Hashtag tracking

It was in 1993 when we started using hashtags in the IRC to create categories and easily search for related topics. In 2007, Chis Messina proposed using this system on Twitter. This was how the sign of the pad followed by words or phrases began to gain importance. Currently, the reach of this powerful tool is so brutal that it has spread to almost all social networks and even to television and radio programs, who use them to increase the reach of their audience. What started on Twitter has been extended to other social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, Pinterest ...

Hashtags allow grouping conversations or publications under the same label. They are a way to create content, share it and encourage the audience to participate. In addition, they help us to spread information about events, raffles, products, etc.

Why we have to monitor a hashtag

Monitoring a hashtag allows us to measure and analyze the impact obtained from a given action, perform an active listening of our potential customers and identify relevant content for our business. And most importantly, this analysis helps us develop an effective marketing strategy.

How to create a hashtag

1- It must be simple, easy to pronounce and memorize. Remember that Twitter still has character limitations so the shorter, the more the user can contribute.

2- It must be unique and original. Prior to choosing the hashtag, we must carry out a research work in the different networks to verify that the hashtag chosen has not been used previously. This that seems so simple, is the number one mistake that is committed.

3-It must make sense in the context of our action. For example, if it is a raffle, it must be related to the product or your brand so that it does not confuse the user.

What metrics to choose

When making a report there is an infinity of indicators that can be measured. The most important metrics to consider are the following:

Reach

Nº of tweets

Tweets type (likes, retweets, comments)

Most active accounts

Most influential accounts

Tweets with the greatest impact

Golden hour (tweets time) and tweets per hour

Keywords

Trending Topic (if you get it, time, location and place)

When extracting these metrics (adapted) from other social networks, we can find some problems. In Facebook, mainly, it can be a complicated task to collect them due to the change of their algorithm and their new privacy policies. The APIs from where our tools take the data do not allow collecting information from private Facebook accounts.

Unlike Twitter or Instagram, on Facebook most accounts are private, so users who use this hashtag do not appear in the search of this social network. On the contrary, the accounts of the influencers and brands will.

What tools to use

There is an infinity of tools to monitor your hashtags, be it in a marketing campaign, the follow-up in an event or other actions. But, if you want a multi-account follow-up, these are the most complete that currently exist. Although there are many other really interesting as Metricool (paid and only for Twitter) and its strong functionality or for example others like: tracker ,Tweetreach, Tweet Binder...

Brand24 

This comprehensive tool allows you to get information about the hashtag that you are monitoring on Instagram and Twitter (as I mentioned earlier, Facebook does not work well). In addition, it gives you information on the most influential and active accounts, as well as the most popular mentions and those that have the greatest impact. Include a section of phrases posted during the event or during your campaign, which can shed light on your final report. As with most tools, you can download the document and test its functionality for 14 days.

Keyhole 

This tool also has free trial. It gives you basic information about Twitter and Instagram, such as: reach, number of publications, users, impressions, etc. It is less complete than Brand24 in this aspect. You can also find accounts and the most popular mentions. Other very interesting data that this application shows you are the geographical, demographic data, and the devices from where the publications have been made (computer, iPhone, etc.). Also, although you can download the document, you can use the graphics it generates to use it in your own report template. 

Hashtracking 

As in the previous tools, you can track the hashtag on Twitter and Instagram. On the other hand, it offers you the service that allows you to know the typology of the publications, the most influential accounts, as well as the most active ones. In the same way, it gives you the option of discovering the sources of the publications, their geolocation or the related words and hashtags. It stands out in this sense for the conclusions that it extracts with the extracted data of Instagram. Finally, we can`t forget that there is an option that analyzes the post based on the predominant colors.

Monitor to get a Trending Topic

The monitoring of hashtags during an event is one of the actions that more information will throw us and that will allow us to collect a large number of information. During the celebration of the act, you can create a point of union between the virtual and on-site attendees, who themselves disseminate the event by sharing what is happening live, as well as creating new content of their own with their comments. In this way, users who are connected through the hashtag can follow the event live through the eyes of the participants and their point of view. Through this network of opinions the audience peaks that are generated can become the famous Trending Tropics. This will depend on the impact generated by the influencers, as well as the active participation in the social networks of the attendees of the event.

In summary, monitoring our hashtags is fundamental to create and improve our marketing strategy. Once we have found the tools that best suit our needs, we must collect the data and include them in our report, to later analyze them and use all that information. The results will help us to make decisions for future marketing actions.