The Costco Connection

#Hashtags offer an online vehicle for small firms to broaden their exposure and engage with customers.

By Harvey Meyer

IF YOU’VE EVER seen the number symbol (#) in front of a word in a Facebook or Twitter post, you’ve seen a hashtag. And business owner Shreyans Parekh is hooked on them. In fact, he says that hashtags have supercharged his company’s promotions.

His 45-employee firm, Koyal Wholesale, is a Los Angeles–based wedding and event supplier that gains revenue jumps from sponsoring a popular wedding-planning TV show, David Tutera: Unveiled, hosted by celebrity wedding planner David Tutera. Koyal’s show-related hashtags on Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere act like gasoline, further igniting sales, exposure and customer engagement.

“Immediately after the airing of the show, we saw spikes in our Twitter engagement of 15 to 20 percent. For our Facebook audience, engagement was up 10 to 15 percent,” says Parekh, Koyal’s co-founder and director of marketing and business development.

Although hashtags were not featured on
the show itself, Koyal’s name was mentioned
several times in conversation on the show and
Koyal’s logo was displayed several times. That
prompted a number of viewers to search for
Koyal’s website. Once on the website, people
were directed to Koyal’s pages on social net-
works such as Twitter and Facebook, where
Koyal’s hashtags were promoted. And that,
according to Parekh, is what led to an increased
buzz about the company on social media.

“I don’t think that many small businesses understand hashtags’ vast potential,” he says.

Hashtag 101

So how does this popular little number symbol work, exactly?

To find established hashtags, such as Parekh’s business, a curious customer would enter #koyalwholesale in the search function of the social media site (note that hashtags don’t include spaces). Search results would yield all Facebook or Twitter posts that include #koyal wholesale. Alternatively, if you see that someone has used a hashtag in a post, you can click on it to yield the same results.

If you want to use a hashtag, simply type
it in your own post. For example, “I love shop-
ping at #koyalwholesale.”
If you want to establish your own unique
hashtag, it’s a good idea to search for it first to
make sure no one else has used it. Once
you’ve determined it’s not already in use, sim-
ply type the new hashtag in your post.

Hashtag advantages

Hashtags offer another online vehicle for small firms to broaden their exposure and engage with customers. Some businesses deploy hashtags to mention promotions, such as #johnshardwaresale; make industry observations; provide links offering helpful tips to targeted audiences; and communicate with customers in other ways. Because hashtags can be linked to a firm’s Facebook or Twitter page—where its products, services, promotions, etc., may be exhibited—they could lead to revenues. Best of all, hashtags are free.

“Utilizing hashtags and social media can help small businesses cost-effectively build a following locally, regionally and nationally,” says Barry Sloane, a Costco member and co-founder of New York City–based Newtek Business Services, which supplies a variety of services and financial products for small and mid-size companies. Hashtags help as a “great equalizer,” enabling small firms to compete against larger firms, he says.

In 2007, hashtags emerged as a staple on Twitter, which began to hyperlink tweeted hashtags to Twitter search results for the hashtagged word or phrase. Later, Twitter launched “Trending Topics” on its front page, which displays hashtags rapidly gaining popularity. Earlier this year, Facebook enabled hashtagging on public-setting posts, further broadening its appeal.

Hungry to learn more about hashtags? Here are some do’s and don’ts involving the social media vehicle.

;Do’s
Study and experiment. Find hashtag-
gers in your industry who are tweeting and
posting, including competitors. Which
hashtags generate discussion or offer business
insights? Check Twitter’s and Facebook’s
trending topics to discover what issues, espe-
cially those associated with your industry,
capture attention.