L'IMPATTO DEI SOCIAL MEDIA SUL LINGUAGGIO DEL BUSINESS:IL CASO DELL'HASHTAG

The present paper investigates the impact of social media on the language of business with a particular reference to the case of the neologism hashtag and the marketing function that it identifies. First of all, the paper analyzes the different word-formation processes in English in order to comprehend how neologisms are formed in general and in particular at the time of social media. In this regard, this paper identifies the most popular words created thanks to social media and the word-formation mechanisms through which they were formed. Some of these terms are commonly adopted in the business context because they identify new and useful tools for strategic or marketing objectives. This is certainly the case of the word hashtag which refers to a social media function that allows users to identify contents on a specific and given topic. This specific function has become very popular and it is widely used to create social media campaigns which are followed by billions of people all over the world. Social media campaigns are often launched by companies that want to efficiently promote their brands and/or products by reaching a large audience at almost no cost. After discussing the meaning and the role played by the hashtag, a neologism created by one of the most popular social media, Twitter, this paper examines some of the most successful cases in which companies have benefited from a good use of the hashtag to create social media advertising campaigns.