The Power of #Hashtag
As you may know, the influence of social media is growing daily these years. They are one of the main tools of PR and marketing. Classes and courses are being developed for people and future experts to master social media campaigns. Everything that goes viral is highly noticed and talked about and that is the main reason social media campaigns are so important.
What made hashtag so popular? Instagram of course. Instagram is along with Facebook one of the most popular new media out there. Before Instagram, hashtag was just a regular sign on your mobile phones or laptops that you didn’t really know why to use. Shortly it became a must used sign on Instagram to capture pictures, videos, moments, quotes and all the thing you wish to express over the media.
Campaigns started to use the hashtag to spread the word about their cause. It made it easy for people to see them, share them and be a part of them.
One of the most popular (if not the most popular) campaign was the #IceBucketChallange. The Ice bucket challenge is a campaign made to rise awareness about the ALS disease- motor neuron disease. How does the challenge work? You grab a large bucket of ice cold water and pour it on your head. For a few seconds your body freezes and you have a feeling of immobility the same as people with ALS have. As you do the challenge, you are invited to donate money to their community.What made the campaign so good? It went viral. People were sharing videos with them doing the challenge and nominated others to do so. A huge number of celebrities joined the challenge and also posted videos of themselves pouring water on their heads. Big star names such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg also did it. The campaign start in 2013. and in that year raised 2,8 million dollars. In 2016. that number went up to more than 100 million dollars.
Now these numbers show how successful was the campaign. Social media are a powerful tool that can be used in many ways and the possibilities will just keep growing. All you need to do as a future PR expert is use your imagination and of course find your resources. People want to see something different, eye appealing and fun to be a part of. That is exactly why the #IceBucketChallange was such a success.
Author: Ella Čačić
Sources:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Bucket_Challenge
https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2017/09/effectively-use-hashtags-social-media-marketing/
