You've got an event coming up, maybe it's a conference or maybe it's your wedding, and you want to promote it and find a way to connect the people who will be in attendance (and to collect photos without having to ask for them individually). What better way than to use the power of social media and create a hashtag for your event? But, creating and using hashtags isn't as easy as it sounds. Before unleashing your hashtag (that's obviously brilliant- you created it after all) onto the world, here are five things you should consider:

1. Make sure the hashtag you want isn't already in use, especially if you're using it to market an event

When marketing an event, a unique hashtag can help connect attendees before, during and after that event. That unique hashtag also makes it easier for you, the person promoting the event, to track the conversations surrounding the event: are they positive? Negative? Neutral?

However, if it's a hashtag that's being used elsewhere, that can create confusion among attendees as they engage with the conversation. It will also make your job more difficult as you seek to follow the conversation. Conversations unrelated to your event will end up in any data you collect, making that data unreliable. Sure, it's great to say the hashtag you used to promote the event was used 236 times, but, if it's a hashtag that others are using for other purposes, then that data is no longer as valid. Hence why the best hashtag is always a unique hashtag.

2. If it is in use, that you wouldn't mind your brand being associated with that hashtag

Now, you aren't always looking to track the data for every hashtag you use, so when you aren't the tracking the overall uses, it's okay to include some non-event specific hashtags.

In fact, many marketers and public relations gurus will include a comment of related hashtags on their Instagram posts in order to help their posts to be more easily searched. To view an example of a comment filled with hashtags related to a post, check out the recent post from my Instagram account.

Each of the hashtags associated with my post are hashtags that are both relevant and will help my post appear in front of audiences I want to reach. Now, though, let's talk about the length of a hashtag when you want others to use it...

3. Remember that people will be posting additional content alongside your hashtag, so keep it short

This is especially important to keep in mind for Twitter where a 140-character limit is still intact. The longer your hashtag, the less space people have to share quotes, memories, and more when engaging with your hashtag, so keep it short!

While there isn't a specific recommended hashtag length that's agreed upon, we can all agree that shorter is better. At the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, to promote the Annual Cattle Industry Convention & NCBA Trade Show, I created #CattleCon + the year (this year being #CattleCon18). Including the hashtag, the character count comes in at 11 characters.

My recommendation would be to keep hashtags at no more than 15 characters with the hashtag included. There are certainly exceptions to that rule (wedding hashtags like my older sister's: #GintherHitchedHer), but keeping it short and sweet will also help with the next point to...

4. Make it memorable- It'll be easier for you and for the people attending your event

A hashtag is useless unless people can remember what it is in a split second in order to include it on any post related to your campaign or event. For example, #WhyIFarm is a simple hashtag that encourages farmers to share their farming story. It doesn't take much to remember this hashtag, which is the ultimate goal of your hashtag.

You can also help people to remember your hashtag when you...

5. Use it on every post related to the event in order to build recognition and encourage attendees to use it on their own posts!

How are you supposed to build recognition for your hashtag if you don't use it? The whole point of having a hashtag for an event is to make sure that people attending the event are clear on what to hashtag when they share posts from your event.

As you can see, to the right, #CattleCon17- the hashtag of the 2017 Cattle Industry Convention & NCBA Trade Show, was used on public Instagram posts 634 times. Note, you'll only be able to see it's use on public accounts, so there are definitely more attendees that engaged with the hashtag than we can see when we search the hashtag.

Looking at the sample, I can point out one post from the "top posts" and two from "most recent" that were posted by NCBA. The rest were posted by attendees. If you're hosting an event, one of the best ways to encourage photos that will get posted with the hashtag is to provide photo opportunities. However, that's a topic for another time.

Conclusion

A good event is one where people show up. A great event is where people post about it. The best events are where you can track attendee's level of enjoyment through a hashtag. So, when creating a hashtag- whatever the purpose- be sure to keep these five tips in mind, and you'll create a hashtag that's sure to capture your audience's attention and their photos, quotes and posts!

5 Things to Remember When Creating and Using Hashtags