One of my many ‘bug bears’ is when a Minister decides to promote or launch an event and does absolutely no hashtag research, but simply picks a word or acronyms for their event and runs with it. The lack of research becomes evident when you proceed to click the hashtag (if you’re inquisitive) in order to find out more about the event, only to be greeted by obscenity, comments or pictures from other non-related users. 😳
This is quite embarrassing and may even turn people off because an ‘excellent Minister’ should research all resources, including hashtags before going public. If your ministry is all about Jesus, then it’s not just your name that is subject to disrepute and dishonour. In this day and age, hashtag research shows that you are ahead of your game and you know what’s up! 😊
Now many don’t really understand how hashtags work, especially if their social media activity is restricted to Facebook. Many people remain oblivious to the fact that hashtags are compatible and used in the majority of social media platforms and are a good way to:
#️⃣ Connect with your audience;
#️⃣ Find like-minded people with shared interests;
#️⃣ Promote and link to your specific keyword for your event;
#️⃣ Search for related content;
#️⃣ Find out what others are saying about your keyword/topic;
#️⃣ Find out what others are saying about your event; or
#️⃣ Simply have fun!
The great thing about hashtags is that they are free, free to acquire and free use. That’s right, you don’t need anyone’s permission. They are clickable and searchable which is good for research, and have no owners meaning anyone can use it. But having no owner can also be considered a negative because that means if you go for a very popular hashtag, then it’s likely lots of other people are using it as well for goodness knows what and your brand might be compromised and not well represented when people try to find you or your content via that hashtag.
Take my bug bear example for a start. An astute minister should first write down a list of potential hashtags that they are interested in and then search through the different social media networks to see:
👉🏽 If it is already in use;
👉🏽 If it’s in use, who is using it and what for;
👉🏽 If there is a general theme to its pre-existing use;
👉🏽 Whether one can leverage/ “piggyback” on the successful use of the hashtag by other related ministers (also a great way to connect with others in ministry); or
👉🏽 Whether it’s worth looking for something new and unique for your program.
In any event, always go for a hashtag that is easy to remember. Hashtags are a great way to engage and find new people. As an organisation and ministry you should always do research before identifying with a particular hashtag, and whilst you can go for a unique hashtag not yet in use there are advantages to using pre-existing ones.
You can look for a hashtag that’s unique to you (which will help you with very detailed analysis and help cut out the fluff), or you can identify with a semi popular hashtag to get new followers and new attention.
Hashtags are a good way to follow what’s trending (twitter especially) and can (well to some extent should) influence your posts such that you target a newer (& current) audience with your hashtags or even jump in on an ongoing conversation and be a blessing there.
Here are some common hashtags themes for different days of the week that you can use to curate your content to remain relevant and reach people.
#MondayMusings or #MotivationalMondays
#TuesdayTips
#WednesdayWisdom
#ThursdayThougths
#FlashbackFriday
…and so on.
Actually these ones might be a bit less common but makes headway in the spiritual and inspirational category.
Other Christian hashtags include:
#Bible #Word #Truth #Scripture #ScriptureOfTheDay #Jesus #God # HolySpirit #Revival #Blessing
Some other ones you may have come across used not limited to Christianity are:
#Selfie #PhotoOfTheDay #Quote #QuoteOfTheDay #IAmReading #Blogging
What hashtags do you use and why? Please comment below.
