The meaning of TBT is “Throwback Thursday” which you probably have seen in many social media posts on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. #TBT is one of the widely used hashtags in social media, and everyone can use it starting from celebrities to influencers, everyone. Now the thing is when you can use the hashtag. It’s similar to when you are posting a photo from last year’s yearbook on your Instagram account or twitter post; you can use the hashtag. It is that easy. Even if the photo is not a year old, even if the event just happened a week ago, the hashtag applies to it.
Brands use this hashtag to boost their page engagement among the followers and customers; it simultaneously increases awareness. You have seen various brands using the hashtag while posting stories about their products on social media, and it is quite fun. That’s why I am here to represent what does TBT means and the ways you can apply it to create maximum impact.
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What Does TBT Mean?
You can post your old photos or videos on social media with the hashtag #TBT and recalls the old memory.
Not only photos or memories, though. You can repost a text or audio and add the tag in your post’s caption. This is a social media posting trend that people from all over the world use as a throwback theme. And in that case, the throwback trend applies to everything that happened in the past year, month, or even week.
Where Did This Trend Come From?
The origin of this trend is kinda mystery but as per Vox, the trend first developed in the year of 2006. Mark Halfhill is a blogger who first used it on his sneaker blog and then after that, Hot Wheels toy cars posted the hashtag on Instagram. As per TIME, In February 2011, Bobby shared an image of toy cars with the hashtag #ThrowbackThursday.
Since then, the hashtag became famous on social platforms, and people started using it every time they repost their precious memories. And right now maybe there are almost or over 500 million Instagram posts with that hashtag. That’s the total history of ThrowbackThrusday, and here we will tell you the reasons people use this hashtag and the reasons you too need to use it. You can use other abbreviations like XOXO or BRB.
Reasons for Using #TBT
Apart from Twitter and Instagram, people use this hashtag on Facebook and Tumblr as well. However, the hashtag also gives you the ability to accomplish a few important things. These follow:
1- Gain Engagement
A study Paperhelp review discovered that brands that use the hashtag had increased their social media page and engagement by 50%. This is only compared to other pages that don’t use that hashtag or never use any hashtag at all. So, if you are starting a brand or just want to gain more followers, use #TBT on whatever post you share from past days.
2- Boost Audience
Users like to follow various tags in social media, and #TBT is one of them. It means when you are using the hashtag; whether that account is following you or not, your posts will appear in their newsfeed. And thus, it introduces your brand or company to a new group audience. So, significantly, you are gaining more value on your social media posts and followers.
3-Helps You Develop Brand Awareness
With #TBT, you get an excuse to show your brand and its history. You can share adored photos, videos, etc. of your brand to share history. Moreover, in this way, you can effectively introduce your company to distinct people. Additionally, the hashtag gives you much to obtain while you are researching with the TBT hashtag.
How Does the Trend Work?
ThrowbackThursday comes in various formats but most importantly, they all come with one common thing. The thing is, the hashtag takes you back to a past incident, and that is how it works. You can post anything from the past. You can include audio, photos, videos, texts, anything and include the hashtag in your caption.
However, when you share one old photo or video with the #TBT in your caption, you need to keep a few things in your mind.
You Need to Share Those Photos On Thursday Only
As you can see, ThowbackThursday is all about sharing photos and videos on Thursday, and that’s where the hashtag gained its popularity. You can use #FlashbackFriday, but #ThrowbackThursday is even popular than that. Moreover, #FlashbackFriday exists only because some users didn’t use #TBT.
You Should Include #TBT or #ThrowbackThursday
There are lots of uses of hashtags, and it is up to you which one you are going to include in your posts. However, you must know the post won’t appear in the #TBT explorations list if you don’t even add the hashtag.
It Needs to Be From the Past
When you are reposting a recent event, it needed to be at least a week ago. The use of #TBT is throwing back old moments and from a different period. In case a brand is using the hashtag, they need to look back to another time, and you can even post photos that are decades old. It is the best idea to catch attention. Posts that are decades old catch more attention than photos that are only one year old. A great thumbs up for Throwback Thursday where you can post videos or photos of the time when the internet was not so famous.
One Post Every Week
This is a rule of this hashtag trend. You can post whatever you want, but the current internet tricks suggest that it will be best if you create the ultimate impact on your audience. With that being said, if you post every week with the hashtag (you can do it because you know the TBT meaning already), the marketing operations will be more powerful. There are some other variations of this hashtag, let me take you through that.
Variations of TBT Hashtag
There are some other variations of the hashtag that people use. Well, as per TBT, you can only use it on Thursdays because TBT stands for ThrowbackThursday. But what to do other weeks days? Worry not. You don’t need to worry about not posting anything on other weekdays because there are a few other hashtags that you can use only when you cannot use #TBT. Here you go:
#MondayMemories
#TakeMeBackTuesday
#WaybackWednesday
#FlashbackFriday
If you want to go neutral, that means, you don’t have to refer to any specific weekday or weekend, you can use #Latergram and #OnThisDay. You can use the hashtag #Latergram while posting a memory of an event or incident that occurred the last week or a few weeks earlier. You will find out this trend on Instagram mostly (it’s famous in there). However, I have seen people using the same on sites like Facebook, Tumblr, etc.
You can use the #OnThisDay tag when you want to go back to certain events like the opening of your building or similar things. You can also post photos of a product you launched the last year or a decade ago on the same day with the tag. Apply these tags but to spread brand awareness as well as brand engagement, you can attach to #TBT. No matter how the platform changes over the years, Throwback Thursday will always be at its best and will be the most modern trend so far. That’s why it is Instagram’s one of the numerous widespread hashtags.
Throwback Thursday: TBT Stands For
Now that you are already knowledgable enough about what is Throwback Thursday all about, it is time for you to dig into the marketing strategy. And that is all about sharing your brand’s history. Well, social media sites are the best way to share your brand’s story, and that develops your business. And when you are using #TBT, you are doing something creative for your brand, and that is cool. Here are some #TBT ideas for you:
1. Location
The physical location of your business is the perfect area to start it. If you have various archived photos of your location over the years, that would be great too. You can post Throwback Thursday photos of that location that would feature the blueprints, construction, or a simple click of the apartment from the other point you have posted in history. Have a look at this one-
You can also consider the city or town or even the country in which the building is situated. This will broaden the opportunity of the viewers to view other similar contents. Even if your business is all about an online platform where no physical location is needed, you can use #TBT in that case too. It is because we all have that one start and you need to start it somewhere. Even Google didn’t have a physical location at first, but look at them now!
2. Employees
Employees mean, they are the main part of your company, so you can share their behind the scene photos to enjoy. This can be fun, right? Your employees are working on your property for 8 hours; there must be some fun things happening every now and then. Capture those fun pictures and videos and post them on social media to gain engagement. This will also humanize your brand, and your followers will feel comfortable with that little family you have.
They too can post their childhood photos to share some #TBT posts, and that will also help in boosting engagement. Moreover, who doesn’t like baby pictures?
3. Clients
Perhaps this is the best method to keep the customers intact with your brand and posts. You can share some #TBT posts about your customers, and this will be a great celebration too. You can click some snapshots or videos of your clients associating with your employees or related people of your brand. Or you can also click a picture of them on the location of your company or picking up your product; have a look at this one-
Find some cool shots of your customers who are your regular buyers and loyal enough to support you in hard times; you are lucky if you have those clicks.
4. Goods or Sevices
You can use the ThrowbackThursday tag to highlight the product you have released recently. This also helps you how much the product has evolved across the years. Hence, it is better to have some photos or blueprints of the product so that you can share it with TBT hashtags to increase brand awareness. However, your product can be new, but you still want to share its TBT posts. Don’t worry, in that case; you can recall the earlier version of the product. Since everything around us is getting upgraded, it is no brainer that your product will develop too.
If you develop mobile apps or Windows software, you can find cool vintage photos using vintage filters, and you can share them with your followers. Enough about mobile apps, it can be your health teaching service center where people used to do cool old exercises. Find out those old photos and use them as “throwback” photos of your product.
5. Communications
Vintage marketing pieces can be a great solution of #TBT posts because most of the time, they are fine products full of nostalgia. You can recall an ad you posted a year ago that can be a printed ad or even a video. You can repost them to boost your brand engagement. Old posters or other ad materials, magazine ads, tv, or radio commercials, are great ways to increase your page engagement.
Another superb way to get back some senses of nostalgia into people’s minds, and if you pick the right #TBT display, you are surely getting lots of attention. People will be more likely to talk about when they saw specific advertisements or publications.
6. Events
Search for huge events that happened last year because they are the perfect #TBT materials. Think about an upcoming event of your brand or product that too got a history. You can also examine the archive stories to find out a shot from back years. When your company has held events in the past years, you can find out some visual proofs that you can share with your followers. Events are a great opportunity to dig through relevant archives on a certain date and create #OnThisDay or #ThisDayInHistory-style #TBT posts. Like, #OnThisDay in X year, Y happened. You must add the TBT hashtag for a better impact.
7. Milestones
Your business has surely achieved some breakthroughs in history and maybe even has achieved one recently. You can celebrate that joy over and over as long as you are okay with your business. For example, the New York Times Magazine published its first narrative in VR. And later they celebrated it by tweeting the same thing with the story and pictures. This is a great way of recalling your milestones and celebrating them over and over again. Always remember, your old milestones are the classic #TBT material.
You don’t have to achieve milestones on your products or services; it can be your product history, employees, location, or even your business. Like, when you get 100 employees, that is quite a huge motivation, right? Find out that day and let your followers know the joy or achieving something small or big or whatever you call it.
Why Is Throwback Thursday so Popular?
People like to recall their memories like what happened in childhood, whom they dated in high school and lots of things. Moreover, the best part of our past is that it has taught us many lessons, and we should celebrate that. You don’t have to be a part of a glorious past to share it on your social media. I’m talking about those who don’t own a brand. Of course, when you have started a brand, it is something you should cherish. And when you become successful in the business, you won’t regret looking back to how you started. Maybe, it will inspire you to start something new again.
People post photos from vacations they have gone to, celebrated an anniversary, or passed out as a graduate student. You can do that because it attracts attention and you will gain more likes and comments on your photos. Social is for fun and information, so we will try to enjoy that as much as possible. Your social gatherings and emotional moments will often make you happy when you look back, so sharing them with your followers and friends is something that will boost your confidence in your social life. It is only a matter of enjoyment and cherishing all the good things you have had in your life. Your social sharing has nothing to do with your regular life, though, it is something that makes you believe in yourself and helps you live your life.
