The hashtag is the haiku of modern Internet culture. Despite the apparent randomness in which ones gain popularity, there's an art and science to selecting hashtags.

You may be familiar with the epic failures. Susan Boyle’s #susanalbumparty and Research In Motion’s #RIMjobs will long be remembered for their extraordinary lack of awareness. And #AskJPM and #McDStories, too, have become case studies in what not to do on Twitter because their use unleashed a barrage of quips and attacks. (Hint: Open-ended questions can become bulls-eyes for trolls.) 

I would argue, however, massive noticeable failures are the exception not the rule. It's more common to put out a hashtag that's ignored.

Hashtags are a way to capture, organize and advertise an idea. Marketers must master their use to reap business results on social networks.

With that in mind, here are five things to do to change your hashtagging fortunes:

1. Be informative, not abstract.

The handles #IceBucketChallenge and #BringBackOurGirls were winners on Twitter, but #WTFF (what the French fry) was not.

People intuitively understood the first two hashtags. But Burger King’s attempt at cleverness doesn't seem worthwhile, with people needing to do a web search to figure out what was meant.

The Keep It Simple Stupid (or KISS) principle offers good guidance for those creating hashtags. Short, clear hashtags, preferably with one or two words and four max, are the most likely ones to catch on.

2. Proofread carefully. Add capital letters.

If your hashtag can be misread, it will be. The longer your hashtag is, the more there's a risk of misinterpretation. Proofread carefully for alternative readings. And for the audience’s sake, capitalize the first letter in each word.

In 2013 when Margaret Thatcher passed away, the hashtag #nowthatchersdead was read by many people to be #NowThatChersDead, prompting rumors that the famed pop icon had passed away. A hashtag #NowThatchersDead would not have resulted in that misunderstanding. 

3. Incorporate hashtags on multiple channels.  

If a hashtag is rocking on Twitter, take it to other social networks, billboards, your company's website, print media and stores -- whatever platform the firm uses to connect with consumers. Hashtags are popping up everywhere because they work: The best onea convey enough information to provoke an emotional response from readers.

But before bringing your hashtag to every channel, test it. Checking the appeal of a hashtag inside your organization will reveal a gaping hole in user comprehension or an accidental lapse into vulgarity.  

4. Don’t overdo it.

The more hashtags you add to content, the more diluted and confusing a message becomes. As a rule of thumb, limit a tweet to having no more than three hashtags. Thus, “excited about #SummerVacation” is a clear, simple message.

But “#excited about #summer #vacation #2015! #summer2015” is not. You don’t need to be in each conversation and try to dominate every single related hashtag.  

5. Listen carefully and pick an opening,

To be an effective hashtag artist, be immersed in a variety of conversations and look for an opening. Following hashtags is an extremely effective way to track trends in an industry.

You'll see what competitors are doing, what influencers are saying and how customers are reacting. This intelligence should inform your hashtag use and reveal openings you might not create on your own.

For instance, you can live tweet during major events such as the Super Bowl, World Series or Olympics or a live music event to take advantage of strong engagement. These mega events offer a window for a company to tap into a shared cultural experience with its own message. Just be sure you're contributing to the experience (adding humor, commentary and entertainment) rather than exploiting it.    

Hashtags exist to connect otherwise siloed comments into a shared dialogue that brings together strangers. It’s easy to let hashtag-marketing strategies get in the way of this purpose.

The hashtag itself is essentially a tool to start or enter a conversation, but it's not the conversation itself. If you hijack a trend without contributing anything substantive to the conversation, people will notice and you won’t build appreciation for your company. 

You can’t judge the success of a hashtag too quickly. Often, it takes weeks or months before one gains traction. Use a hashtag consistently and encourage its use by favoriting, retweeting and rewarding your followers when they acknowledge your hashtag. To keep track of what’s working, consider using an analytics tool (such as one offered by my company, SumAll). 

#HashtagFail or #HashtagWin? It’s not up to chance. It’s up to you.

Often underrated and ignored, email marketing can help increase your mobile app installs if done the right way. Of course, it takes patience and a fair bit of hard work to build up a database of subscribers, but if you stick with it, there are hacks that will speed up the process.

Noah Kagan built a seven-figure business solely on the back of email marketing.

Of course, it is possible with your app too. But for you to succeed with email marketing, you need to align your thinking away from looking at directly acquiring customers to acquiring, nurturing and engaging leads.

Once you’ve built a strong following that wants to hear from you, that trusts you will guide them in the right direction when it comes to choosing the product or service that’s best suited to their needs, they will listen to you. They will listen to you when you talk about how your product or service will benefit them.

Here’s how you can get started.

1. Collect email addresses.

The single most important factor for email-marketing success? You guessed it right, email addresses! Collect email addresses of people interested in hearing from you, whether from your landing page, blog and even through Twitter cards.

Find ways to get users to share their email address with you. Of course, with each route that you choose, you have to be conscious of the value you’re offering to your audience for which they’re providing you their email addresses. For example, offer a free ebook, a whitepaper or an email course like the one I offer on mobile app growth hacking.

Another great way to get started with your email list is to export the email addresses of all your first connections on LinkedIn.

2. Boost email signups.

There are a few hacks that will boost your efforts of capturing more email signups. Optimize the pages that get highest traffic on your website and place the lead-capture option there. OkDork and Buffer App’s blog both have placed the lead capture right up front on their blogs. The first thing that you notice is the value they offer along with the signup form.

Let your visitors know clearly how often they can expect an email. A lot of people don’t sign up for the risk of getting several emails every week.

Social proof is a great way to influence people into signing up. Social proof could include the number of subscribers you already have (use this if it is in a few thousands), testimonials from influential people (read: well known) or press.

3. Engage subscribers.

Once you’ve brought the users on board your mailing list by offering value, continue to engage them. The more your audience is engaged, the more they’ll refer to their network. So how do you keep engaging them?

Sending content that your audience loves to read would increase the chances they stick around. Curated content saves you time and investment in creating content consistently and is an easy way to provide great value to your audience. Ensure the content is sourced from some of the best blogs or publications in your industry.

Also use products such as Intercom or Customer.io to email your existing product users based on a certain goal completion or a pre-defined event, such as purchase or incomplete signup.

4. Create a viral effect.

When you’re sending content of value to your subscribers, ensure you’re providing something from time to time that makes them share it among their network.

Harry’s, the men’s grooming brand, collects email addresses on its home page from users that were interested in knowing when the product would launch. Once they entered their email address, the "thank you" page got them to refer their friends to sign up too. The incentive was a free product. The more friends they referred, the bigger the prize they earned.

Another way is to link to a pre-written email to increase referrals. Kagan describes the whole process in this blog post.

The trick is not to hit people with the selling or marketing spiel about your product or service on day one. Gain the trust and then subtly sell. This way, you’d close more sales than you can ever imagine. Yes, email still works!