Awareness day hashtags are a thing of content marketing ideation and social media campaigns. You don’t need to be an official of anything to create one, but you do need a decent idea, reasonable marketing know-how and a sizeable following to make anything of it. You can also use relevant hashtags to share what you’re doing as part of the day.

What are awareness day hashtags

Awareness days are the doyenne of charities, largely. They are a force for good at doing what they say on the tin: raising awareness. Typically they’re used for raising awareness of issues, whether those be health, wealth or humanity related. But they’ve, naturally, caught the imagination of marketers around the world and so there are now multiple awareness days for pretty much every day of the year.

But what, when the nation is still on lockdown, does one do to make use of awareness day hashtags?

National Walking Month

I’m writing this at the beginning of May 2020 when the UK is still in lockdown and will be until at least the 10th of the month. That would, you might think, put the kybosh on #NationalWalkingMonth and yet at least two of the national newspaper travel supplements last weekend ran with this as their headline theme.

Why not. We are permitted an hour’s exercise each day. Sometimes I don’t even leave the house. Others I run for miles and eek out every last second. But for the masses who are noticeably taking their daily walks, National Walking Month continues albeit in an adapted fashion.

How can you use the National Walking Month hashtag in your business?

It’s time to get personal - whether your business is fully functioning or temporarily closed due to lockdown, use this hashtag to keep your fans and followers up to date with what you and the team are up to. Post your favourite walks, your daily walk, your newly discovered walk. We all need inspiration right now, and we’ll thank you gratefully for it, now and later. Over to you…

National Share a Story Month

Well this one plays right onto our pitch. And now is the best time of all to be telling your brand stories. Whatever situation your business is in, it has a story to tell: continuation, adaptation, all change. In case the news passed you by, or in case you have a tendency for shyness, listen up: people buy people and their stories. A business that has a human element has an appeal factor like never before. Share your real life, human story and watch the like-factor fly.

VE Day

Tricky one to take ownership of ordinarily - quite inappropriate to even try. VE Day this year has been granted its own bank holiday, sort of, and will stand out in memories not just for reflecting on 75 years of freedom, but for doing it in testing times.

There will be socially distanced street parties, Zoom and Houseparty celebrations, doorstep glasses raised, bunting and balloons hung village-wide. Every version will make its way to social media by way of bringing together one’s virtually community on what should be a celebratory day.

How you choose to do it as a business can still resonate with your audience for moments, days and weeks to come.

How to use awareness day hashtags

• First rule of using any hashtag: check whether or not it’s banned (oh, yes). Brad Pitt didn’t teach you that, did he.

• Search for variations of the obvious hashtag - your content will get buried pretty quickly in a high volume hashtag. So if you’re using hashtags to increase reach think smartly about variations thereof or what other hashtags to use that are relevant and timely.

• Use them as your one and only (or one of two) hashtag on Twitter and LinkedIn

• Use them as one of the 10 you’re allowed on Instagram Stories

• Lead with it in your Instagram grid post caption

• Blog about what your organisation is doing for this particular awareness day on your website (no hashtag needed just keep the storytelling going across all your channels)

• Use it mostly on the day rather than in the build up or after event

• Use it to give a shout out to others who you think are making the absolute best of the day to raise awareness - sharing is caring after all

This year it’s also worth noting how some of the organisations behind these awareness days will have pivoted their events to deliver them virtually. If anything, that may well make it easier to get involved and be a part of the action

May 2020 awareness days

• National Walking Month

• National Share a Story Month

• 1st Big Asthma Bake Sale

• 2nd Tour de Yorkshire

• 4th Sun Awareness Week | Children's Book Week

• 5th International Dawn Chorus Day

• 8th VE Day 9th National Mills Weekend

• 11th National Doughnut Week | Coeliac Awareness Week | National Vegetarian Week

• 13th National Smile Month

• 15th Museums at Night Weekend

• 17th National Children's Day

• 18th Learning at Work Week | Mental Health Awareness Week

• 20th Walk to School Week | British Tomato Week

• 23rd World Turtle Day

• 24th Northumberland Day

• 25th English Wine Week | Go Paddling Week | National Children's Gardening Week

• 27th National BBQ Week

• 29th Oak Apple Day