Yes you can use ❤️ emoji hashtags, but …
What’s the deal with using hashtags that have emojis? A recent innovative use of an #️⃣emoji hashtag #✌🏼️on🌎 got me curious about how it works, and the short of is this (at the time of this writing)—only Instagram fully-supports emoji hashags; not Twitter or Facebook (yet?).
Yes you can still use ❤️ emoji characters with the #️⃣hashtag character 🌐anywhere you’d like, but many 👍social networks will not automatically link them to other posts that use the same hashtags. That’s what makes hashtags so useful, is the auto-hyperlink to other posts with the same hashtag, so you 🔎search for all the 🗒posts and 🖼photos using the hashtag to join the ☎️conversation, see what’s trending, and/or share in the 🙌buzz. (And, yes, I like the Oxford Comma; the non-use of the Oxford Comma doesn’t even have a name.)
In other words, at this time, when you use an emoji hashtag on Twitter or Facebook, the #hashtag will not auto-link properly. And, depending on which emoji character is in the hashtag, when you copy/paste the Instagram emoji hashtag link into a Facebook post, the link (sometimes) breaks. To get around that, I used an URL shortener to make this link 140t.co/peaceonearth for the Instagram hashtag #✌🏼️on🌎 to make it more shareable on all social networks.
But wait. There’s more.
Twitter supports something called hashflags, first introduced during the 2014 World Cup. These are hashtags that auto-displays a custom emoji in the hashtagged tweet! (Note: only at twitter.com and on iPhone app.) Explained at Hashfla.gs:
Hashflags images that appear after a #hashtag, and are enabled on Twitter for specific occasions or events. Sometimes referred to as custom Twitter Emojis.
And searchinfluence.com shared this list of things to keep in mind:
- They are not permanent. The lifespan of a Hashflag lasts as long as the event/occasion it is associated with.
- They don’t count as characters. YAY!
- Hashflags’ view is currently limited to desktops and the Twitter app.
- All active Hashflags are visible on hashfla.gs. Check it out to see a list of all the current/available Hashflags you can use in your tweets.
Hashflags were activated for another special occasion, when the Pope was visiting the USA—Twitter turned on 4 special hashflags for #PopeInUS #PopeInNYC #PopeInDC #PopeInPhilly.
And some big brands got Twitter Emojis for their campaigns, like #ShareaCoke and #LoveYourCurls. How those brands did it? Looks kinda hush-hush but probably 💰money was involved.
So, I still haven’t found what I’m looking for the answer to this question, is: how does your brand or you get your own hashflag on Twitter? #️⃣❓Add a comment if you find out.
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