November 6 2012 is a day that will go down in history.  It was an event that not just Americans, but everyone worldwide was captivated by.  President Barack Obama was just re-elected president and was giving his victory speech. Everyone was mesmerized; not just by Obama but something beyond him….literally.  Standing in the crowd directly behind the president was a woman with an American Flag stuck into her hair.  Millions of people found the bobbing flag in her hairdo so distracting that, within minutes, Twitter was buzzing and thanks to the hashtag #Flaginhairlady she became a trending Twitter topic worldwide.\n\nAside from being a 15-minutes-of-fame jumpstarter, hashtags are an essential tool for social media marketing. For those who don’t know, a hashtag is the term for the pound symbol (#).  When you use a hashtag in front of a word or phrase you are allowing your post to be categorized with similar posts therefore making it easily searchable.  There are a few things to note about the use of hashtags. First of all when you are hashtagging you cannot use numbers symbols or spaces in your hashtag.  Secondly, hashtags are currently only recognized on Twitter, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest (However this hasn’t stopped people from including them in Facebook and other social network posts).\n\nHashtagging a post is great for visibility because it helps you get your message to a broader audience.  For example, let’s say you are launching a new line of clothing targeted towards busy moms and are tweeting about your grand opening.  You could post a tweet like this “#activemoms check out our new online shop for cool comfy clothing that fits your lifestyle.”  The hashtag is going to allow anyone who searches for conversations on active moms to find your post.\n\nAside from tapping into already trending topics or general words, you can also create your own unique hashtag.  This is great if you have an event or are in the middle of a marketing campaign .  This allows you to see how successful your efforts are and what people are saying about your brand versus a general topic.\n\nOverall hashtags are a wonderful way to gain visibility on social media.  They allow you to expand your network as well as track your efforts.  If you master the use of hashtags you will be sure to stand out from the crowd just like #Flaginhairlady.\n\n \n\n