Hashtag Analytics Complete Guide

In this guide you will find 3 of our most complete articles on how to get the
best out of hashtags.

1. Hashtag Analytics: 27 Actionable Strategies To Grow

Your Business
2. Using Hashtag Tracking to Optimize Social Listening
Strategies (+ Tools)
3. How Do I Measure Hashtag Performance?

Visit Keyhole.co to start a Free Trial

Hashtag Analytics: 27 Actionable
Strategies To Grow Your Business

In this guide, we’ll be exploring 27 actionable hashtag analytics strategies.

We’ll also document case studies to show how businesses flourish by implementing

these strategies.

By following the actionable strategies in this guide, you’ll learn how to make use of

proper hashtags, hashtag analytics, and hashtag tracking tools.

Before we get into the strategies, let’s refresh our memory on hashtags and the benefits

hashtags have on businesses.

So, let’s dive in.

Jump Links:

What is a Hashtag?

What Are the Benefits of Using a Hashtag?

27 Hashtag Strategies to Grow Your Business

Hashtag Research Tips

Branded Hashtag Tips

Tips for Using Non-Branded Hashtags

How to Use Hashtags to Identify Influencers

Measure the Success of Your Hashtags

Benefits of Tracking Hashtags

How Using Keyhole Will Grow Your Business

What is a Hashtag?
A hashtag is the use of a hash (#) symbol in front of a keyword in a social media post.

Hashtags make a post discoverable by other users who are browsing or searching for

that hashtag.

Basically, it’s an easy way to categorize your post or associate your post with a trend.

While hashtags originated on Twitter in 2007, they have slowly spread to every other

popular social network on the planet—so it’s important to understand all their possible

uses.

Related guide: ​Hashtags: A Beginner’s Guide and How to Use them Effectively
What Are the Benefits of Using
Hashtags?

When used effectively, hashtags can boost your business tremendously.

Hashtags are a rare win-win for businesses and their customers.

Hashtags make it easier for users to find content they like, ​and they make it easier for

businesses to get content in front of their customers.

So what’s in it for you?

There are 5 main benefits for businesses from using hashtags:

1. Increase Brand Awareness

By using hashtags strategically in your posts, you can expose your business’s content

to new audiences – even if you don’t have many followers.

Targeting a highly relevant hashtag to your brand can help you garner immediate

attention from a very specific demographic.

2. Increase Engagement

Hashtags make you part of the conversation.

By jumping in to conversations on popular hashtags, you can have real-time

conversations with your audience, solidifying a personality behind your brand, post by

post.
Or, to further solidify your brand to your followers, you can create a brand hashtag to

get people talking about ​you.​

3. Learn About Your Audience

Hashtags are a two-way street.

Not only do they help you speak to an audience, they also let you listen in on the

conversation.

By listening in on a popular hashtag, you can easily create audience personas for your

business.

Find a hashtag relevant to your business and ask yourself:

What demographics are using that hashtag? What are their interests on social media?

What type of content do they like?

4. Inform Your Content Strategy

Lacking creative inspiration for your content?

By checking out trending hashtags or hashtags niche to your business, you can learn

what content people actually want to consume.

You can take those learnings and apply them to your overall content strategy, both

online and offline.

5. Generate New Leads

Ultimately, more brand awareness and higher quality content is going to lead to more

website visits or foot traffic to your business.

By using a ​hashtag analytics tool like Keyhole, you can monitor the success of your

brand on social media in real time—ultimately learning what appeals to your customers.

Now we know what hashtags are and the benefits it has on businesses. So, let’s jump in

to the strategies.

27 Hashtag Strategies to Grow Your

Business
Here’s how to carry out a full front-to-back hashtag analytics strategy to bring more

leads to your business.

Hashtag Research Tips

The first step to an effective hashtag strategy is to conduct thorough research in

advance.
The objective here is to identify existing hashtags that present the biggest opportunity

for your business long-term.

Of course, trends can change quickly, but you’ll see the most success with a long-term,

adaptable strategy.

1. Choose a Hashtag Analytics Tool

To get started, you’ll need to choose a hashtag analytics tool.

To help you choose, we’ve written a guide to the ​top 15 hashtag analytics tools​.

The two main factors to consider when choosing a hashtag tracking tool are the feature

set and—of course—the price.

For this post, we’ll be featuring our own tool, the ​Keyhole Advanced Analytics Suite​,

but this strategy can be carried out using any robust tracking service.

2. Set Up a Hashtag Tracker

If you’re running a social media account, you likely already have a few popular hashtags

in mind that you’d like to track.

Using your hashtag tracking tool, set up a real-time tracker for 2-3 keywords you’re

interested in exploring.

Use these starting hashtags as the base for your research.

3. Uncover Trending and Related Topics

Using your hashtag tracker, explore related hashtags and keywords related to your

base keywords.
Make a list of the hashtags or keywords that are most relevant to your business.

At this stage, don’t be too selective. This is similar to a brainstorming session. The

objective is to find out which keywords or hashtags present the biggest opportunity for

your brand.

4. Find Your Niche

You can’t just post any hashtag and expect results.

If you post on a top trending topic, you may be drowned out within minutes. If you post

on a hashtag nobody uses, your posts will fall on deaf ears.

Find your niche. Your goal is to strike a balance between popularity and potential

impact.

Using your list of keywords from step 3, identify keywords that tend to have higher

engagement and reach, but fewer posters.

Using this strategy, choose a handful of keywords that you will use consistently to bring

the most reach and engagement for your brand.

5. Identify Top Posts & Content

With your chosen hashtag and topics, use your tracking tool and browse each social

platform to identify the posts that get the most engagement.

Note any trends about what makes a good post.

Are they using humor? Are they more inspirational? Are they informational?

Also note the type of media that’s most popular.

If they’re using images, what kind? Are they graphics, animations, or photos?

If they’re ​using video​, what makes the video successful? Are they shorter or longer?

Do they make use of captions? Is the video studio-quality or more casual?

And here’s a key piece of advice:

Don’t fight a battle you can’t win.

If the only popular content on a certain hashtag is outside your company’s skillset or

budget, look for a hashtag whose content is more similar to what you have the capacity

to produce.

But don’t let this scare you away—many top posts are nothing more than cleverly

written text.

6. Use Historical Data

Don’t forget to look both at recent timeframes and historical data.

Yes, you want to be on-trend with your content, but you shouldn’t ignore what has

worked for other brands in the past.

7. Know Your Social Media Platform

There are subtle differences between how hashtags are used on each popular platform.

And not only are there differences platform to platform, different industries use each

platform differently.

On Twitter, where text is more limited, using 1-3 hashtags results in the highest

engagement.

On Instagram and Pinterest, you should use 10-20 hashtags to maximize your reach.
Facebook hashtags aren’t as effective, sure they make it clickable but it isn’t as effective

as instagram and twitter.

LinkedIn has recently introduced the capability for users to follow hashtags, making

hashtag use an even better way to boost your LinkedIn content.

Be sure to research how your industry makes best use of each platform.

8. Track Your Top Hashtags

Once you’ve identified which hashtags matter most to your business, set up trackers in

your tracking tools for your chosen hashtags.

Be sure to set up trackers for your branded hashtags too. Don’t have a branded hashtag

yet? Don’t worry, that’s next on our list!

Watch: ​How to Use Hashtag & Keyword Tracking on Keyhole (YouTube)

Branded Hashtag Tips

Having a strong branded hashtag that catches on is an incredible way to boost your

engagement.

Here are a few tips for making the most of your brand.
9. Create a Brand Hashtag

To properly brand your business’s posts, you’ll need a branded hashtag.

Here are a few tips for creating a branded hashtag:

Keep it short – ​Make it easy for your consumers to type.

Example: Visit New Orleans’s hashtag, ​#OneTimeInNOLA​, uses the city’s abbreviation

rather than the full name.

Make it memorable​ – The catchier the hashtag, the easier it is to remember.

Example: Nike’s hashtag ​#JustDoIt​ uses its already-famous company slogan.

Make it easy to spell​ – Avoid long words or alternate spellings.

Example: Even though Lululemon’s branded hashtag, ​#TheSweatLife​, is a play on “the

sweet life,” it’s still short, memorable, and easy to spell.

Don’t be too literal ​– Branded hashtags are more effective when they’re not your exact

brand name.

Example: Goodyear’s hashtag ​#MoreDriven​. While it’s related to tires and driving, the

hashtag is meant to be used by basketball teams sponsored by Goodyear.

Make it actionable – Make it obvious to your consumers what they’re meant to do with

your hashtag. And make it something that people will actually want to use.

Example: Target’s hashtag ​#TargetRun encourages consumers to post every time they

visit Target.

Research it first – Use a hashtag analytics tool or browse the hashtag on every

platform to make sure you aren’t competing with another brand, or accidentally misusing

a preexisting hashtag.

Once you’ve chosen your branded hashtag, be sure to use it consistently on every post,

and use it in each of your social profile bios.

10. Create a Hashtag for Every Event and Campaign

While it’s key to use your main brand hashtag consistently (as long as it’s successful),

you should also use a separate hashtag for each of your separate campaigns and

events.

Using a separate hashtag for each campaign has two main benefits: it makes it easier

for your audience to follow along or participate, and it also makes it easier for you to

track the success of each campaign.

 Further reading: ​5 Best Christmas Hashtag Campaigns​ with tips on how to run an

event hashtag campaign

11. Promote Your Hashtag

Once you’ve established your campaign’s hashtag, promote it! Offer contests and

giveaways that encourage your consumers to use the hashtag.

For example, for Halloween, Oreo started #OreoHorrorStory by parodying scenes from

horror movies such as The Shining, The Exorcist, and Frankenstein.

12. Track Each of Your Hashtags

For each of your branded hashtags, make sure you add them to your hashtag analytics

tracker.
 Watch: ​How to Set up Advanced Hashtag & Keyword Tracking with Keyhole

(YouTube)

Tips for Using Non-Branded Hashtags

Just because you have your own branded hashtags doesn’t mean you should ignore

other hashtags. Here’s how to take advantage of popular trends.

13. Post About Real-Time Trending Topics and Hashtags

If you see a trend taking off that relates to your business, engage with it by using the

hashtag.

Using trending hashtags gives you the potential to reach a massive audience that may

not be familiar with your brand yet.

14. Post on Lifestyle and Niche Hashtags

By using hashtags that are commonly associated with a certain lifestyle, you can

immediately have your brand associated with a particular feeling, emotion, or vibe.

Explore lifestyle hashtags that are popular with your demographic to find the right

hashtags for your business.

For example, using #MondayMotivation would be a great way to associate your brand

with the self-improvement trend.

15. Post Only on Relevant Hashtags

But be careful:

Just because a hashtag is popular doesn’t mean you should use it.

Posting irrelevant content on a popular trend is an easy way to label your brand as

inauthentic or trying too hard.

And most importantly: never spam trending hashtags.

Posting a large number of posts on trending hashtags in a short period of time is a

recipe for getting your accounts banned.

16. Consider Every Angle Before Using a Hashtag

Even if you have a relevant post for a trending or lifestyle hashtag, consider every

angle.
Are there any risks associated with posting on that hashtag? Does the hashtag have a

double meaning you may not be aware of? Could the hashtag be considered offensive

to your audience?

Always think twice before diving in to a trend.

17. Use a Reasonable Number of Hashtags

As we mentioned above, tailor your hashtag use to the platform. Sometimes less is

more.

On Twitter, stick to a maximum of 3 hashtags.

On Facebook – 0 hashtags. It’s not as effective to use hashtags in Facebook even

though Facebook makes it clickable. Matter of fact, ​post without hashtags perform

better than with it​.

On Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, posts with more hashtags tend to get more

interactions.

18. Use Local or Regional Hashtags

Not every post you make has to apply to a global audience.

If you’re a local business, use your city’s local hashtags to build awareness locally.

Even if you’re not confined to a single market, using local hashtags in your target cities,

states/provinces, or countries can be a great opportunity for additional engagement.

19. Post Great Content

Above all else: post great content.

It doesn’t matter how sophisticated your hashtag strategy is if what you’re posting isn’t

interesting, funny, informative, or inspiring.

Make only content that your consumers will love.

20. Interact and Engage

Social media isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it, one-way communication channel.

If people are using your branded hashtags, reply to the posts. By replying, you’re

validating your audience’s choice to use your hashtag.

That goes for both positive and negative posts. It’s certainly more fun to respond to

positive sentiments, but it’s also important to earnestly respond to complaints with

genuine concern.

And don’t be afraid to jump into conversations on unbranded hashtags too. Participating

in real conversation is a great way to show off your brand’s personality.

Bonus tip:​ This process can be made much easier with a social listening or hashtag

tracking tool.

With a social listening tool like ​Keyhole​, you can create real-time feeds of

conversations taking place on your favorite hashtags across multiple platforms, allowing

you to strike while the iron’s hot.

Related Guide: ​Using Popular Hashtags To Grow Your Business

How to Use Hashtags to Identify Influencers

Nothing resonates more with an audience than social proof.

Posts from ​key influencers act as a vote of confidence for your brand, and can spread

your reach to a highly targeted audience.

That’s why social media influencers have become a billion-dollar industry.

Here’s how to use ​hashtag analytics tools​ to capitalize on the trend.

21. Use a Hashtag Analytics Tool to Identify Influencers

Using a hashtag tracking tool like Keyhole, you can pull statistics on the biggest

influencers in your industry.

For any given hashtag, you can see which influencers are posting the most often or

have the most reach, engagements, or impressions.

Using Keyhole’s dedicated Influencers metrics, you can also filter ​potential influencers

based on their location or keywords used in their bios.

22. Manage and Track Influencers

Once you’ve reached out to the influencers that present the biggest opportunity for your

brand, you can manage your inventory of influencers using ​Keyhole’s Influencer

Management Tools​.

Keyhole’s tools let you see all of your influencers on one dashboard, allowing you to

measure their individual impact and who is providing the most ROI to your business.

23. Identify Websites and Online Publications

Monitoring hashtags also allows you to identify websites or publications that are most

often posting about your target subject.

Using Keyhole, look for relevant content to your brand and look for journalists or authors

who may be willing to write about your product.

This is a great way to generate backlinks to your website, boosting your SEO and

search engine success.

Measure the Success of Your Hashtags

Once you’ve had your campaigns up and running, it’s time to measure your success

and brand influence.

24. Track Your Reach on a Regular Basis

Keep tabs on your typical engagement rate, reach, and impressions.

We recommend adding a time-slot to your personal calendar to check in on your metrics

either daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on how active you are on social media.

25. Optimize Your Posting

The success of your posts will depend on when you post them. ​Keyhole’s social

media account analytics tools​ allow you to track the optimal times and days to post.

Over a long enough timeframe, you’ll start to see which times generate the most

engagements with your posts.

26. Note What Type of Content Works Best

Keyhole will show you your top posts by likes, retweets, or other engagement metrics.

Go through your posts and identify what made them special.

Keep an ongoing list of factors that influence the success of a post and consult them

every time you’re planning your social calendar.

27. Keep Learning About Your Audience

You may ​think​ you know your audience, but how well do you ​really​ know them?

By tracking your hashtags and social accounts on Keyhole, you can monitor several

different audience dimensions.

You can break your audience down by gender to get a sense of who’s engaging with

your posts.

You can also break your audience down by geographical location.

If you’re not hitting your target area, consider posting more location-specific content to

those regions to try to break in to the market.

Finally, you can also track the overall sentiment of posts related to your tracked brand

or hashtag.
Benefits of Tracking Hashtags
By now, you should understand how important it is to integrate hashtags into your social

media strategy.

So what are the main benefits to tracking hashtag analytics?

1. Measure brand awareness by tracking impressions and engagement on

your brand hashtag.
2. Measure the direct success of events or marketing campaign hashtags.
3. Manage your brand or industry’s reputation by tracking the positive and
negative mentions containing your target hashtags.
4. Track trending topics in your industry.
5. Monitor your brands​ and your competitors in your industry.
6. Find influencers and potential brand ambassadors relevant to your
business.

How Using Keyhole Will Grow Your

Business
Let’s look at a few real-world examples of hashtag success in action.

How theChive used Keyhole to track their Branded Hashtags

theChive​, a Men’s Lifestyle digital platform, has 20 million people engaging with their

brand every month, either on their website or on social media.

Tracking that at a large scale is a monumental task.

For one of their sponsored events, a national beer pong tournament, they needed to

track 50 individual hashtags for each state.

“We were tracking 50 different hashtags & figuring out who’s in the lead

at each state in real-time. We would update it throughout the week to

know who’s most likely to win. Without Keyhole, tracking this many

hashtags would’ve been impossible, so that’s where our partnership

started.” –

Jill Broek, Director of Brand Strategy.

See ​our full story about theCHIVE​ for more details.

How PROJECT 375 Uses Keyhole to Track the Conversation Around

Mental Health

PROJECT 375, a non-profit organization focused on reducing the stigma around mental

health, uses Keyhole for ​social listening​.

They use Keyhole to track trending news stories, celebrity posts, and new studies

focused on promoting a positive dialogue around mental health.

Using Keyhole, they’re also able to track their own success.

“Keyhole is my go-to for all things analytics. Knowing our audience, their

likes and dislikes, the kinds of content they prefer and the times they are

looking at us is mission critical. I am constantly looking at the data to see

what patterns emerge and the different ways we can tweak our

strategies to best serve our supporters. Social media is ever-changing

and Keyhole gives us the ability to change in lockstep with the latest

trends and audience preferences,”

– Erica Jellerson, Communications & Events Manager, PROJECT 375.

For the full story on PROJECT 375, ​check out this full case study​.

Related Case Studies:

● How Arizona State University Uses Keyhole to Help PBS Journalists

and Students Become Authorities in Trending Topics
 ● How HerCampus uses Keyhole Reports to Show Sponsors the Real
Reach of their Events

So Are You Tracking Your Hashtags?

Once you have a front-to-back hashtag strategy in place, you’ll see far more success

out of your social media campaigns.

By using a hashtag analytics tool to track your brand awareness, key influencers, and

trending topics, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge to create perfectly optimized

campaigns—uncovering a new audience and increasing your lead generation.

Ready to get your #hashtagstrategy started?

 Using Hashtag Tracking to
Optimize Social Listening Strategy
[+ Tools!]

When many marketers and community managers think of ​social listening​, manually 

scouring through sets of posts, tweets and messages comes to mind. 

But  being  left  with  a  small  relevant  dataset  is  common,  even  though  the  process 

involves  keyword  research  to  target  what your audience is saying about your brand 

and competitors. 
Adding  hashtags  to  your  ​social  media  listening  strategy  can  help  ease  the 

problem. 

By  tracking  certain  tagged  topics,  you’ll  collect  more  applicable  information  about 

what  your  audiences  say and think about you. Your understanding of how to market 

your brand will improve as a result. 

Jump Links: 

What is Social Listening with Hashtags? 

5 Types of Hashtags to Monitor: 

1. Brand Hashtags 
2. Your Competitors’ Brand Hashtags 

3. Chat Hashtags 

4. Event Hashtags 

5. Campaign Hashtags 

5 Social Listening Tools 

What Is Social Listening with Hashtags?

Also  called  social  media  monitoring,  the  goal  of  social  listening  is  to  gain  an 

understanding  of  how  people  perceive  your  brand  based  on  what  they  say  about it 

online. 
Standard  social  listening  involves  tracking  what  consumers  say  on  virtually  any 

digital  space,  ​using  hashtags  enhances  the  library  of  data  collected  on  social 

media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. 

It’s a type of data mining. 

It  revolves  around  identifying  posts  that  use  tagged  topics,  along  with  analyzing 

those posts to quantify m

​ etrics such as influence and engagement​. 

Hashtag tracking​ plays a key role in social listening because: 

● It’s easier to identify hashtags than keywords, since they’re already 

somewhat popular 
● Members of your target audiences use industry-related hashtags 
● You can track the activity levels of hashtag trends and conversations, 
helping you determine how large a crisis is or how popular a positive 
message is 
● By adding sentiment-based keywords to your trackers, you can 
measure the general feeling about a given tagged topic 

5 Types of Hashtags to Monitor

The  scope  of  your  social  listening  strategy  won’t  be  wide  enough  if  you  only  track 

one kind of hashtag. 

As  you  plan  and  implement  the  strategy,  consider  monitoring  these  five 

different types of hashtags​: 

1. Brand Hashtags

Track  these  hashtags  along  with  positive  (fun,  great)  and  negative  (bad,  won’t) 

keywords to measure sentiment. 

As you identify users with clear opinions one way or the other, reach out​. 

This  could  involve  asking  what  they  specifically  like  or  dislike,  building  genuine 

conversations to earn their appreciation. 

As  a  bonus,  these  conversations  could  result  in  developing  ideas  to  improve  your 

product or service. 

Not  only  should  you  include  your  brand  hashtag  when  sharing  original  content,  but 

encourage  your  fans  and  followers  to  use  it  too.  ​This  is  a  win-win  scenario, 

because: 

● You’ll have more social content to track and analyze 

● Users will have a clear way to share posts with the community 
interested in your brand, helping them gain a larger following 

Example: #
​ JustDoIt 
#justdoit  Boom-Boom  and  Good  Day  Seattle!  Workout  when 

possible…. ​pic.twitter.com/uS99VYAfNG 

— Maurice J. Cooper (@Mauricejcooper) D

​ ecember 9, 2019 

Under  Nike’s  famous  brand  hashtag,  people  share  posts  about  sports,  athletic 

apparel and motivation. 

Keeping  tabs  on  the  hashtag  gives  Nike  a  clear picture of what their target markets 

think about the brand’s identity. 

2. Your Competitors’ Brand Hashtags

What you can do for your brand, you can do for the competition. 

As  potential  customers use opposing hashtags, ​track them and use keyword filters 

to figure out what prospects do and don’t like about other brands​. 

When  you  identify  a  prospect,  you  may  feel  the  need  to  gently  reach  out  and 

explain  why  you  succeed  where  your  competitor  fails.  This  can  involve  giving  a 

demo or free trial, depending on your industry. 

On the flip side, look out for satisfied customers. 

If  your  company  doesn’t  offer  the  service  or  product  that  made  them  happy,  your 

team may have a new idea to consider. 

Example: #
​ BeMoreHuman 

Rolgui_Fit 

@RolandGuillot1 

Perfect training with this new CrossFit Speed TR @ReebokFR​ ​@Reebok​ ​#fitness 
#crossfit​ #
​ bemorehuman 
  

7 

7:03 AM - Feb 11, 2016 

Twitter Ads info and privacy 

See Rolgui_Fit's other Tweets 

By  monitoring  the  Reebok  hashtag,  Nike  digital  strategists  can  figure  out  which 

posts: 

● Earn the most engagement 

● Express a clear opinion about the Reebok brand 
● Reveal prospects to follow up with 
From  there,  Nike’s  social  team  can  take  the  approach  it  wants  to  when  it  comes  to 

interacting with users or studying successful content. 

3. Chat Hashtags

A  quick  search  using  key  terms  should  reveal  ​chat  hashtags  relevant  to  your 

industry and audience. 

Popular  on  Twitter,  you  can  monitor  a  chat  to  learn  more  about  users  who  are 

interested in the subject matter. 

Tracking  relevant  chat  hashtags  as  part  of  your  social  listening  strategy allows 

you to: 

● Make content ideas based on people’s opinions, pain-points and 

comments 
● Track if your company or competition is referenced during the 
conversation 
● Connect with new prospects, as many people who may be interested in 
your company might not know about it 

Example: #
​ SoloPR 

 
Abel Udoekene 

@abelekene 

A3: There are right,as my friend​ ​@bisilabokoko​ would say the market is no longer in US 
or France, the market is​ #
​ SocialMedia​ ​#Smchat​ ​#Solopr 

3 

2:23 PM - Feb 10, 2016 

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44 people are talking about this 

Your  brand  stands  to  benefit  as  a  member  of  either  category​.  As  a  public 

relations team, you can make new contacts. 

As someone who targets these professionals, you can stay on top of industry trends. 

4. Event Hashtags

As  more  marketing  and  public  relations  teams  ​use  social media to amplify events​, 

tracking event hashtags should secure a spot in your social listening plans. 

Monitoring  activity  before,  during  and  after  the  big  day  can  provide  insights 

about: 
 ● Any concerns attendees have 
● Which parts of the event were most appreciated 
● When activity around your hashtag rises, and if any spikes correlate 
with certain parts of the event 

Example: #
​ GRAMMYs 

MTV 

✔ 

@MTV 

.​@ArianaGrande​'s second outfit of the night at the​ ​#GRAMMYs​ takes the cake: 

http:// 

on.mtv.com/1Q1mKun 

  
  

699 

12:00 PM - Feb 17, 2016 

Twitter Ads info and privacy 

182 people are talking about this 

It’s  not  your  average  event  in  terms  of  scope,  but  social  media  marketers  in  the 

music  and  entertainment  industries  stand  to  benefit  from  tracking  #GRAMMYs  on 

Twitter. 
Staying  on  top  of  your  data  feed  and  tweeting  appropriately  can  boost  audience 

and  engagement  numbers  as  moments  go  viral,  users  disapprove  of  a  speech  or  if 

there’s backlash against a winner. 

5. Campaign Hashtags

Not  everyone  will  directly  mention  your  brand  when  using  your  campaign  hashtag, 

meaning  there’s  a  clear  need  to  track  the  tag’s  performance  as  part  of  your  social 

media monitoring strategy. 

The same goes for online campaigns from rival brands. 

Similar  to  brand  hashtags,  ​you  should  track  campaign  hashtags with and without 

sentiment-based keyword filters​. 

Doing so gives segmented looks at how consumers view the campaign. 

It’s  easier  to  sort  through  relevant  and  irrelevant  data  –  as  well  as  pinpoint  issues 

and action items – as a result. 

Example: #
​ ShareACoke 

 
Barrett Baber 

✔ 

@BarrettBaber 

Gone but not forgotten​ ​#shareacoke​ ​#brentbumpkins 

 
62 

8:51 PM - Feb 12, 2016 

Twitter Ads info and privacy 

See Barrett Baber's other Tweets 

Coca-Cola’s  famous  campaign  never  seems  to  end,  as  customers  keep  sharing 

photos of namesake cans and bottles. 

By monitoring this campaign hashtag as a competitor, you can: 

● Develop ideas for future campaigns 

● Learn how to alter your products or make new ones 
● Determine which types of digital content you should be making and 
encouraging your audience to create 

Tracking  this  hashtag  as  part  of  Coca-Cola’s  social  listening  strategy  helps  its 

marketers: 

● Repurpose the most popular content 

● Reach out to well-known personalities using the hashtag 
● Study what charged the campaign’s success 

5 Social Listening Tools

If  your  digital  team  doesn’t  already  use  one,  your  step  after  identifying  hashtags  is 

finding a tool that collects accurate data. 

There’s  a  library  of  social  media  analytics  services  to  choose  from,  each  with 

features  and  price  points  to  suite  different  teams.  We  looked  into  25  platforms  ​in 

this blog post​. 

But since not all of them apply to social listening, here are 5 tools that do: 

1. Keyhole

But  tracking  hashtags  and  keywords,  collecting  metrics  to  improve  your  social 

listening approach, is a reason why users love us. 

You  can  compile  Twitter  and Instagram content in real-time, displaying data such as 

reach, impressions and activity numbers on a shareable dashboard. 

Plus, you can rank influential posters and track demographic metrics such as gender 

and location. 

If  you  happen  to  miss  monitoring  an  event  or  campaign,  we’ll  get  ​historical  social 

media data​ for you. 

2. Social Mention

Think  of  this  tool  as  a  social  search  engine.  Entering  a  hashtag  will  generate  pages 

of user-generated content from more than 100 platforms. 

Social  Mention  tracks  traditional  metrics  such  as  reach  and  sentiment,  making  it 

useful for listening to discussions around brand and campaign hashtags. 

But  it  also  displays  unique  metrics  such  as  p

​ assion  –  the  likelihood  that  users  will 

post more than once about your brand. 

3. Hootsuite

A  popular  platform  management  tool,  you  can  also  use  ​Hootsuite  for  social 

listening​. 
After you identify keyphrases, create a stream for each one. 

You’ll  get  a  grid  of  social  content,  showing  basic  engagement  data​.  Hootsuite 

also lets you flag posts and assign team members to address them. 

What’s more, you can restrict the stream results based on data such as location. 

4. Twubs

Twubs​ is a hashtag directory, fit for b

​ asic social listening on Twitter​. 

Typing  a  hashtag  into  the  home  page’s  search  bar  will  generate  a  live  stream  of 

tweets,  also  giving  you  an  option to access limited historical data. Within Twubs, you 

can reply to tweets and post new messages with the given hashtag. 

5. Twitter Advanced Search

Don’t overlook Twitter itself for basic social listening. 

You  can  use  the  ​advanced  search  function  to  refine  your  queries​,  identifying 

posts that use any given hashtag. 

The  range  of  filters  for  dates,  sentiments,  locations  and  keywords  helps you zone in 

on  specific  audiences.  And  since  you’re  operating  on  the  platform  itself,  it’s  easy  to 

engage with people. 

Segmenting Your Audiences

Dividing  the  audiences  you  identify  through  social  listening  into  sub-categories  can 

help you d
​ evelop content to better meet their diverse needs and interests​. 

In  this  case,  social  market  segmentation  starts  with  sampling  messages  that  use  a 

monitored hashtag. 

Depending  on  the  popularity  of  the  tag,  this  could  involve  looking  at  10%  to 100% of 

the posts. 

By  examining  profiles  and  other  messages, divide the posters into groups based 

on data such as: 

● Age 
● Industry/Expertise 
● Influencer Status 
● Geographic Location 

Look  for  themes  and  prevailing  opinions  within  each  group​.  For  example,  you 

may notice a segment of your audience expresses a common concern. Another may 

frequently post about a topic related to your brand. 

Regardless,  developing  these  ​consumer  personas  is  an  exercise  in  better 

understanding your markets and knowing how to communicate with them. 

That’s the g
​ oal of social media monitoring​, after all. 
Comments to Reflect On
Optimizing  your  social  listening  approach  with  hashtags  and  select  keyword  filters 

can  generate  a  library  of  relevant  data,  providing  more  information  about  your 

online market. 

And  by  monitoring  different  types  of  hashtags,  you  may  even  unlock  an  audience 

you didn’t know you had. 

That, in itself, could take your marketing strategy in a new direction. 

 How Do I Measure Hashtag
Performance?
Hashtags  are  a  powerful  tool  in  your  marketing  toolbox,  but  only  if  you  use  them 

strategically. 

To ​measure hashtag performance​, you’ll need a h

​ ashtag analytics tool​. 

Using  a  hashtag  tool, you’ll be able to track how your campaign performed, but also 

uncover key findings about your audience and your competitors. 

Jump Links: 

Why Should I Measure Hashtag Performance? 

Which Hashtag Metrics Should I Track? 

How to Measure Your Hashtag Performance 

Why Should I Measure Hashtag Performance?

You  should  always  aim  to  prove  the  effectiveness  of  your  marketing  campaigns. 

Here are a few great reasons to measure hashtag performance: 

● Measure Reach & Engagement 

○ Learn how many people saw your hashtag 
● Identify Your Audience 
○ Track the demographics of the people who use your hashtag 
● Segment Your Audience 
○ A/B test your hashtags to find your desired audience 
● Identify Influencers 
○ Find influencers that give you the b
​ est ROI 
● Competitor Research 
○ Benchmark yourself against competitors 
● Sentiment Analysis 
○ Track how people feel about your brand 

Which Hashtag Metrics Should I Track?

What  success  looks  like  to your brand will depend on your business and social goals 

and the metrics you used to track those goals. 

Here are some hashtag metrics you can track: 

● Posts​ – How many people posted with your hashtag? 

 ● Users​ – How many unique users posted using your hashtag? 
● Engagement​ – How many likes, shares, and clicks did your hashtag 
receive? 
● Reach​ – How people’s feeds did your hashtag show up on? 
● Impressions –​ How many times did your hashtag get viewed (including 
repeat users)? 

Keyhole​ is a real-time conversation tracker that provides keyword + hashtag 

analytics and social media analytics across platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and 

Instagram. Get started for free ​here. 

How to Measure Your Hashtag Performance

Tracking  your  hashtag’s  performance  is  easier  than  you may think. Here are X easy 

steps: 

1.  Get  a  Hashtag  Tracking  Tool  –  Start  off  by  getting  yourself a ​hashtag analytics 

tool like Keyhole 

2. Input Your Hashtag ​– This can be your hashtag or a competitor’s hashtag 

3.  Select  Your  Platforms  ​–  You  can  measure  your  hashtag  across  any  popular 

social platform 
4.  Wait!  ​–  Give  your  hashtag  some  time  so  you  don’t  make  conclusions  on  a  small 

time sample 

5.  Analyze  Key  Metrics  ​–  Using  the  metrics  above,  analyze  your  hashtag’s 

performance 

6.  Gain  Insights  ​– Keyhole will show you your hashtag’s top posts, related topics, top 

influencers, websites, and audience demographics 

7. Create Reports​ – Report on your hashtag’s success to your key stakeholders 

8. Do it all again! ​– Use what you’ve learned to launch your next hashtag campaign 

Start Tracking Your Hashtags Now

To start tracking your hashtag analytics, ​start a free Keyhole trial now​.