My Oddly Interesting Journey with Hashtags

Until very recently (about four years ago), I thought that hashtags were some meaningless, 'tag along' tools to state the obvious.

On Facebook, I was still getting used to certain images of  a distinct quality that were being shared with a long list of words following the '#' symbol. Each of those words and its synonyms described the objects in the picture which anyone with myopia could see and fathom without wearing glasses. This was my first reaction. 

But my biggest curiosity was the separate folder titled, 'Instagram' that contained all those images, overplayed with words following the #. It was quite bizarre for me to find a girl pouting in red lipstick overtaxing her post with #poutylips #pout #redlips #redlipstick, etc. 

Now, I may have been a Luddite when it comes to accepting social media platforms besides Facebook and moving on from a basic to must-have smartphones. But (thankfully) I was not too naive or imaginative to assume that the post was targeted to an audience who had difficulty perceiving color. (In case you were wondering.)

Age of Innocence aka Ignorance!

The irony was at that time, I had just started writing about tech concepts. Cloud, Big Data analytics, mobility and social media were the hot picks for the magazine. My research and learning was limited to the concepts that were being written. Worst of all, erratic work schedules, over-time, daily travel and exhaustion kept me confined to work and cut off from the online and real-world. That probably explains why I was slow to learn and did not immediately catch-up the trend of  hashtags.

I proceeded, unconscious of the fact that I had caught a rare malady. A malady of ignorance, laced with pride and an uncanny gratification at my resistance to the change at the moment --hashtags. 

My dinky understanding of the hashtags made all the images shared by my 'much relevant to the times' and social media-savvy counterparts seem irrelevant with redundancy. 

For those whom I suspected were histrionic, the hashtags confirmed it with their choices of words. I used hashtags as a measure of the person's level of willingness (politely speaking) to woo and engage the people in his/her profile. Sometimes, I would skim through the hashtags to find the new buzzwords and millennial acronyms that have popped-up.#omg right? 

Bit by bit, I managed to put two and two together to get a rough understanding about the differences made by the hashtags, and the supposed obsession behind their usage. 

To me, it made no sense to use hashtags to boost the reach of the posts on Facebook (especially when the people or the elements in the images had no commercial purpose.) Yes, I was biased and too quick to base my judgement on the platform, type of content and the audience reaction garnered by the posts. 

But frankly, that's what growth hackers do! At that moment, I was unaware of the potential and purpose of a hashtag. And now? I am guilty of judging and underestimating the use of hashtags.

However, I have one thing to proudly say out loud--blind use of hashtags on Facebook is gonna get you no where!

The Learning 

Today, I have aced the subject and comfortably immersed myself on Instagram where I first experimented with hashtag as a growth hacking tool. 

Lesson 1: Anything can Happen in Just a Day!

For starters, social media platforms like Instagram are ever-evolving forums where it is easier to make a difference (literally) at a snap of a finger by using a simple hashtag. That is probably why you find many regional actors having followers more than the actual number of digitally literate, Instagram-aware, smart-phone using population that are also active viewers of their daily-soaps or movies! 

Realistically, these astronomical numbers that show-up as followers make sense on the official Instagram profile of SRK, Deepika Padukone, any other person having similar stature or even a business having a global reach. If you find these magical numbers in any other profile, its all the work of hashtags and some extensive marketing plus coding done at the backend.

Lesson 2: Compare Likes with Followers 

The next thing, a secret that someone in digital marketing taught me was to compare the likes on a post with the number of followers. The ratio of likes to the number of followers just doesn't seem right. (Obviously, we tend to equate number of followers for a profile with the likes and comments.) That means, the number of followers did not grow organically. Which is the whole point of a growth hack tool like hashtag.

I have personally witnessed a spike in the numbers just a day after strategically following some popular hashtags and using hashtags on my Insta account. To closely observe, I have gone back to my older posts and edited them to add more hashtags to mark even the slightest shift. To sum it up, my Instagram account is a relentless experiment (unlike my Facebook profile) to get better hang of the social media tools. And secondly, I am curious about the trending 'influencer' culture that brands are promoting to get more followers and conversion. 

Lesson 3: The Influencers 

Influencer marketing with some hashtags is now seen as a real career alternative. And those who know the tricks of the trade not only get famous, but mint money, get invited at TedEX, entrepreneur conferences, interviews and events to talk about their success mantra. (If there is anyone that truly deserves to talk about their secret to success aka growth hacking tools, it would be Dropbox and of course, Niel Patel).

Lesson 4: Anything Can be a Hit with #

Besides some sensible influencer marketing and personal branding with hashtags(like #photooftheday, #throwbackthursday #tbt #blessed #instagood #food and others), there is a community of followers and few oddballs, getting excited about weird things posted with #asmr, #satisfying, #slime, #relaxing and more. Let me warn you, you will find strange content that is not always pleasing. But the stranger thing is that these accounts are well handled and supported by good number of followers, fan base, customers and brands to promote their products. These people sure know their game!

To them, a hashtag is a cogent tool for categorizing their content and finding interested users/followers. It does the job of filtering and nudging the content to the right audience at the right time.  And to me, hashtag is still a #mystery. (Even after all that observations like a Pundit, I have some 500 odd followers! #lol)

What is your take on hashtags? Leave a comment with #