Although many people wouldn't think about companies turning random suggestions from consumers through hashtags into profit, it is becoming more and more prevalent. Companies will simply create a unique hashtag that uses keywords for them to be able to search this topic. Analysts will "mine" through this data and use the information that is provided by the consumers to suggest many things such as new products, other business strategies and approaches to take on economic and governmental changes.
Since Facebook allows companies to have free business pages for people to "like" the hashtag will allow these companies to be able to get more directly connected with their customers. Twitter currently allows businesses to have a Twitter account but not as much information about that company can be displayed as compared to those pages on Facebook. Facebook allows companies to promote their products with pictures, advertisements, etc. Someone would more than likely look up a company on Facebook before they would on Twitter because there is more information readily available.
Adding the hashtag feature to Facebook will open up another line of communication between companies and consumers. The hashtag that is used for trending topics will create a lot of data that can be made useful by companies to generate more revenue. The analysts mentioned before may already be at the company or newly created positions within companies to help manage this data and find the trends in what consumers want.
The purpose of this post was to be informative on how something we don't think much about such as adding a hashtag to the end of our tweet or now possibly our Facebook posts puts us in "database" if you will for companies to track us. When companies search the hashtag that their company created to get the feedback they can possibly track your tweets to get more information or simply pull your name and other personal information that is available on Twitter.
Sources:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/03/14/facebook_hashtags_annoying_twitter_feature_is_data_mining_advertising_gold.html
http://www.inc.com/tech-blog/twitter-hashtag-techniques-for-businesses.html
I find this very interesting that we are put into a database just for including a hashtag in a status. With social networking on twitter and facebook steadily increasing I can see why so many companies are eager to focus their attention on social media marketing. I also see myself being a bit more cautious with the information I put on my twitter and facebook.
ReplyDeleteThe hashtag does help businesses find consumers, and more importantly what consumers are saying about their product, but it's not the only way. For instance, a couple weeks ago I had an issue with my vehicle that required taking it to the dealership for repair. I posted a tweet about the situation and how I was hoping that it wasn't going to cost me an arm and a leg and I only managed to use the model name of my car in the tweet; no hashtags. Within 15 minutes tops I received notification that my tweet had received a response from GM's customer service twitter account. After replying to their tweet I took a moment to look around their twitter page noticing that there were a ton of people that had posted a related tweet within a 30 minute time frame of my tweet. So my question is, since I didn't use a hashtag, how'd they find and reply to me that quick? None of my followers had retweeted my tweet, so essentially they used some type of mining tool to catch my tweet about my Cobalt. Either way, it kind of creeped me out a little bit.
ReplyDeleteI think that Twitter and Facebook and the use of hashtagging has taking online business advertising and networking to a new level. It's a good way for businesses to communicate and connect with their customers and get the word out about their product. If a business wants to connect with many consumers at once it is very beneficial to create a hashtag. I think this business technique is interesting and fun way to spread the word.
ReplyDeleteMeaghann Smith
Trenton - It definitely is interesting that we are put in to these databases for something that we don't really think about just kind of do (including a hashtag). After doing more research on Data Mining I find myself more cautious with filling out information online.
ReplyDeleteKenneth - That is a great question! I have had similar situations happened to me as well. One time while in Charleston I tweeted about how good a seafood restaurant that I went to while there was without using any hashtags and the restaurant retweeted me and followed me which I thought was pretty weird. I will have to do a little more digging to answer this questions.
Meaghann - I definitely agree. It is great that consumers concerns can be reached with such an easy, cost efficient way.