IF YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA, IT’S NOT HARD TO FIND WORDS OR PHRASES PRECEDED BY THE # SYMBOL.

But what are hashtags, where do they come from and why are they so important?

Hashtags are words or phrases preceded by the # symbol.

A lot of people think they’re just decorative and fill their posts with empty words preceded by hashtags. This isn’t true…

The origin

Of course, we’re not going back in time to tell the story of hashtags, on the contrary, they’re still quite “young”.

Hashtags originate from Twitter, now known as X, in 2007 when a user by the name of Chris Messina suggested using the “#” symbol to group conversations with a common theme.

Although the idea didn’t gain much traction at first, it eventually caught on and hashtags are now part of everyday social media communication.

However, their usefulness and proper usage still goes unnoticed by many internet users—they play an important role not only in social networking, but also in digital marketing.

 

Their role today

The magic of hashtags is that they become clickable links, allowing users to find all the posts related to a specific topic. In the same way that we find posts on the topics we are interested in, others find our content by clicking on the same hashtags! In other words, they help increase the visibility of our publications.

Hashtags are like keywords that help organize and categorize conversations and specific content.

 

With this in mind, it’s easier to understand that when we translate a hashtag freely, we are creating a new keyword, which is unlikely to have the same power and reach as the original, if it doesn’t already group relevant content together, and may even lead users nowhere…

 

Far from being “decorative”, hashtags are therefore a crucial digital marketing tool, for example to

– Categorize content: from the user/consumer point of view they organize content and make it easier to find.

 

– Participate in conversations: using the right hashtags allows us to participate in ongoing conversations at a global level about campaigns, social movements or specific events.

 

– Increase visibility and reach: by using hashtags that are popular or relevant, our content, services or products will be seen by other people, not only our followers.

 

– Promote brands: these are proven branding and marketing tools. By creating campaigns with the right hashtags, you can promote products and amass followers for brands – like Coca-Cola’s #ShareACoke campaign.

 

 

To translate or not to translate: that is the question.

The aforementioned #ShareACoke campaign perfectly illustrates the power of hashtags, as it generated millions of online interactions – free publicity that increased the brand’s visibility and reach.

The brand launched branded bottles and cans and created a campaign encouraging consumers to share photos of themselves with the cans and the hashtag #ShareACoke.

 

But would sharing the translated hashtag #partilheumacola achieve the same result? Would it put us in the middle of this massive movement?

Give it a try. Go and type the hashtag translated into Portuguese and see for yourself… There are zero results.

Now type the hashtag in English and see the difference.

 

Let’s say you’re eagerly awaiting a concert by a legendary band whose tickets are almost sold out the moment the box office opens.

 

Meanwhile, you notice a number of specific hashtags in English that everyone seems to be using:

#ironmaidenfan #ironmaidenfans #ironmaidens #ironmaidenshirt #ironmaidenbeer

#taylorswift #swiftie #swifties #taylornation #reputation #taylorswiftedits #taylorswiftreputation

 

Maybe you’ll find a good deal online and get a ticket for this sold-out concert.

But if you translate one of these more elaborate hashtags without blinking, you could end up creating a new hashtag that nobody knows about and your post will get lost among thousands of others, i.e. it won’t be added to the thread of posts that use these hashtags and that interested people can see by following them.

Therefore, for us translation professionals, translating hashtags requires some extra work. If we leave them in their original language, they’ll still work, but if the client asks us to translate them into the target language, we have to do some research to find equivalent hashtags. This is very similar to what we do in localization or transcreation.

Instead of translating, we find hashtags that already exist in our language with the same meaning and function to ensure that the translated material is categorized with the other relevant content to reach a wider audience.

 

Translating hashtags without thinking twice is a trap with consequences that can be serious if material translated with hashtags that lead the target audience directly into a vacuum reaches the channels for which it is intended.

 

As with localization and transcreation, it is essential that we understand what the client is trying to achieve with their campaign, who their target audience is and any other clues they can provide to help us find the hashtags with equivalent reach.

 

So how do you use hashtags effectively?

The most important thing is that the hashtags are relevant to our content and target audience, and that they actually take us to relevant content when triggered.

 

There’s no point in posting a pensive-looking selfie with a bunch of made-up hashtags like #souumaraparigaquepensa or #olhemparamimcontemplativa in the caption.

 

Another common mistake we see is overdoing it.

Moderation, people! The ideal would be between 2 and 6 hashtags per post.

Anything more is considered spam and has the opposite effect to what we want.

When we create hashtags, they should be unique and lead to specific, relevant content to encourage engagement.

 

 

We’ve seen that hashtags are very powerful tools, and much more than just frills for our posts. When used and translated correctly, they categorize our content, giving us greater reach and engagement and ensuring we have a voice in global conversations.

So, if you’re looking for a ticket to a sold-out concert, remember that the right hashtag can get you into the concert of a lifetime!

 

And so, we bid you farewell, but not without recommending our excellent professional translation, proofreading and editing services, as well as transcreation and copywriting services here:

https://verbarium-boutique.com/en/

 

And who knows, maybe we’ll see you at that concert! Enjoy 😊