Raising money online can be hard, but using the power of social media to spread awareness about your cause can help increase donations in a big way—and it's easier than ever before thanks to tools like HashtagifyMe.
If you're looking to use this platform to raise funds for your non-profit organization or personal fundraising event, here are some practical steps to follow when creating your hashtag so that people who want to donate will find it easy to search through all posts related to your specific cause.
Hashtags allow users of Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and other platforms to categorize content by topic, making it easier for them to locate information relevant to their interests. For instance, if someone searches "hashtags" on any given day, they'll likely see tweets and links with #TBT (Throwback Thursday), #BlackFriday, #WorldBookDay, etc., depending upon which topics interest them most at that time.
You could also take inspiration from celebrities' campaigns, such as Taylor Swift’s “Red," Beyoncé's "Lemonade," Madonna‘s "Like A Prayer." These artists used hashtags extensively during major events, so much so that many were able to become part of pop culture lexicon.
When deciding what hashtags to choose for your particular event, consider how often they appear across various social networks. This doesn't necessarily mean choosing several trending ones, because chances are high that anyone searching those terms already has seen them. Instead, try focusing on more unique phrases, words or sentences that might not come up too often otherwise — like actual names of cities or places where fundraisers are held. It's best to keep things simple, though. Don't overdo it with keywords.
1. Choose a name that reflects your goal. You don't need to limit yourself to just one word or phrase, but make sure the one you choose makes sense and fits well within the context of your message. If your goal isn't clear, then your followers won't know exactly what to expect from your post. They may even think that you've posted something else entirely. So make sure to research your chosen term thoroughly.
2. Use common abbreviations. People tend to type faster than usual while chatting via text messages. To save time, use short forms of commonly repeated keystrokes instead. That means no matter whether you type "GTD" (Get Things Done) or "GTD", both would translate into "get stuff done". The same goes true for numbers. Just imagine typing out "$10K" and having it automatically convert into $10,000.
3. Make it memorable. Some ideas include including misspelled versions of your original choice ("#makethesound") or adding special characters or symbols to give it a fun twist (#$%*).
4. Keep it concise. When it comes to hashtags, less really is better. Try sticking to four or fewer letters per tag, especially since most browsers aren't capable of displaying longer tags without truncating them first. Consider keeping them under 30 characters long total. As far as possible, avoid repeating popular two-letter combinations.
5. Avoid repetition. While it's okay to repeat certain words, doing so excessively can get annoying quickly. Also, remember that different devices display texts differently, meaning you shouldn't rely exclusively on auto correct to ensure that everyone sees it correctly.
6. Be consistent. Using identical hashtags every single time minimizes confusion, since each user knows exactly what to look for. But if you plan to change them regularly, stick to only changing one or two at a time. Otherwise, you risk confusing new comers, who may mistake old variations for newly minted changes.
7. Use lowercase letters whenever possible. Most mobile phones and computers require capitalization to signify proper nouns, but it's fine to use lowercase letters for everything else. In addition, avoid using spaces between words unless necessary. Spaces slow down writing speed significantly, making it harder for readers to scan your work.
8. Get creative. Even if your campaign revolves around a singular theme, you should still mix it up occasionally. After all, there's nothing wrong with being slightly unconventional. And if you feel confident enough to break away from typical conventions, why stop now? Use whatever works best for you!
9. Include a link. Your hashtags are supposed to serve as references for people interested in following your updates specifically. So always make sure to include a link back to your page for additional details.
10. Remember to update. Once you start posting, don't forget to continue updating frequently until your entire audience gets accustomed to seeing your hashtag everywhere. After that, keep updating sporadically, perhaps once every few days, week or month. This ensures that your followers stay updated on the latest news regarding your campaign.
11. Use multiple hashtags simultaneously. Although it's usually frowned upon, sometimes combining similar hashtags together helps boost visibility. For instance, if you're hosting a virtual concert, you could combine "#concert" with "#virtualconcert" or "#concertlive". Or you could combine "fundraiser" with "toydrive" or "donation" to show off another facet of your efforts.
12. Use images. Images convey emotions, feelings and stories effectively, helping viewers connect emotionally with your story. Plus, images also help promote engagement among your followers. Since photos typically load faster than videos, they're generally recommended for raising awareness. On top of that, it's relatively easier to edit photos than video footage.
13. Ask questions. Doing so encourages interaction and conversation among your followers, allowing them to share their thoughts or experiences. You could ask supporters to respond to your posts with captions or comments. Or you could pose hypothetical scenarios and invite others to offer solutions.
14. Encourage feedback. Posting a question or soliciting responses allows others to engage directly with your goals and objectives. It also gives them permission to speak freely about the subject itself. By providing a space for people to discuss hot topics relating to your campaign, you provide greater opportunities to drive traffic to your site.
15. Stay informed. Keeping track of trends and current happenings is crucial to maximizing exposure. Therefore, monitor hashtags closely. If you notice that a lot of people are tweeting the exact same thing, try rethinking your strategy. Perhaps you could repurpose your effort in a different light or focus on a completely separate set of goals altogether.
16. Be sensitive. Being controversial doesn't guarantee increased attention, nor does ignoring controversy attract unwanted scrutiny. Before launching any sort of marketing initiative, carefully weigh its pros and cons to determine whether or not it's worth pursuing.
17. Track activity. Tracking metrics associated with your campaign helps you identify patterns and predict outcomes. More importantly, it lets you adjust accordingly based on real data rather than relying solely on gut instinct.
18. Share beyond your network. Sharing updates with people outside your immediate circle is highly effective, particularly when combined with traditional outreach methods. However, it's important to note that sharing with strangers requires extra caution, as they haven't established trust levels yet.
19. Create a system. Setting up a systematic process for managing your campaign provides order and structure, ensuring that everything runs smoothly. Without a streamlined approach, you run the risk of missing deadlines due to unanticipated circumstances.
20. Focus on efficiency. Running a successful crowdfunding campaign takes tremendous amounts of energy and resources. Prioritizing efficient workflow can reduce stress and anxiety as well as maximize productivity.
21. Take advantage of analytics. There are dozens of free analytic apps available today that offer detailed reports on virtually any aspect imaginable. Analyzing results from previous campaigns, or comparing performance against past benchmarks, offers valuable insight.
22. Plan strategically. Strategically planning ahead of time can minimize wasted time and effort later on. Identifying optimal times and dates for promoting your campaign is essential to reaching your target audience efficiently.
23. Measure impact. Measuring progress toward achieving your goals can help you evaluate future initiatives and refine strategies. Metrics can range anywhere from impressions, clicks, shares, likes and retweets to direct revenue conversion rates.
Hashtags are the key to making your social media posts go viral, but what if you're using them in vain? That's where creating an effective fundraising hashtag comes into play.
You can easily set up a custom tag that will help people find your post when they search by typing "#myhashtag" or "#yourhashtag." For example, let’s say you want to raise $1 million dollars for your nonprofit organization. You could create a custom hashtag like #fundraiser10miles and promote this hashtag across all of your social media channels so potential donors who see your posts can more easily find out about the cause.
If you don't know any hashtags yet, here's our handy guide to learn the basics of Twitter hashtags and Facebook hashtags. If you already know some basic hashtags, then you might be wondering how to start setting up your very own hashtag to get donations from strangers online. Here's everything you need to know about the importance of having a solid hashtag strategy before starting your next fundraiser.
To begin, think of one keyword related to your charity or non-profit mission statement. This should also include specific keywords relating to your event (e.g., #walkathon). Keep the name simple and limit the number of characters per word as much as possible — less than 25 words is best.
Once you've got your catchy tag ready, take the first letter of each word, put them together, and come up with a new word. It's important not to repeat numbers within your hashtag because there may be other organizations trying to use the same space.
For instance, while "The American Heart Association" works well, "AmericanHeartAssociation" doesn't work. The latter would end up confusing users since both names contain different letters. Your hashtag shouldn't look too similar to those used by competitors either.
Also keep in mind that most social networks allow only 30 characters per tweet, so try to avoid long phrases such as "I am raising money for cancer research through this walkathon," which exceeds the character limit. Instead, consider something short like, "Walk With Me!"
Now that we've covered how to choose a good hashtag, let's talk about how to actually set up your hashtag on platforms.
Instagram allows users to customize their own tags, adding multiple emojis and symbols to personalize them. To do this, follow these steps:
Open your profile page by clicking on the three horizontal lines at top right corner of your screen. Then select Edit Profile.
Click on Add Tag.
Type in your desired hashtag followed by ".@ig_yourhashtag" (this makes your tag unique) after it. Click Next once done.
Add emoji/symbol(s) to distinguish yourself and your brand. Once added, click Save Changes. Now whenever someone searches by typing "#yourhashtag" on Instagram, they'll see your customized tag.
Adding a hashtag is easy! Just tap on the More button located above every photo uploaded to your account. In addition, hashtags are now available in Stories, meaning you can apply tags to videos. Simply open your Story menu and tap on Attach & Share. Choose Tags under Photos & Videos and type in your chosen tag.
When uploading photos, just remember to always add relevant tags. Don't forget to check your captions as well—they often become part of your image's metadata. And remember to share your posts across various social media platforms.
A hashtag is simply a special keyword assigned to certain content posted on social media sites. Hashtags were originally created to track topics mentioned in tweets, but today they serve many purposes beyond merely being text links. They're great tools to attract attention on social media, build community engagement, boost SEO rankings, and monitor trends.
So why bother tagging your photos with hashtags? When someone uses a particular tag, they have access to thousands of images tagged with that term, helping them discover new posts and stories that interest them.
On average, each person has seen around 1,400 pieces of content each day via social media. By posting your story with a relevant hashtag, viewers searching a particular topic can quickly find it among others that match their interests.
As hashtags continue to grow in popularity, there are several reasons why brands should utilize them. One big reason is that hashtags provide marketers with valuable information regarding consumer behavior. According to Wordtracker, over half of U.S. adults use social media daily, and almost 60 percent of Americans turn to popular apps such as YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok, etc. for entertainment. So, if you plan on targeting millennials, Generation Z, Gen X, baby boomers, etc., using hashtags is absolutely essential.
In 2021 alone, Americans spent nearly 2 billion hours watching video content on streaming services. Video views accounted for 65% of total time spent online. Social media usage continues to rise worldwide, accounting for approximately 3.6 minutes of global mobile data traffic every month according to Statista. These figures indicate that there's plenty of opportunity for advertisers to capitalize on video viewing habits.
According to eMarketer, 54.9 percent of consumers said they'd rather watch branded commercials on social media than traditional TV ads. Brands can leverage this tendency to increase awareness and sales. However, it's worth noting that not everyone likes seeing sponsored posts on timelines or feeds, especially during peak times.
Brands must also take extra care to ensure compliance with local laws and regulations regarding sponsorship disclosures. As such, businesses should be aware of the rules governing promotional activity on social media.
While hashtags aren't exactly new, how we interact with them has changed drastically in recent years. Users typically share their thoughts or opinions on trending subjects via the platform itself. But thanks to technology advancements, including smart devices, artificial intelligence, cloud technologies, and even wearable gadgets, users can now engage directly with companies' products.
This means that instead of sharing general thoughts or feelings on social media, users can instantly respond directly back to influencers promoting a product or service. Smartphones are capable of collecting sensitive user data, including location, health records, contact details, financial transactions, purchases, etc. This gives companies unprecedented power to target individuals based on their preferences and behaviors.
However, despite the numerous benefits associated with hashtags, not everybody knows how to effectively use them. Below are some helpful hashtags ideas to inspire your next fundraisers.
Raise Money Online - Fundraising Ideas | Raise Funds Online
We hope you never run out of creative ideas for your next fundraiser. We wish you luck with your efforts, whether it's your first attempt or a second year running the same campaign. Whatever stage you're at in your journey, you deserve success. Goodluck!
Raising money online can be tricky, but using Twitter hashtags may help attract more followers and donations. Hashtags are used on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, as well as other websites, to categorize content by topic or theme.
If you're organizing an event that people will want to follow (and donate) to, there's no better way to let them know about it than with a custom hashtag. When someone types in "hashtag," they'll see all relevant posts tagged #myevent. So how exactly do you get started creating one? Here are some helpful tips.
A hashtag is basically just a word preceded by the hash symbol (#). For example, if you wanted to tag several photos from your wedding reception, you might use "#wedding." This makes searching through a photo feed easier because users type this keyword into their search bar. If you only had one picture attached to each post, tagging it would require scrolling down to find it again. With a hashtag, however, you'd simply scroll right over it. You could also put multiple words together to form a hashtag. For instance, if you were posting pictures from your family reunion picnic, you could say "#familyreunion" instead of remembering specific names. The same goes for fundraising events too — with a little creative thinking, you can come up with unique tags like #petadonation, #youthfundraiser, or even #rallyforgrocerystore.
Hashtags are useful for organizations looking to raise awareness around certain causes or campaigns. They allow others who share your goal to easily locate and participate in what you're trying to accomplish. While hashtags are most often associated with social media, they've become increasingly popular among nonprofits and businesses alike. In fact, according to marketing firm Witek, 40 percent of consumers in 2018 said they look at a brand before buying it due to its ability to communicate via social media. Having a strong hashtag helps companies build trust with potential customers and donors. But why stop there though? Read on to learn how to take advantage of hashtags yourself!
There are two main places where you’ll need to enter information related to your hashtag: Your own website and the registration page provided by Twitter itself.
To start, head to your domain name registrar and select “create new label.” Choose something catchy so people remember it later. Next, fill out the rest of the details, including choosing a shortname (which should include your organization’s name), selecting whether it applies to everyone or just registered accounts, and entering the desired number of characters. Once you click submit, you’ll receive a confirmation email with instructions for setting up your account. Now you can begin registering your hashtag.
You’ll then need to visit Twitter’s developer site and set up your profile. Head to settings & analytics, and under advanced settings, check off “Enable Personalization Suggestions.” Then hit save changes. From here, open up the widget menu next to your personalization suggestions box, choose Widgets, and enable "Search Box." Finally, open up the Search Preferences tab and change the default text within your widgets' boxes to read "search_domain." Save when done.
Now that everything is ready to roll, we’ve got a few important steps left. First, you’ll need to decide which platform(s) you’d like to use to advertise your hashtags. To do this, sign into Twitter's admin panel and select Campaign Tools. Under Campaign Management, select Create a New Campaign. Afterward, you’ll need to give your campaign a title, description, category, keywords, and location. Use these fields to tell others what your hashtags mean, draw attention to your cause, and encourage participation, respectively. Don't forget to check off any applicable ones such as promotional, general public, or closed.
Next, copy/paste your code onto the appropriate pages on your website. For example, WordPress allows you to place HTML codes directly into posts without having to manually edit every single piece of text. Otherwise, if you don’t have access to your web design program, send us a screenshot showing where you pasted your code and we’ll try our best to explain further.
Finally, once you’re happy with your creation, head back to the Account Settings screen. Select Manage Labels and turn on the switch next to Search Engine Optimized (SEO) Labeling. Click save changes after doing so. That's pretty much it! There's now nothing holding you back from sharing your hashtags across social media sites, so feel free to blast those fundraisers wide and far.
Keep reading to discover how easy it really is to incorporate hashtags into your own fundraising efforts.
Adding a hashtag is super simple. All you have to do is paste the code on your website and watch your numbers soar. However, depending on your current setup, maybe you prefer to keep your tweets separate from your homepage or blog. No problem. Just grab the URL of whatever tweet you wish to repost, right-click, and select 'copy link address.' Then paste that info wherever needed.
Another option is to embed a tool called TweetDeck, which automatically creates links based on your chosen hashtag. It takes the effort out of copying URLs and gives you quick access to a variety of social networks. Just log in, pick the right network, paste your link, and voila!
For those interested in learning more about how to optimize your hashtags, we recommend checking out the digital marketing company Vocus. Their team works closely with nonprofit organizations to ensure their hashtags engage audiences effectively while keeping security protocols high.
When a user searches for a particular term, hashtags act as categories, helping to organize results. For example, if you searched for "dog food," chances are you wouldn't expect many responses unless you added the hashtag #dogsfood. Adding a hashtag doesn't necessarily guarantee increased engagement, but it certainly increases visibility. Plus, since hashtags are usually written in uppercase letters, they appear bolder.
It's not uncommon for people to mix up their capitalizations, especially when typing rapidly. By using proper grammar conventions, hashtags stand out against normal messages, making them easier to spot. And if you ever run into trouble, hashtags aren't limited to 140 characters either. Since they're considered metadata, they can stretch beyond the typical character limit, allowing you to convey additional information about your subject matter.
The great thing about hashtags is that anyone can use them. Users can join conversations with the hashtag themselves, regardless of whether they originally posted the message. People can also respond to existing tweets containing hashtags. Using hashtags has become standard practice among many brands, celebrities, politicians, and journalists. Even President Donald Trump uses them frequently. He joined Twitter last year to promote his presidential campaign, and he currently has 1.7 million followers.
As long as you stay true to your mission statement, you shouldn't encounter major problems incorporating hashtags into your campaigns. Of course, there are still rules to abide by. We highly suggest following Twitter's official guidelines for good measure.
So now that we understand the importance of hashtags, what happens if your hashtag becomes widely known? Will it hurt your credibility? Not necessarily. As long as you remain transparent, your supporters won’t care. On top of that, researchers found that only 2 percent of users actually interact with hashtags. Therefore, most people probably won't notice your hashtag anyway.
Depending on your goals, hashtags serve different purposes. Some are meant to generate buzz, whereas others aim to bring exposure to your organization. Either way, they offer a convenient way for individuals to connect with your cause and spread the word.
While hashtags are mainly used for promoting charitable initiatives, they can also function as callouts for special occasions. During Black History Month, for example, #blacklivesmatter became a trending topic, drawing widespread criticism towards police brutality protests. This highlighted the power of hashtags to influence real world situations.
Some hashtags are even used to express frustration toward unfair policies. For example, during Hurricane Katrina, residents complained about delayed aid packages by tweeting phrases like #KatrinaIsHere. These examples show that hashtags are extremely versatile tools. Whether you're encouraging donations or demanding justice, you can always use them to inform others.
Whether you're planning an upcoming fundraiser, selling merchandise, or managing a political movement, hashtags can help increase revenue. Keep reading for lots more advice and resources to kickstart your fundraising initiative.
Just follow our battle-tested guidelines and rake in the profits.