How do you use hashtags for marketing your brand online or improving your social media engagement? It is not as complicated as it sounds. The small symbol (#, the pound sign) was introduced as an official hashtag in 2007 when Twitter started grouping similar posts using a hashtag as a categorization tool.
Since then, hashtags have developed into an indispensable tool that quickly organizes ideas or topics on the web. It is now visible across almost every social platform and plays a pivotal role in social media management.
By leveraging hashtags, you can improve your content’s visibility at no additional cost while focusing on your ideal audience—it is incredibly powerful.
Quick Tips for Effective Hashtags
If you want to know more about wielding the humble hashtag to its full potential, we’ve included a few handy tips below:
- Avoid Too Many Hashtags: It may be tempting to use a lot of hashtags with the intent of reaching more people, but long lists often look like spam. If you want to communicate your message to the world effectively, do not use more than four hashtags per post (one to two is ideal). The exception is Instagram, where it’s common to see up to 30 labels on a normal post.
- Good Hashtags Are Short: The best hashtags are concise and memorable. If too many words are connected without spaces, it becomes difficult to read or disengages the audience.
- No Spaces: Hashtags will not work if you use spaces or punctuation marks.
- Use Common Words: The best hashtags are ordinary words in wide use, so it’s better to avoid outdated terms or vocabulary. For example, instead of #splendidburgers, try #yummyburgers or #deliciousburgers. Focus on popular words and how the familiar language lends itself to creative, catchy labels.
Why You Should Use Hashtags: Five Reasons
1. Target Audience
Building an audience on social media is challenging, so any help should be welcomed. Hashtags connect you with others who have similar interests or follow specific topics.
For example, if you include #flowerphotography in your digital marketing post, it may appear in the feed of a gardening enthusiast who will then see your post and maybe follow your work.
2. Reinforce Ideals
Hashtags are also an excellent way to support important aspects of your topic. For example, if you’re a dentist who sees a lot of tooth decay, you may include #brushandfloss to illustrate your passion for oral health.
If you run a small dog grooming service, you may find it useful to post pictures of your canine clients after a bath and trim. It shows potential clients your love for animals by including tags like #lovemydogs, #passionforpups, or #doglife.
3. Branded Hashtags
Creating a specific branded hashtag to promote a special event or contest is also highly effective in spreading the word. You might own a bakery and decide to hold a cake decorating contest. By encouraging people to use something like #decocake, participants quickly link cake creations so that everyone on social media views these entries as one group.
It builds enthusiasm about the project and attracts attention.
4. Expand Reach
Using hashtags regularly helps to establish your brand authority and exposure. It leads to more followers, likes, comments, and shares—the backbone for building momentum with organic reach (the internet’s version of passive income).
5. Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
By increasing traffic to your social accounts, you’ll attract more followers and engagements. It should also lead to more traffic on your website, so hashtags work well as effective SEO strategies.
How to Create the Best Hashtags
Effective hashtags take your online engagement from good to great. How can you make sure that your choices will provide social media posts with maximum exposure? Look for the authorities in your field.
What type of hashtags are the influencers using in your industry or niche? Make a list and begin using these topics in your own posts. Popularized hashtags provide authority, mirroring a greater conversation that automatically connects your work to others, and increases relevant traffic.
Investigate the hashtags that your followers (and their followers) are using for more ideas. Make a note of viral posts and the hashtags employed, and you will soon develop an evolving list that facilitates the greatest reach.
Look back over your posts and pinpoint what did well. What hashtags did you use? Keep track of this information and try replicating this success with future posts.
Finally, there are online tools to find popular hashtags, like Hashtagify.me and ritetag.com. After entering some data about the post, these sites will provide the hashtags trending with that content. You should also investigate related hashtags in the “Explore” section on Instagram with related hashtags at the top of the page.
The Hashtag Professionals
If you need more guidance in the world of hashtags, Gauge Digital Media has everything you need. Call our team at (410) 376-7709 for more about the intricacies of building a successful social media platform. Hashtags are our business, and we can help you reach more people every month.
