Classics for Summer Reading by David Masters is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
How to Create a Trending Hashtag
The story of #TrumpBookReports
During the third and final Presidential Debate, the hashtag #TrumpBookReport was trending on Twitter. Turns out, I created this hashtag sensation, and I can teach you my tricks.
First, have an idea:
Every Trump speech sounds to me like a book report by a kid who obviously didn’t read the book.
Next, get a coworker to join the fun.
`danielmorrison I’m looking into The Grapes of Wrath. It’s a great book. These grape experts keep telling me no one else is as wrathful.
Then, come up with a clever hashtag:
Can we make \#trumpbookreport a thing? https://twitter.com/andrewbredow/status/751157385167765505
Then, and this is the most important step. Wait 3+ months until someone with way more followers than you has the same idea:
Trump's foreign policy answers sound like a book report from a teenager who hasn't read the book. "Oh, the grapes! They had so much wrath!"
Fortunately someone found the hashtag, got Antonio French to notice, and here we are. #TrumpBookReport was trending on Twitter shortly after the debate ended.
The best part is that someone else even beat me to the idea. The Twitter account @TrumpBookReport predates my hashtag by a month, but I didn’t know about it until tonight!
So that’s how you create a trending hashtag. To summarize:
- Come up with an idea (doesn’t have to be original).
- Add a hashtag.
- Wait (hardest part).
- Get someone more popular than you to run with it.
Good luck with your trending hashtags. In the meantime, here are some more #TrumpBookReport!