The 88th annual Academy Awards are coming up this Saturday, presenting a unique opportunity for social media marketers. We’re in the year 2016, and an event like this is now required to come with an official hashtag. People use the official hashtag to look up real-time posts about the Oscars. However, expect to see a lot more than just #Oscars flying around social media on the 28th.

Name dropping

Actors and actresses who are up for an award will be great hashtags to watch out for on Sunday night. That isn’t limited to just simple hashtags like #MattDamon or #TheMartian, though. Expect some of the hottest hashtags to pop up during the event, so keep an eye out. For example, if Matt Damon comes away with the Best Actor award, you might see something like #DamonWins flare up on Twitter.

Look out for snubs too, as well as any sort of controversial or important moment during the night. You don’t necessarily need to be watching the Oscars, just keep an eye on trending hashtags. Depending on what type of content you’re promoting, certain hashtags will be more relevant. Be mindful of this, and avoid going solely off of popularity.

Using the hashtags

If you want gain anything from using these hashtags, there are a few requirements. Most importantly, you can’t just promote random garbage with an Oscars hashtag. Often people think they can just advertise anything they want and see results. You might get some looks, but nobody is going to click on it if it’s completely unrelated.

That doesn’t mean only entertainment blogs will benefit. These hashtags can work great for Teespring campaigns (custom T-shirts for sale for a limited time) and other time-sensitive things. If you get creative with it, there are endless opportunities. As long as you keep it relevant, you’ll get targeted traffic.

Getting an advantage

Just hopping on a trending hashtag doesn’t guarantee a huge response. If you want to get the most out of a hashtag strategy for a live event, you need lots of favorites and retweets (check out our reviews for that). Those who have a nice entertainment blog with a following can do this naturally. Short-term advertising campaigns can use paid engagements to get the job done as well. Loading up your #Oscars hashtag tweet with a bunch of engagement puts it up at the top of the results. In turn, everyone sees your content/link/advertisement.

Plan ahead and succeed!

There have already been several Oscar-related hashtags popping up in the days leading up to the event. Just look at #OscarsSoWhite and that whole controversy. That’s just one example of a hashtag that skyrocketed to popularity in a short amount of time. Only time will tell what the actual event holds in store, but you better be ready for it. Keep one eye on the Oscars and the other on Twitter, and you’re sure to succeed.