The Not So Dead Twitter Hashtag

… ‘til death do us part – or until crowd-sourcing says otherwise.

Hashtags on Twitter represent keywords, topics and conversations that people interested in that subject can easily find through search.

Often a hashtag has a limited lifespan online for a variety of reasons: it’s not common enough, no one can decipher what it really means or people just don’t know it exists.

But sometimes, when you think a hashtag has died or served its purpose, it comes back.

For example, before the World Cup South Africa 2010 started a lot of people on Twitter were using the hashtag “#wc2010.”

Makes sense.

However, when Twitter created their World Cup feature, they used the term “#worldcup” instead and that’s how #wc2010 died.

But not quite.

Coca-Cola resurrected it.

On June 23, 2010 Coca-Cola sponsored a “promoted tweet” on Twitter with the old hashtag, #wc2010, intact.

Like a wild fire it went viral, sweeping through the Twitter channels to World Cup fans, haters, Coca-Cola lovers and all things K’naan alike.

“#wc2010” became a trending topic and Coca-Cola’s sponsored “promoted tweet,” became the second promoted tweet ever on Twitter to be a trending topic (second to Disney’s promoted “Toy Story 3.”)

It’s incredible the impact that a major brand can have on a tweet, or rather an entire identity. As communications professionals, this is something we need to be acutely aware of and pay attention too because rest assured there is a formula as to how something can go viral — we just need to understand what that is.

Is it subjective?

After all, not all of us have the random power that is Justin Bieber.

But without a major brand or celebrity endorsement can a #hashtag, by the people, survive?

Not necessarily something related to a huge event, but a legitimately long-term topic – does it have survival power?

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Sasha Muradali runs the ‘Little Pink Book’ . She holds a B.S. in Public Relations from the University of Florida with a minor in Dance (’07) and an M.A. in International Administration from the University of Miami (’08). She loves Twitter and all things social media, so you should find her @SashaHalima or get a copy of the ‘Little Pink Book’ delivered to your Kindle.

Copyright © 2009-2010 Sasha H. Muradali. All Rights Reserved.