Hashtags: 5 best practices for strategic success

From Paul Dunay at Marketing Darwinism:

In order to be successful with your hashtag strategy, leaders in the space recommend several best practices to follow:

• Limit the number of hashtags you use and keep it simple. Too many hashtags make it difficult to track and are confusing to consumers.
• Make them mean something. Figure out what you are going to focus on and then consistently leverage those across numerous campaigns.
• Avoid open-ended questions. By not limiting the response to a specific type, not only are you losing relevancy, but you are opening a can of worms for a hashtag hijacking.
• Be realistic. Make sure you have permission from your consumers to claim that hashtag. Blackberry’s #BeBold campaign, complete with super heroes, was a #Fail that opened it up to ridicule that quickly expanded into a chance to mock their slip into irrelevance.
• Get organized. Use dashboards structured by hashtag or more easily monitor and manage your campaigns.