Now more than ever, consumers are inundated with hashtags. In case you are a little behind, hashtags are words that are hyperlinked to a feed that displays all conversations mentioning that word [or phrase] within a given social media site.

Shows splash them across the screen in efforts to encourage conversations online and to incorporate interactive social features into popular shows. I am uber-guilty of live tweeting through my favorite TV shows. I don’t think I would have been able to get through the last season of Scandal without Twitter. #WhoShotFitz #WhatTheHuck #WhoIsTheMole #Olitz

This year during the Miss USA 2013 pageant, viewers were able to weigh in to the competition by using their Twitter accounts. Each semi-finalist was given a unique hashtag, #nextmissusa followed by their state abbreviation. The contestant with the most votes from the viewing audience advanced to the top five. Almost instantly, my timeline filled with #NextMissUSASC tweets – it also helped that she was a #Gamecock. After not being called into the top 5, Miss Texas joined the 5 finalists because of the number of social media votes she received.

Facebook has also recently adopted hashtags. In its press release, Facebook explains that the use of hashtags is “a simple way to see the larger view of what’s happening or what people are talking about.”

Hashtags are also making their way into music as several artists now have them incorporated them into song titles. Mariah Carey – #Beautiful; Jennifer Lopez – #Liveitup; Will.i.am – #thatPower. Will.i.am has also placed a hashtag in front of the name of his most recent album (“#willpower”).  According to an article on Billboard.com the first song in hashtag history to reach the Billboard charts was Cobra Starship’s single “#1Nite,” in August 2011. To promote the song, the band engaged fans on Twitter by asking them to talk about “that one night you can’t forget,” thereby tying a song to a particular topic or movement. When artists create a hashtag song, it’s not just a stunt to become a trending topic on Twitter; rather, it’s a neat trick to get their content into the multiple online feeds that their fans may digest on a daily basis. It can also provide a way for marketers to grab interesting analytics and produce engaging visualizations.

Some shows are even validating the importance of hashtags—and social media in general— by utilizing it in the creation of television shows that well, don’t include TV. Wait what – yes, you read that correctly, a TV show without TV.  Summer Break, the new reality TV series sans TV, will air exclusively on social media channels for eight weeks this summer.  The “show” follows nine Los Angeles teenagers that just graduated high school and set out to have “the summer of their lives.” Think The OC or The Hills, but all over social media. Viewers will follow the teens through updates, photos and videos in real-time, as they post to Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram.  Social media platforms that use the hashtag. A professional film crew will follow the teens around and produce minute-long “episodes” that will air on YouTube each day, and 3 to 5 minute clips each week, all designed to recap and supplement the real-time stream of photos, Vines, and updates. Hashtags will be helpful in keeping up with your favorite characters as  well as what others are thinking about them.

Summer Break Social Media Profiles

(just in case, you’re tired of following the Kardashians)

• https://twitter.com/summerbreak
• thesummerbreak.tumblr.com
• instagram.com/summerbreak
• http://www.youtube.com/user/SummerBreakNetwork?feature=watch

I have one final example. The Style Network has created a new interactive show, Style Pop, a live show that utilizes social media to engage the audience to drive the show.  There will be real time polling applications via Twitter and the StyleNetwork.com, exclusive shopping offers, and the “Shop of Shame:” viewer-submitted video confessionals of wild and wacky shopping stories that the hosts will highlight on-air.

Interactive features and building connections with audiences through social media’s golden child, the hashtag, is becoming a widely used technique. Do you have any great examples of how brands or companies have incorporated hashtags in campaigns?