Since the discovery of marketing features on social media platforms, it hasn’t been the same.
Whichever social media platform your brand uses as part of your social media strategy, hashtags help boost your social media reach and engagement. Hashtags do not only influence the digital space but also the way people speak.
Every social media marketer knows how crucial hashtags are for digital marketing strategy. In case you are new to hashtags, or you have forgotten their value, stay right here. Your brand can do a lot more with hashtags.
What are Hashtags on Social Media?
A hashtag is a combination of a pound symbol and a keyword. It categorises posts that have the same hashtag, allowing users to easily find related content.
Every content and social media marketer knows how crucial hashtags are for their digital marketing strategy. In case you do not know yet, here’s a snippet of how hashtags are important in social media:
- Labels and help find niches easily on social media content.
- It makes content easily searched and discovered on social media.
- Allows social media users to search and engage content related to the keyword or topic.
- Sets content in motion to reach more audiences worldwide.
As hashtags increase audience reach and engagement, it is one of the best methods for social media strategy. We expect you have a social media profile for your business. That’s why you are here. We have put together a simple guide on how you can efficiently use hashtags on social media.
How to Use Hashtag on Social Media Effectively
Now, it is evident that hashtags help expand your audience reach. Your knowledge of hashtags can help your social media marketing become successful. Here are some ways on how to use hashtags effectively:
1. Use short, simple, and relevant keywords.
It is undeniable that millions of hashtags are used in social media, making it more reasonable to use a short and relevant keyword for your hashtags. You cannot expect good results if you use long and difficult to spell keywords. More so, generic and rarely used keywords will not give the results you want.
Use short, simple to spell, and relevant keywords for your hashtag. It gives your audience a clear idea about the topic. The key to knowing which keywords to use for your hashtag is finding out related topics your audience is interested in.
2. Monitor hashtags used by social media influencers and competitors.
You can find keywords and hashtags your target audience is interested in by monitoring hashtags used by relevant influencers and competitors within your niche. Take note of the hashtags they often use.
You can learn a thing or two from this, what hashtags your shared target audience engaged in and what does not click to their preference.
Verify the hashtags you have monitored from them by searching them on hashtagify.me. You can search any hashtag and verify its popularity. Other than this, you can type in on the Twitter or Instagram caption.
3. Do not overuse hashtags.
It is already a fact that hashtags are crucial for social media strategy. Hashtags give brands more exposure and spread information faster to a massive audience. Using the hashtag multiple times on different social media channels makes people remember your hashtag easily.
However, overusing hashtags might do more harm than good. Each social media platform has its own rules in hashtag use. Using the hashtag more than its standard frequency might lead to lesser engagement.
A survey inferred that using the hashtag more than 10 times reduces engagement by 70%. Here are some rules for each social media platform that you have to remember when using hashtags:
- Facebook: It is best to have only 2 hashtags on your Facebook posts. Combine a popular hashtag and a customised one for your brand.
- Instagram: Instagram allows 30 hashtags on one post. But, if you want your post to have a better engagement, do not go more than 9 hashtags.
- LinkedIn: Although LinkedIn does not limit its hashtag use, it is best to limit it to 5 hashtags per post. The LinkedIn algorithm might consider your post as spam if you use more than 5 hashtags.
- Twitter: Avoid using more than 2 hashtags per tweet. You have to be careful about the character count restriction to deliver your content effectively.
- Pinterest: Pinners can find your post if you use 2 relevant hashtags on your content.
- TikTok: Using 4 to 5 hashtags on 1 TikTok post helps you boost your engagement reach.
Use hashtags correctly to increase brand awareness, create online discussion, and lead to sales spikes.
4. Create customised hashtags for your brand.
Do you think generic hashtags such as #seo, #marketing, #food reach more audience and bring more interaction? Think again. Most likely, your post goes among thousands of posts that use the same generic hashtags.
The same with keyword research. You need to do it for social media hashtags. You have to ensure that your hashtags stand out for the right reasons. Carelessly using hashtags might damage your brand image.
Try searching and creating customised hashtags for your brand. Ensure that it is appropriate and focused on your content and brand.
If you want to have great results, use a hashtag that’s carefully selected and strategically used. Moreover, do not restrict yourself from being proactive. Bring innovation by staying updated and well-informed of the best practices.
5. Increase brand engagement.
Hashtags help connect your brand with trending topics. If you use the right hashtags, it drives new audiences and engages with them. Moreover, your targeted audience becomes more comfortable with your brand making them interact with you more on social media.
You have to keep in mind not to use hashtags when responding to someone. Avoid including a hashtag on a reply or quote retweet. Simply do not include it in your customer dialogue.
It is crucial to know when to use your hashtags on social media. Hashtags do not work just because you used them on your tweet. The tweet should contain a pitchable message making it more of a call to action.
Key Takeaways
You might have not thought about how hashtags bring a handful of opportunities in social media until now. It can be tricky and consuming as you carefully create and curate your brand image on social media.
Only use hashtags that are unique and relevant to your content or brand image. Keep learning how to use them and other digital marketing strategies.