Let’s spread the word about why we ditched dairy with the hashtag #WhyIDitchedDairy.

It’s Februdairy, which is when activists take over the hashtag to spread information about the dairy industry. I was researching hashtag trends in the hopes that we could get Februdairy to trend. I started to realize that it’s unlikely to get that hashtag trending, but wouldn’t it be great if we got something else to trend? I thought of #WhyIDitchedDairy, and my close friends thought it would be a good idea. I like the hashtag because it starts a conversation. And if we have people engaged in conversation, then our reach will be greater. Also, the hashtag seems to have never been used before. One reason why I think #Februdairy won’t become a trending topic is because we’ve all tweeted with the hashtag before, and Twitter looks at the audience (new or not?) for its algorithm.

The plan is to start tweeting with the hashtag on the morning of February 6th. The earlier in the day you start tweeting with the hashtag, the better.

Feel free to use the hashtag as you wish, but here are some pointers:

Some Tips to Get the Hashtag Trending:

We all want the hashtag to trend so that more people can see the tweets. It’s not easy to get a hashtag trending, though. I did some basic research and here are some tips:

• It is very important to do original tweets from different locations. Retweets matter too, but get those individual tweets out there especially if you’re in a different part of the world than most people. We need to get a lot of individual tweets up very quickly.
• We should tag each other in our tweets. Some vegan accounts participating in the hashtag have a very high reach. Tag them in your posts. Additionally, we should be tagging brands as well. We can make posts boosting relevant vegan companies (for example, tagging Oatly) which will increase the visibility of the hashtag.
• Get people to interact with the tweet by doing things like polls or asking questions. Reply to people. Interaction is very important.
• Have tweets be of a variety – pictures, videos, links, etc.
• Make your tweets personal. Yes, we all know the dairy industry is cruel. But what specifically about it? Was there a particular article or image that made you change your mind? Was it a person?
• Avoid foul language. The Twitter algorithm will pick up on it.
• Avoid piggybacking off of other hashtags. I may be wrong about my understanding of this, but it looks like tweets that co-opt other hashtags will be filtered out. For example, if something random about sports is trending at the same time, don’t use that hashtag too. Stick to relevant hashtags if you add any.
• Tweet consistently. We need to have a good amount of people tweeting consistently. Part of the reason why I’m announcing this ahead of time is so that people can plan out their tweets. I recommend using a tweet scheduler like Twuffer and schedule a bunch of tweets for that day.

With this in mind, we will hopefully get the hashtag trending. Remember, get ready to tweet out why you ditched dairy on Wednesday, February 6th!