Dynamic Marketing Communiqué

#TheNextGalaxy: This brand got 600 mentions per minute with the help of this Twitter function! [Thursdays: FYO!]

November 18, 2021

Social media marketing is an important strategy that helps businesses achieve their marketing goals―including boosting sales. 

In fact, customer intelligence solutions company Market Force states that 78% of people’s purchase decisions are affected by digital word-of-mouth.

This means aside from providing you with a wide range of marketing features, social media also helps you connect with your target market, drive traffic to your site, increase your sales, and establish brand authority.

One of those commonly used social media marketing platforms? 

Twitter

In 2016, Samsung incorporated a trendy Twitter function for their Galaxy S7 campaign. That function is…

Branded Hashtags!

―a hashtagged phrase used on social media that’s associated with a specific brand. 

Okay. We know hashtags are all over Twitter, but how does a branded hashtag differ from the norm? 

Here are some key differences: 

  • Normal hashtags cannot support emojis (small digital icons and images) while Branded Hashtags have a designated emoji that is unique for a brand’s digital marketing campaign.
  • Branded hashtags are exclusive and can only be used for 90 days while ordinary hashtags can be used indefinitely by online users in their tweets.
  • Normal hashtags can also be used to advertise a product, but it’s harder to get these hashtags to trend online. The hype from Branded Hashtags comes from the exclusivity and special characters triggered by a specific campaign.

Let’s go back to Samsung’s campaign for the launch of its new Galaxy S7 products in 2016… 

With the help of the Branded Hashtag, #TheNextGalaxy, the company promoted not just one but three of its newest products on Twitter―the Galaxy mobile phone series (the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge) and the VR (virtual reality) gear! 

The marketing strategy was simple and all it took was a hashtagged keyword and custom VR emoji.

For reference, these were some of the product promotion tweets by Samsung using its Branded Hashtag:

Note: Samsung had been using the hashtag (#TheNextGalaxy) years before to advertise its Galaxy series. It was only when the company branded the hashtag and added an exclusive emoji trigger in 2016 that Samsung recorded an astounding 75% increase in year-over-year usage! This was also the all-time high for the hashtag’s use.

Wait! There’s more… 

The hashtag also helped Samsung reach a high of 600 mentions per minute in tweets that displayed 99% positive or neutral feelings.

According to Pio Schunker, Samsung Global’s Senior Vice President,

“Deploying Twitter’s complete creative palette was critical to telling that story globally. The custom VR emoji, conversational video, and Twitter ScratchReels in particular were amazingly fun and engaging ways to talk about our brand to young millennials and were a significant move away from the techie talk Samsung Mobile has historically focused on. It is not enough for us to say we’re innovative; global marketers have to act innovative.”

Based on Samsung’s campaign, we can see how effective Branded Hashtags are in marketing a brand on Twitter… but what exactly are the benefits of using this feature?

  • It creates a trend. Using Branded Hashtags increases your campaign’s visibility on Twitter and creates hype over your brand through trends. When a certain hashtag is used a lot, it gets featured on Twitter’s Top Trends section. 
  • It promotes interaction and engagement between your brand and your target market. As the hype around Branded Hashtags increases, so do your brand’s interaction and engagement with consumers. Once your Branded Hashtag gains enough exposure, Twitter users will join in on your brand’s promotion by using the hashtag on their own tweets.
  • It improves a tweet’s “stopping power.” Stopping power refers to the ability of a tweet to make a social media user pause from scrolling to check out your advertisement on their Twitter feed.

As a business owner or marketer, you must do what you can to elicit a visual reaction from your audience to make them stop and take a look at your ad or post… and Branded Hashtags helps you do just that!

Something to keep in mind…

While Branded Hashtags are proven to work to a brand’s advantage, you must carefully consider if your business can handle such a strategy or if using this Twitter function is appropriate for your brand.

You also need to make sure you’re willing to invest a portion of your marketing budget for this marketing strategy because Branded Hashtags cost around USD 1 million (Expensive. We know!).

… but if you think Branded Hashtags are suitable for your brand’s image and budget, and will help you achieve your marketing goals, then go!

Use this feature as an effective and powerful strategy in connecting with consumers online. Use these hashtags to also boost your brand’s social media presence.

Give this Twitter marketing strategy a shot!

We can’t wait to see your Branded Hashtag trending soon to help your target market to FIND YOU online!

About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Thursdays: FYO! Find You Optimization”

Why should you stop thinking SEO and start thinking FYO?

We’re not saying that you should abandon Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Don’t get us wrong, of course, we know this is something very important, especially in today’s digital marketing age.

The internet landscape is vast, and a world of its own. You really need to distinguish yourself and make your brand/company/website known and easily searchable.

Better yet, get to the top of page one for Top Results on Google or any other search engine.

However, what is the purpose of SEO? It’s that customers Find You!

That’s what matters. So, while SEO is one factor of FYO… it really is only one, and we ought not to abandon all the myriad of ways digitally and offline for improving your FYO.

How can we look at this from a different and better perspective?

Let’s say you have it in the bag! You and your team are experts in SEO. Awesome. But did you ever wonder what else you could do to push it further and give your SEO skills a boost?

FYO! Find You Optimization!

You need your target audience to FIND YOU—your brand, product, service, or offer. This is SEO plus other tools that increase visibility online (and offline).

Every Thursday, we publish content on how you can get your target market to find you, beyond the typical “type and search.” There are other things you can do along with your SEO to give your online advertising process a boost.

Try considering other tactics beyond it—WOMO (Word Of Mouth Optimization), RO (Referral Optimization), and “All-Other-Means-Of-Getting-Your-Target-Market-To-Find-You” Optimization (AOMOGYTMTFY, if you’d like a long acronym). 

Part of a great marketing strategy is knowing how to adapt new methods and make use of different types of marketing and promotion that best fit your business goals and which give you the results you want.

Hope you’ve found this week’s insights interesting and helpful.

Stay tuned for next Thursday’s FYO!

Cheers,

Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
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