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Data Stories: 12 Tips to Track a HashtagCampaign EffectivelyBy Kurt Weiss – March 31, 2015

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To tell any story, you first need to have the facts straight first. To tell a story well, you needto communicate those facts in the most compelling fashion possible.

As social marketers, we don’t lack the facts. With so many channels offering different waysto engage and interact with your followers, there are social KPIs abound. The challenge lies inturning those data points into analysis that provides insights and creates a coherent narrative

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around your social activities.

Hashtag campaigns are excellentways to create new organicconversations. Along with thoseconversations however, comes an allnew data set to understand.

When approaching analysis of a hashtag campaign, it’s important to demonstrate how thatnew conversation strengthens your brand’s social foundations and improves yourcompetitive position. In order to prove that value, the new KPIs your hashtag generated mustbe reinforced by the larger social context of the brand, weaving a holistic story across earnedmedia, owned media, and your competition.

Here are 12 steps to effectively track your hashtag campaign and create a compellingnarrative around your success. For more insight, download our Complete Guide toMeasuring and Promoting Hashtags.

1. Track MentionsAssessing the volume of hashtag mentions is important, but understanding the breakdown ofthat activity by organic mentions, replies, and retweets is key. This will help you understandwhether the hashtag is spreading like wildfire or if there are a few key influencers driving theconversation.

How to Promote and Measure HashtagCampaigns

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This chart from Simply Measured’s Twitter Activity Report shows trended usage of a hashtag or keyword broken into

Tweet types.

2. Identify Key EventsUse potential impressions to identify the most significant events in your campaign.

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This chart from Simply Measured’s Twitter Activity Report shows trended potential impressions driven by a hashtag or

keyword, as well as the Tweets that drove the most impressions.

3. Identify InfluencersNothing goes viral on it’s own. It’s important to identify the influencers who ushered theconversation along, whether they’re a known brand ambassador or a fan showing their love.

This chart from Simply Measured’s Twitter Activity Report shows the top users engaging with a term based on a

number of factors.

4. Engaging the Right AudienceUtilize Klout Topics to better understand the interests and make up of the audience engagingwith you. What else are they interested in and how you can align those topics with yourbrand message in future campaigns?

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This chart from Simply Measured’s Twitter Audience Analysis Report shows the most popular Klout topics for any

Twitter account’s audience.

5. Own the ConversationAs marketers, we work to create conversation that will influence the perception of ourbrands. What were the themes or goals you were hoping to align your brand with throughyour hashtag campaign?

You can create a simple Share of Voice by monitoring your brand and any competitorsalongside mentions of that theme. For instance Hershey’s might set up a Share of Voice for“Hersheys + chocolate” vs “Cadbury + chocolate” vs “Nestle + chocolate”. This should be inplace in advance of the campaign so you’re able to track the hashtag’s effect on theconversation and its impact on your brand’s influence around the conversation.

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This chart from Simply Measured’s Share of Influence Report shows the share of voice for several competitive terms.

6. Support YourselfMake sure you understand the breakdown of engagement on your handle during thecampaign. If your owned tweets have been effective, we should start to see increased activityduring the campaign on your handle. What form is that taking? Retweets will help extend thereach of your hashtag, but maybe you were hoping to start a conversation through @replies?

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This chart from Simply Measured’s Twitter Account Report shows engagement types over time that a brand sees.

7. Layer on SentimentStaying relevant in the conversation is important, but to qualify the value of those mentionsadd in sentiment analysis to show the hashtag has reflected positively on your brand.

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This chart from Simply Measured’s Twitter Account Report with Sentiment shows a trended view of sentiment over

time.

8. Monitor GrowthYou started the conversation, you engaged the right people to grow it, but did it generatenew followers interested to hear what else you have to say?

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This chart from Simply Measured’s Twitter Account Report shows audience growth over time.

9. Put Engagement in ContextNothing happens in a bubble. A hashtag campaign is a way to galvanize engagement aroundyour brand, but how did that compare to what your competitors were doing over the sameperiod?

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This chart from Simply Measured’s Twitter Competitive Analysis Report shows the trended engagement of multiple

accounts.

10. Standing Ovation

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This chart from the Simply Measured Twitter Competitive Analysis Report shows total engagement and engagement as

a percentage of followers for multiple accounts.

Total engagements tell an important story, but using a rate such as “engagement as % offollowers” adds a new layer. Why have followers at all if you’re unable to activate them?Tracking engagement with this rate how well engaged your audience is and allows apples toapples comparisons with larger or aspirational competition.

11. Outgrow the CompetitionThe race for followers is rarely neck and neck. Growth rates help track towards those largergoals over time and you’ll see here the net affect of your hashtag efforts.

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This chart from the Simply Measured Twitter Competitive Analysis Report shows total audience and follower growth

for multiple accounts.

12. Optimize ContentYou asked your fans to share their voice through your hashtag, so what did they say and howdid they say it? Amalgamate top content from the campaign and learn from your followerswhat makes a top post. Don’t stop there though. What was your own top post? Whatengaged well for your competition over the same period?

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This table from the Simply Measured Twitter Account Report shows the top performing content from a given period.

This is the story analysis should tell for any campaign your run. Your executives might wantthe abridged version for their report, but no matter what makes the final slides, your job isstill to know the whole story and make each successive campaign better than the last.

Get everything you need to analyze the metrics that matter

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Kurt Weiss

How to Promote andMeasure HashtagCampaigns

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3 Comments Simply Measured

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• Reply •

Nadya Rivera • 2 days ago

It's not just you... lol △ ▽

• Reply •

Kurt Weiss • 2 days ago> Nadya Rivera

Good catch guys! I usually leave the math to my editor, but apparently he needs an extra hand to count past10.

△ ▽

• Reply •

Joshua Soerjodibroto • 2 days ago

Is it just me, or did we skip number 5? LOL

Good stuff! △ ▽

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