Social media is a vast repository of content where the popularity of a particular topic, often referred to as “trending”, is crucial in its continuing reach and relevance. This is why some social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram allow users to tag the content they share with a “hashtag”. Hashtags refer to topical words or phrases preceded by a hash, pound or number sign (#) which allow users to easily find content tagged with similar hashtags by clicking or searching the hashtags.
Given the extensive use of hashtags by social media users, organizations often try to increase online brand presence through the use of hashtags. Hashtags can therefore be an effective means of promoting a charity’s or not-for-profit’s brands, campaigns, or fundraising events. Typically, this is done by the charity or not-for-profit creating a hashtag to identify its fundraising campaign and asking supporters to participate by uploading a photo or sharing a story on social media and including the hashtag in the post, thereby elevating its use and promoting the campaign. For example, The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation’s #NoHairSelfie campaign which launched in 2015 encouraged social media users to participate in the campaign by posting photos and tagging them with the hashtag, thereby raising awareness. The campaign was a success and raised over $1.85 million for cancer research.
As a result, hashtags can be very powerful marketing tools used to strengthen the brand of a charity or not-for-profit. This is reflected in a search of the trademark database in Canada and the USA which shows that there are already hundreds of registered trademarks containing hashtags, including #NOHAIRSELFIE. If a charity or not-for-profit is using hashtags to leverage the reach of its brand, consideration should be given to whether the hashtag should also be registered as a trademark in order to protect the goodwill associated with the expanded brand presence of the organization.