How to choose your event hashtag wisely

Your agenda is set. Your attendees are excited. Your event is ready to go! Or, that’s what you think. It’s easy to overlook social media as an integral part of your planning process, but don’t make this common mistake! Your event has a story to be told and you need to help your guests tell it online.

Developing the perfect hashtag for your event serves more than one important purpose. When chosen correctly, it’s an easy way for event organizers to stay on top of attendee conversations, complaints or compliments. Event hashtags can also a great way to aggregate conversation between attendees to foster deeper offline connections and share experiences from multiple sessions, speakers and activities. A carefully-selected event hashtag is exactly what you need to cultivate and encourage conversation between attendees and organizers for ultimate meeting success.

Start with the Basics
Every good hashtag begins with a brainstorm. When looking at initial possibilities for your event hashtag, consider the name of your event, the industry, the date and the location. Any combination of words that describe the event could potentially be combined to create your event’s perfect hashtag. Make a list of four or five potential hashtags before moving on. Want to get extra creative? Think about puns, rhymes and alliterations for a playful twist! In most cases, it’s better to keep your event’s hashtag simple to be easy enough for guests to remember.

Consider Carefully
Now that you have a list of potential options, it’s time to narrow it down and decide on the most optimal hashtag solution for your event. These are a few considerations to double check before landing on a final choice:

• Length
  Your hashtag should be enough to be distinct, but short enough to minimize typos. Find your sweet spot while making it no longer than 20 characters.
• Order
  If your hashtag doesn’t seem intuitive, legible or could potentially be misconstrued to mean something else, get to rearranging! For example, guests might have difficulty reading #GICCCatering because of the three consecutive Cs. An easy fix would be to swap the words and make it #CateringGICC.
• Capitalization
  Finally, remember to capitalize each individual word. While capitalization will not affect user tagging on social, it will make sure your hashtag is read accurately and legibly to avoid misinterpretation.
• Hashtag hijacking
  Search Instagram and Twitter for your final hashtag selections. If some of your choices show multiple results, it may have already been used by another event. If so, don’t hijack it! Go back to your list and think about how you can include or change words to make it more unique. Ideally, your selection will have never been used before.

Promote your Hashtag Everywhere
Include your event hashtag in all pre-event marketing material. If you’re already promoting the event on your social channels, start including the hashtag with each post. During the event, incorporate the hashtag into everything from printed signage to cocktail napkins to verbal speaker introductions to projections in the main hall. Encourage your attendees to use and follow the event via the hashtag by making it visible to all

Need more help picking an event hashtag or curious about how to make social media a bigger part of your event experience? Tweet us at @TheGICC.