Why bother trying to make your hashtag trend? Simple answer; it will bring you more visits.
Most trending hashtags are about news or celebrities. They relate to subjects that interest thousands or millions of people. Making your hashtag trend needs a lot of planning.
You need to have a network of people who care about your hashtag before you even start your campaign to make it popular.
There are 3 stages; planning, launch, fuel. Some of the launch stage items need you to set up a site profile and build credibility ahead of the launch date.
Planning
No fire will burn unless you have everything in place. Planning and laying the fire are the most important parts of going viral.
1. Choosing the Right Hashtag
Your hashtag must be unique. Just search for it on Twitter to check if it has been used before. The subject you plan to push must interest a lot of people.
2. Use WhatTheTrend.com
Register your hashtag and give it a definition before anyone else does. Visit the site regularly to make sure all is well.
3. Time Zone
Twitter rush hour is from 11am to 3pm US Eastern Standard Time. It is easier to get a hashtag to trend outside those times, but it will be seen by fewer people. Your potential benefits are reduced, too.
If your target market is outside the USA then aim to get the most tweets by 10am EST. This means launching in Australia, the Far East, India and Europe about 6pm EST. This will help your hashtag to go viral in time for peak US traffic.
Plan your launch date and time bearing all this in mind.
4. Get Lots of People Interested
You need a cascade effect to happen. This is more likely if you have many sources, so you need to start getting people interested in your subject days or even weeks ahead.
Find people who will benefit from your products. Talk to Twitter users with lots of followers. Hold 5 or 6 Twitter Chats and invite important Twitter users. Boost their egos and get them involved ahead of launch time.
5. CrowdSpeaking.Co
Crowd Speaking is a way of getting people to post shares with your hashtag. The shares do not happen straight away though. They are all released at the same time, giving you much more chance to get your hashtag to trend.
6.Blog Posts
You are going to need these in place shortly before launch date so you can promote them. Posts can be on your own site or guest posts but each one needs Tweet This links embedded with your hashtag included.
Launch
Have all the preparations come to ahead in time for the big launch.
7. Start the Fire
Have all your fire-starting materials ready ahead of time. Have your team release everything at the same time.
8. Tag the Right People
Be sure to tag the big movers and shakers you found in the planning stage. They will share with their followers and your hashtag growth is certain.
9. Start Twitter Chats
You used this in the planning stage and you need to do it again. Everyone is busy and you need to bring all those big movers fully onboard to boost their egos.
10. EmpireAvenue.Com
Empire Avenue has many people who are happy to share your news/Facebook page/tweet/LinkedIn page/etc to gain points. You can earn and buy points on the site ahead of the launch date to fund your project. You do need to establish a reputation on the site before you can use it fully.
11.Promoted Tweets
Twitter lets you promote tweets with your hashtag to your Twitter users. You can choose your target group of users so they are people who will be interested in your product.
12.Twitter contests
If you offer people who retweet your tweet a chance to win $100 you will get many more retweets. Tweet about your contest once an hour for maximum effect.
13. ViralContentBuzz.Com
Viral Content Buzz is another site where people share your content for points. You need to establish a reputation ahead of launch date and can buy points. The shared content is blog posts and they do need to be good. You can then embed a few Tweet This links in your post. Success
14. Reddit.Com
Reddit success depends on your reputation there. You need to join and contribute to Subreddits that are related to your product. You need to do this long before your intended launch. Reddit users will not tolerate people who try to hijack the site, so prepare a super blog post to share there.
15. Newsjacking
Have your most creative minds scouring the news as you launch. Ask them to find a way to inject your content into a big news story. This could be offering your product to help reduce the impact of a disaster. Yu might rush 1,000 teeshirts printed with your hashtag to a typhoon-hit island. It could be that you launch a funding appeal for a sick child. All it takes is a creative approach.
Fuel
Your hashtag does not trend instantly. Like a rocket it needs fuel to keep it going up.
16. Quiz
Release competitions on all social media channels as your hashtag is moving up. If you require sharing to enter a draw you will get a lot more shares. You used this tactic in the launch phase, but it is important to keep it going now.
17. Update
You need to release more articles, more videos, more memes and more infographics hour by hour. This will give the big-hitters who are onboard more stuff to share with their followers. Send links to these updates by private messages and email to make sure they are seen.
18. Reddit
A Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) would help to fuel the sharing burn. Just put yourself or another well-known and interesting top person from your company.
Conclusion
The benefits to getting your hashtag in the top 10 are massive. Extra visitors will find your site. Are you ready for them?
You need to have attractive products in place to earn money from the extra traffic. These need to be in place before you even start the hashtag planning.
You only get one crack at any one hashtag campaign, so put your time and money into getting it right. It is better to be too prepared than to be caught on the hop.