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© 2012 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved.

Hashtags: How to Engage with Your Audience One Tweet at a Time

Leslie Marshall@LeslieAMarshallDirector – Events, Magazine, and Social MediaMorningstar, Inc.

“Hashtags Are for Nerds”

× “[Twitter] told me flat out, ‘These things are for nerds. They’re never going to catch on,’” Messina said in a phone interview. Source: “ How Twitter’s Hashtag Came to Be,” WSJ Digits blog, http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/10/03/how-twitters-hashtag-came-to-be/

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Photo Credit: Mike Duca

Hashtags – Where Conversations Collect

× More than half of mobile-device owners regularly use hashtags. (Source: Survey by RadiumOne, March 2013, http://www.radiumone.com/about/press/hashtags-on-mobile-devices.html)

× Nielsen announced an agreement with Twitter to create the “Nielsen Twitter TV Rating,” an industry-standard metric that is based entirely on Twitter data. (Twitter/Neilsen announcement, December 2012)

× “Conversations collect around hashtags. If you want to start a conversation, introduce a hashtag. If you want to join a conversation already happening on Twitter, find the hashtag that's being used.” https://dev.twitter.com/media/hashtags

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Morningstar Conferences

× Platform to share thought leadership and rich sources for content and conversation.

Photo Credit (both photos): Jim Tweedie

Morningstar® Investment Conference – Use of the Hashtag

× Established use of a hashtag at conferences in 2009.

× The hashtag is included in all marketing and communicated to journalists in advance of the conference.

× Bill Gross of PIMCO crowd sourced his keynote by asking @PIMCO followers for topics to address at #MIC2011.

× Conference hashtag is a trending topic on Twitter in Chicago in 2012 and again this year in 2013.

× Due to global conference growth and social media adoption by attendees, Morningstar adopted a hashtag system by country, or to mark special milestones: #MICUK, #MICAU, #MIC25.

Hashtag Use at Financial Services Conferences

× 2013 LPL Focus: 2,840 tweets× 2013 LIMRA Social Media Financial

Services Conference: 4,581 tweets × 2013 Morningstar Investment Conference:

13,036 tweets with #MIC25 (Data: RegEd/Arkovi)

× 915 tweets with #ETFInvest hashtag for 2013; 90% over 2012. (Data: RegEd/Arkovi)

× iShares ran a series of promoted tweets targeting #ETFInvest, the hashtag for 2013 Morningstar ETF Invest Conference.

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#MIC25 Hashtag = Twitter Engagement × Reach: 394 different Twitter handles with a total reach of 1.1 million followers

× 38% Media, with 442,757 followers× 24% Attendees, financial advisors, CPAs with 281,918 followers× 22% Asset managers and exhibiting companies with 249,327 followers× 5% Morningstar, with 57,432 followers× 4% Investors with 44,804 followers× 4% Financial services PR and marketing firms with 42,300 followers× 2% Other, including Erik Wahl fans with 27,204 followers× 1% Companies related to the financial industry with 14,885 followers

× 13,020 posts with #MIC25 hashtag, compared to 1,602 in 2012× 27% Media× 24% Attendees, financial advisors, CPAs× 24% Morningstar× 15% Asset managers and exhibiting companies× 4% Financial services PR and marketing firms× 3% Companies related to the financial industry× 1% Investors× 1% Other, including Erik Wahl fans

Tweets Tell the Story via Storify – Fund Industry Intelligence: http://storify.com/Nickmanjardine/mic25-1

Connect and Engage with Your Target Audience

× Promote your presence at an event through your Twitter account.

× Send leads to sales people – who’s tweeting live from the event?

× Share news and ideas that are relevant to your followers by tracking the hashtag.

Talk to Your Audience and Curate Content with Hashtags

× Established use of #askmstar for all Morningstar Twitter chats #mstardiscuss connected to Discuss posts on Morningstar.com.

× Christine Benz, director of personal finance, poses a question to investors and creates a column from answers received via #mstardiscuss and Discuss board comments.

× Morningstar Canada held a Twitter chat in August 2013.× Twitter chat conducted in English and French.× Five Morningstar experts answered questions for an hour.× Tracked 90 uses of the #askmstar hashtag during the hour;

gained five new followers.× Directed followers to additional resources on Morningstar.ca

related to the topics.

Lesson Learned – Be Curious

Image source: http://ralfschwartz.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451fb2a69e2013485505746970c-pi

Lesson Learned – Have A Sense of Humor

Video: "#Hashtag" with Jimmy Fallon & Justin Timberlake Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57dzaMaouXA

Connect with Morningstar

× Morningstar Company Page on LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/company/morningstar

× Morningstar Company Twitter Handle: @MorningstarInc× Careers at Morningstar - @MorningstarJobs on Twitter

http://corporate1.morningstar.com/US/Careers/× Morningstar Advisor @MStarAdvisor on Twitter. Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/morningstar.advisor× People at Morningstar on Twitter

× @christine_benz, director of personal finance, Morningstar.com× @jerrykerns, editor in chief, Morningstar Advisor magazine × @MStarScottBurns, director of fund research, North America× @RussKinnel, director of mutual fund research