Hashtag marketing and short links go hand-in-hand. They are both small messages with big missions. Practically speaking, they have the same task of redirecting users to a place with more relevant information.
It’s a digital form of elaborating on your brand mission without being intrusive. Rather than flooding people with data, you are simply handing them the key (while using an engaging strategy). So, is there a way to harness the power of both short links and hashtags together?
What is a Short Link?
A domain or URL can be clunky. We have all seen it. A long string of a hundred characters and numbers. Certainly not anything someone can remember at a glance. It also makes sharing practically impossible. Especially on a mobile device.
This is where short links come in. The intent of the short link is to redirect someone to the page you ultimately want them to view. People use short links for branding purposes and to create a memorable message that consumers associate with the brand.
Short links are also called vanity links when connected to a specific campaign. If you have the same phrase or slogan for a product, it only makes sense to create a short URL with the catchy content. This type of continuity is what drives engagement and increases sales.
What is Hashtag Marketing?
A similar concept is behind hashtag marketing. Hashtags are metadata tags that redirect a user to messages with specific themes or content. Marketers create hashtags to align with campaigns as a form of not only organizing pertinent data, but creating a repository they can drive leads to.
It’s a means of automating a resource center around your service/product that’s open-source and available to anyone who clicks. Hashtag marketing is a powerful resource tool because not only is it free, it expands the scope of your reach to anyone that visits the hashtag.
Social platforms like Twitter can drive a campaign into the stratosphere if they list a hashtag as trending. This means that even small budget campaigns have the opportunity to go viral if the content and timing is right.
Using Both Methods
It’s apparent that these two forms of digital marketing have similar strategies. Modern consumers despise being flooded with content. Hashtags and short links are a way of collecting all the information and tying it up in a pretty bow.
There are a few ways to employ both strategies in conjunction. Short links are particularly useful on platforms like Twitter. A branded hashtag and short link in the same post saves on character space. It’s more concise and organized messaging.
You can also create and include multiple links or hashtags in one post. The more the merrier. Set one short link to track a certain set of metrics, and the other to follow a second group of data. This type of mining leads to greater insight and more informed decision making.
Short links can be tracked inversely through hashtags. If you explicitly post a vanity link when using a certain hashtag, you can use the hashtag thread to quantify the popularity of that short link. The metrics on a lot of social media platforms demonstrate the popularity of posts, which you can relate back to specific short links.
The idea here is to get creative. There is no certain set of rules when it comes to combining modern marketing strategies or analyzing the data. The only real standard is to think outside of the box.
Innovation is what drives competition. Particularly in the digital world. Short links and hashtags work well together because both techniques cut to the chase. And when you respect the time of a modern consumer, you already gain their attention.
What are some of the ways you would use both methods? Give us a shout at Link Hawk and share your ideas!