Hashtag marketing is hitting the mainstream.
If you listen to ZM on the radio, then you’ll know they’re giving away $1000 to someone who uses the hashtag ‘#zmsummer’ on Instagram or Twitter.
When I first heard about the competition, I jumped onto Twitter and Instagram to see what all the fuss was about – and what I discovered surprised me (I’ll share it with you in a moment).
But first, what’s a hashtag?
A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a hash symbol (#), used on social media sites to identify messages on a specific topic.
For example, a cricket tournament between NZ and the West Indies has the hashtag #nzvwi
If you were interested in this tournament, you could go online and see what people are saying about the event in real time (all you’d need to do is search for “#nzvwi” on Twitter or Instagram).
Instagram vs Twitter
Now for the interesting part, in terms of ZM’s promotion, the use of the #zmsummer hashtag on Instagram has completely dominated compared to it’s use on Twitter (even though Twitter has more NZ users than Instagram).
Number of people who have used the #zmsummer hashtag
- Twitter 137 tweets
- Instagram 5003 posts
*This data collected on Wednesday 8th January 2014. For more info about the competition, see http://www.zmonline.com/zmsummer/
What does all this mean?
According to the station, the typical ZM listener is
- 18-39 years old
- Brand conscious
- Socially active, living life to the fullest
- Young professionals, singles & young families
Demographics sourced from: http://www.radionetwork.co.nz/brands/zm/
So what?
If you’re running a social media photo sharing competition, be sure to instagram as an option.
And if you have customers in the demographic above, get onto instagram and connect with them!
