefer visual-first content, with their main
preferences being graphics and images and produced video.
57. 74% of consumers share video content from brands on social
media.
58. Consumers are equally likely to share and engage with
inspirational posts from brands.
59. For 45% of consumers, social media is one of the first channels
they go to in case they have any questions or issues.
60. In fact, 21% of consumers would rather message a brand on social
media instead of calling up customer service.

PAGE 16
61. 88% of social marketers said that it’s important for their brands to
provide customer service through social media.

62. The most common reason why consumers reach out to brands on
social media is because they have a question. 57% of consumers
reported doing this.
63. The second most common reason is to have an issue with a
product or service resolved. 45% of consumers have done this.
64. A fair amount of people (34%) also reach out to brands on social
media so they can commend them on their products or services.
Brands should use all of these instances as an opportunity to build
relationships.
65. 21% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands that they
can reach on social media.

PAGE 17
 May 2019 Social Marketing Report India

FACEBOOK STATS FOR MAY 2019 IN INDIA

PAGE 18
PAGE 19
TWITTER STATS FOR MAY 2019 IN INDIA

PAGE 20
YOUTUBE STATS IN MAY 2019 IN INDIA

PAGE 21
PAGE 22
PAGE 23
Hashtag Marketing
Almost everyone is familiar with this so popular Hashtag symbol #. The
symbol # is not just a simple pound sign or hash mark today. It is the online
sensation on all social media platforms. Whether it’s Facebook, Instagram,
Twitter, Google Plus, or any other social media channels, you cannot ignore the
importance of #hashtag. You can call it as a power source to reach maximum
people and get more followers, likes, and shares. But understanding it could be
a difficult task for marketers out there. Hashtag might seem confusing but, once
you understand it, trust me, the jackpot is in your hand. This powerful tool can
help you to grow your social impact, reach and audience engagement. Here is
the guide you need to know about Hashtag Marketing. Before understanding
how to use this internet phenomenon in your social media accounts, you should
know the part.
There are billions of people posting on a daily basis on every social media
platform. It’s almost impossible for your post or content to stand out of the
crowd. Your post will not be able to be seen unless they are your followers and
friends. But no worries, for this reason only hashtags are there. A hashtag is a
keyword referred by # symbol which you can include in a social media post,
comment, video, etc. to highlight them, generate exposure, and enhance
audience engagement. Hashtags are an integral part of a social media strategy
in hashtag marketing which can help your ideas and content discoverable to
your audience. If you think from a user’s perspective, hashtags are used to
categorize your content and making easy to do insights. When someone clicks
on your particular hashtag, they will be brought to a page which aggregates all
the posts in real time with same hashtags. Once a hashtag pics up enough
momentum, it becomes trending. But being trending will not make your
hashtag the most popular one. Each social network has its unique way to
specify a trending content and displaying posts under a hashtag. Hashtags can
have a negative effect too on your engagement if not used properly. Here are
some statistics of what will happen when you use different hashtag numbers on
different social media channels.

PAGE 24
HOW TO USE HASHTAGS ON SOCIAL MEDIA?
Be Specific

You should use hashtags specific to your business, and your interest. Use
hashtags that are relevant to your topic. If you mismatch your content of a post
and the hashtag then, you won’t be getting the engagement you are expecting.
The more specific you are, the more you can target your audience which will
result in better engagement. For example, you sell glass doors. So instead of
using general #doors, be specific to use #glassdoors. This hashtag is specific to
glass doors and will result in better engagement.

Keep Your Hashtags Short

Don’t include too many words within a single hashtag. Over lengthy hashtags
turn people off generally. For example, hashtags like
#WhatHappenedInVegasStaysInVegas, #VisionExpoWestIsAmazing. These
hashtags are over lengthy with too many words within a single hashtag.

Don’t Overuse Hashtags

Writing the entire social media post within one hashtag per word is the must
avoid. Writing the entire social media post within one hashtag per word is the
must avoid. For example, your sentence is “You are ridiculous with your
annoying and unnecessary use of hashtags.” So if you write this caption like
“#You #are #ridiculous #with #your #annoying #and #unnecessary #use #of
#hashtags,” then your post is meaningless. All the words are not relevant to
what you want to reach for. Keep relevant words in hashtags rather than using
every single word of your whole caption.

PAGE 25
Don’t Use Hashtags More than Your Words

People think that more hashtags mean more reach and more likes but that not
the truth. People overload hashtags with a single photo. Like on Instagram, the
maximum number of hashtags one can use is 30, but that doesn’t mean you will
include the maximum limit for a single post. Yes, you will get followers, but
those will only be spammers with the intention of following them back. Focus
on being specific.

Use Trending Hashtags

You all are aware of the ‘trending’ concept which covers almost everything
from fashion to news headlines. Trending topic is dynamic. So you should keep
an eye on the changing trending hashtags and use the relevant and the most
popular hashtags in your captions. Just grab the trending hashtags related to
your business and include them in your post. As a result, your post will be seen
by a larger audience. More and more people can see your updates rather than
just your friends and followers. You can locate trending hashtags and topics by
utilising hashtag analytics monitoring sites like Hashtag.org, Hashtagify,
Trendsmap, or RiteTag. You can use them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
Google+ etc. Use niche-trending hashtags rather, to connect people similar to
your business and interest to target them effectively.

Stay Away From Controversial Topics

Being trendy doesn’t mean that you will go on selecting political, religious,
negative, or any controversial topic. Like the way you do your keyword
research for better SEO, the same way you need to do proper research for
hashtags to avoid any usage of hashtags being used for wrong reasons. Don’t
go for damaging your brand and business by doing all these shits.

PAGE 26
Reasons Why You Should Use Hashtags in Social Media
Marketing
Exploring the Internet is like diving into an ocean. More deep you will go, more exciting
things you will find and more you will enjoy because swimming is always a fun filled activity.
Similarly, the experiment of diving into the ocean of Internet and case studies on social
networking sites are also much more than happiness. As the time is flying so fast, the
landscape of social media is evolving and introducing a lot of interesting things.

The Hashtag is one of those most interesting and surprising things which Internet is
presenting with each passing moment. The Hashtag is a phrase preceded by a hash sign
(#) which used to highlight the topic, to draw the attention and to organize or promote a
message
The origin of the culture of Hashtags is associated with Twitter. It was used as a way of
making people find, follow and contribute to a conversation. Later on, this burgeoning trend
spread to other social media networks. The Hashtag is incredibly a helpful way for brands in
navigating the way through ever changing, ever evolving the world of social media.
It is important to know how useful hashtags are when it comes to branding and social media
marketing. Why should brands have to use hashtags in their social media marketing
campaigns? Therefore, here is the glimpse of 10 most significant reason which will definitely
justify the utilization of a hashtag in your social media marketing campaign.

1. INCREASE ORGANIC REACH OF YOUR POST

Hashtags are gaining momentum on almost all social networking sites such
as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google+. Include a Hashtag in your post and get in

PAGE 27
front of people on social networks. Hashtags make the difference in reach of your post and
can keep track of your reach and engagement numbers as well.
Organic means non-paid traffic and hashtag is something which will help you to reach more
audience with organic traffic. Hashtags can make your post attractive to influence people to
like your page for more updates. You can also use the hashtag in your personal profile to
target more and more audience.

One important thing which you must have to keep in mind is that Hashtags are required to be
relevant to common popularity keywords.

2. AMPLIFY YOUR BRAND

Leveraging hashtag to increase your brand is a magnificent idea. Branding a Facebook page
by making the use of unique hashtag can help an idea or new product to catch on. You can
brand all you post about a new product by breaking all the information about the new product
into the separate stream of information.

The hashtag is an easy way to share information. Therefore brands by making the use of
hashtag can create brand awareness and positive word of mouth about a particular product.
Don’t make your post too much promotional, try to make it valuable by taking the interest of
people on board when creating a hashtag.

PAGE 28
3. REACH OUT TO POTENTIAL USERS AND TRACK
RELEVANT CONVERSATIONS
The Internet is a giant web with a huge number of connections. Therefore, it is quite easy for
someone to get lost in the realm of this huge network or in a search. In this regard having a
unique hashtag means it is easy for you to compile all the responses at one place.

So, take advantage of the hashtag and allow your users to interact with the brand and
comment about the product or service on social networking platforms. In order to reach out
potential users, you can take advantage of social listening tools.

These tools help the marketers to gauge the interest of their customers as well as potential
users. Build rapport with your fans and followers by answering their inquiries.

4. CATCH NEGATIVE SENTIMENTS AND AMPLIFY

POSITIVE SENTIMENTS
In Marketing, there is always a time when you are required to deliver information that will be
divisive to some extent. Divisive information helps marketers to see negative reactions,
questions, and debate over the message. In this regard, hashtags help the user to engage
the participant in the conversation and to change their opinions.

A hashtag is a useful tool which helps marketers to lessen the negative impact. The other
side of the conversational coin is to amplify positive sentiments. Retweeting positive
comments will engage active contributors. Hashtag as a useful marketing tool helps the
message to travel faster and encourage followers to contribute in creating positive word of
mouth.

5. TRACK PERFORMANCE AND ENGAGEMENT

How well do users like your brand or product? What kind of discussions is revolving in the
marketing about the brand? How much is a particular hashtag successful in attracting users?
Hashtags allow marketers to track the performance and engagement of their brand or
product. You can store all post and tweets under a particular tag and see the latest feedback
by conducting the search. The hashtag is very helpful tool or strategy to keep track of
performance and engagement.

PAGE 29
6. HASHTAGS ARE GREAT FOR RESEARCH
Another amazing and most thrilling reason behind the use of the hashtag is that these are
great tools for research. Hashtags are search engine friendly tools. Search a specific
hashtag, and you will find an enormous amount of great and relevant content. Tweet with
hashtags is more focused on a particular topic than tweets just mentioning the phrase.

7. IMPROVE YOUR CLICK THROUGH RATES

Research conducted by Buddy Media explored that tweet with hashtags receive more
engagement than the tweets without the hashtag. On the other way around we can say that
marketers can increase customer engagement and click through rates by just including the
hashtag in their post. Overloading of the hashtag on a post on Twitter looks spammy.
Overloading of a hashtag in the single Twitter post often dilutes the message.

8. HASHTAG CAN BE USED FOR HUMOR

The hashtag in social media marketing is like a rimshot. Marketers through hashtag show
brand personality, repel audiences as well as potential users. On this multi-use platform,
social media, brands like @oreo and @tacobell major stand out brands for being funny on a
regular basis.

Their funny tweets imply that the brands have strong social strategies. They are perfectly
making the use of the hashtag for humor because each time brands come up with the
different funny hashtag.

9. HASHTAG IS AN EASY WAY OF COMMUNICATION

Use the hashtag to make your marketing campaign memorable, unique and relevant to your
audience. Efficient use of straightforward and distinctive hashtag will make the follow to
remember your brand for longer time period. Brands can integrate hashtag with an easy call

PAGE 30
to action will help the company to communicate efficiently and reach the new heights of
promotion and marketing.

10. GET SOCIAL

When it comes to connecting with people, there is no great way than a hashtag. You can
increase your followers by following others. Marketers by reading the most trending topics
and by using the hashtags related to those topics are opening the floor for millions of people
from all around the world.

Hashtags are bringing the world closer than ever before and providing an opportunity to the
brands as well as customers to interact effectively.

CONCLUSION
Hashtags are super powerful if used correctly. People share hashtags to share and get
information on different social media networks. The popularity and prevalence of the
hashtags made it an integral part of social media marketing strategy.

PAGE 31
PAGE 32