Have you ever used a hashtag on your social media post? The hashtag was created by a digital product designer in 2007. Back then, Chris Messina owned an Internet consulting company in Silicon Valley. He pitched the idea of using the hashtag or pound symbol to Twitter. This is to help organize topics in the framework. But Twitter thought that Chris’ idea was nerdy. During the San Diego wildfire in October 2007, Chris asked his friends to use #sandiegofire, and the rest was history. Today, hashtags have been a popular search option in different social networks. YouTube is now joining the bandwagon by launching a hashtag search option for content discovery.
As announced by Jensen, a YouTube community manager, the hashtag search option will show a full display of YouTube videos that contain a specific hashtag. These come together with insights about video usage. In the past, searching for hashtags showed content related to the hashtag. But the new hashtag search option will now show a dedicated page for the specific hashtag being searched. Searchers can easily navigate to the resulting page by clicking the link of each YouTube video.
YouTube launches the hashtag search option for content discovery on 12 January 2021.
Implications for Marketers:
YouTube’s hashtag search option is an easier way to discover content and research on YouTube. For marketers, the update can provide a guide to YouTube videos. By being able to search similar content based on specific hashtags, brands can get insights on how videos perform. As such, it can help them maximize their future YouTube content.
