Breaking Down Hashtag Use in the SEC... and What That Means for Us on Twitter

#Hashtagging.

Twitter single-handedly changed the meaning of the character "#", and many of us are scrambling trying to figure out how to make sense of it. From a mechanics standpoint, hashtags are pretty simple. If you click into any of them, they immediately give you a list of every person, brand, team, or coach who used that phrase. So you can use hashtags to associate or rally behind a topic.

I went on a hunt for greater meaning in the world of hashtags. To do this, I chose the SEC -- probably for no better reason than they are the darling of college football now - with the top 2 teams headed for a monster clash soon. So they have a peak amount of fan energy in their hands. I went through Twitter accounts for every program and took a look at how they are using (or aren't using) hashtags.

From this work, I can put usage into three categories which I'll share examples of and then I'll apply this for us all with things to ponder, as always!

First, there's the use of Hashtags as Subjects. Simply put this use was likely the first use of hashtagging in Twitter. It's the most frequent hashtag use I saw. Simply put, it is a way of associating your post with a topic, as you'll see in the series of screengrabs below...

Second, we see Hashtags as Emotion. These again are ways of associating your posts with a topic, but they are a step further. They now associate you with a topic but do it with flare, with attitude, with swag.

Finally, I saw a mix -- schools using a combination of hashtags to hit at both Mix Subject and Emotion. Bringing the power of two hashtags together really made an impact, as you'll see in these examples:

But I think we can do even better.

Put the keyboard down and step away from the hashtags for a second. We as teams, brands, or people can get others to rally on a topic -- so why not aim for emotion and call to action?

That's tough. But if you can hit that one home -- get your fans to use emotion and attach themselves to a call to action than you are truly feeling Twitter. MLB took a stab at this through their All Star Campaigns this year, where they encouraged fans to #VoteVotto (for Joey Votto) or #VoteJacoby (for Jacoby Ellsbury) -- link to that read is here. Meanwhile Audi launched a TV ad last February under the topic "#ProgressIs" (read it here).

What ideas does that spell? Things like #PackTheHouse, #@WhiteOut, or #TrektotheTitle make sense to me. But the key is to find something your fan base can rally behind and then give them the inspiration inside Twitter to do just that!

Come back on Wednesday as I break down more Digital Best Practices. You can also follow along on Twitter (I'm @andypawlowski, here) and on Facebook, here.

Andy