SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Introduction

Social media has evolved greatly over the years, making big milestones and with both positive and negative impacts. Having begun as a simple microblogging platform, twitter has rapidly grown to one of the world’s most popular social media platforms today (Johnson). Twitter hashtags have been used by many businesses to improve sales in recent times, the fashion industry being one of the businesses yielding well from it. 

Literature Review

A hashtag is a keyword phrase written with a pound sound in front of it and not spaced. As Magdalena puts it, “a twitter hashtag ties the conversations of different users into one stream, which you can find by searching the hashtag in Twitter Search or by using a third-party monitoring tool.” It is helpful for retail shop marketer to search the preferred text in the search box so as to know if someone else is already using it. If the hashtag is already trending or being used elsewhere, it is advisable to change the text as it helps for your hashtag to easily reach its target audience. As a business or brand, a hashtag could also be helpful in reaching those not searching for them.  “If someone you’re following is tweeting about an event using a hashtag, you will still be able to see their updates in your main Twitter feed without accessing the entire hashtag conversation.” (Georgieva) With the hashtag now begins marketing to put it into use and hope for results.

However, before taking the time to use hashtags, make sure that hashtags will fit into your social media strategy. Do you use Instagram and Twitter for business? If so, you should use hashtags. If you engage your customers more through email, then hashtags won’t be applicable to your business (Belt).

Body

After creating a hashtag, the retail shops now need to do a lot of marketing so as to generate results. Marketing a hashtag mainly involves making it known to as many followers and twitter users as possible by starting a conversation. This can be done by updating the retail shop’s resources and stock each time. Potential clients and customers would also be likely to see the shop’s information through hashtags used during marketing events and activities. For a hashtag to work best for the retail business, the marketers must work to make it well known and trending, tagging it onto as many persons and events that follow and are followed by the retail business. This should well be done without hijacking serious hashtags or conversations that may lead negative impact (Georgieva). “For example, Forever 21 once hosted a contest give away for denim for an entire year. Participants had to post a picture showcasing their favourite denim look and use the hashtag #allaboutdenim to win.” (Belt)

 As a retail shop, being consistent in using the twitter hashtags for the business also helps improve shopping. It boosts branding and enables people to identify easily with the shop as well as in reaching more customers or potential clients. This especially for a new start up works well as many people are likely to learn about the new business and get interested in their goods, services and offers. With consistency, using the hashtag becomes habit and marketing becomes easier. In using the hashtag more often, the marketer also considers incorporating variety in the posts. Depending on what the retails shop sells or offers, what catches the eye of the potential clients is key. Being interesting with more variety is therefore important as there is no second chance to make a first impression. Impressive hashtag use in business boosts the impact of the hashtags in achieving sustainable shopping.

An educative hashtag will most likely attract many followers and attract a constructive conversation among the followers. As a marketing strategy, retail shops use the hashtag to tell of the positive impact of using their products. A potential client in the easiest terms wants to know how they would benefit from engaging with the specific hashtag. Laying out such details attracts more potential shoppers. This also helps to create curiosity for potential buyers, thus helping in sustainability and future growth.

Avoiding negative feedback and consequences keeps the hashtag record clean and clear of negative conversation. The main way of avoiding negative feedback is by ensuring that the retail shop offers exactly what is posted through the hashtags and nothing contrary. When a client visits the retail shop and gets disappointed while shopping, they may be tempted to vent their frustrations on twitter, thus tainting the hashtag and conversation. This may act as a turn off for many potential clients thus affecting the retail business. Client satisfaction is primary for any business growth and not even social media can beat that. It can however help in boosting the business. Once a client is satisfied, they may feel obliged to offer a recommendation even just via a simple comment online, using the twitter hashtag. This would obviously be of help to the business (#MakeAStatement: 7 Creative Ways to Harness the Power of Hashtags).

Conclusion

There are many benefits that come about from the use of social media platforms. There are businesses that have grown from scratch to big retail shops, with the great aid of social media platforms like twitter. Twitter, which was created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, uses hashtags which are unique with a potential to attract many potential clients and if well managed, has positive impact. There are many ways of doing business marketing but many retail businesses have ventured into online marketing. This is mainly due to the fact that there are very many people using social online and social media platforms. 

References

Comm, Joel, and Dave Taylor. Twitter Power 3.0. Print.

“How To Use Hashtag Marketing To Grow Your Business.” ThriveHive. N.p., 2018. Print.

“How To Use Hashtags On Twitter: A Simple Guide For Marketers.” Hubspot. N.p., 2018. Print.

Prodromou, Ted. Ultimate Guide To Twitter For Business. Irvine, Calif.: Entrepreneur Media, Inc., 2013. Print.

“The History Of Twitter.” Socialnomics. N.p., 2018. Print.

“#Makeastatement: 7 Creative Ways To Harness The Power Of Hashtags BY ANDY BEOHAR.” Busisness.com. N.p., 2018. Print.

“3-Key-Hashtag-Strategies-How-To-Market-Your-Business.” wishpond. N.p., 2018. Print.”Why You Should Use Hashtags – Article.” Businesscentre.yp.ca. N.p., 2018. Web. 29 Mar. 2018.