Master the Art of #Hashtags

2023-04-24 1868

Hashtags are most commonly used these days with social posts. It is simply the word or phrases that follows after the Hash “#” sign. It helps to make your post discoverable and encourages interaction by drawing attention to the post. While using a hashtag we use a word or phrase without spaces after the # sign. It may include numbers but cannot have symbols or punctuations.

It is easier to write a hashtag and in normal, a post with hashtag gets 15% more engagement than the post without any hashtag. According to a study by social media agency, RadiumOne, almost 75% of people on social media use hashtags.  Using hashtag correctly as per the nature of different social media platforms can only provide you the difference with the results. Haphazard use can hurt your efforts.

Here’s some basics about the use of hashtags.

1. The number of hashtags that can be used purely depends on which platform you are using. Don’t try to spam your post else, it may have reduced delivery.
2. Don’t try to make your hashtag complex enough to remember. People should be able to remember them with ease so that it can be used widely and searched often.
3. Don’t try to run beyond the trend using hashtags that are too unusual or have terms that are least used.
4. Try to make your hashtags detailed or specific. Too generic terms will make you appear but may be untraceable because there are lots of recent posts with same hashtags.
5. Beyond reaching your target customers, hashtags can be also used for analyzing your competitors.

Effects of total Number of Hashtags on each social media platform

TrackMaven has found the following effects on use of hashtags in a post

 

 

Designing a Hashtag Strategy

Hashtag strategy can be a clever decision. You have to find out what is being searched, at the same time your hashtag cannot get lost in the ocean of posts with same hashtags. Following tools can be used to research on the hashtags.

1. Hashtagify.com
2. RiteTag
3. Sprout Social

Besides, there are several apps that can help you discover the trending hashtags or the ones which have good volume of search. Based on ideas of popularity, research of audience and competitors, industry leaders and searching on related terms, new hashtags can be developed easily.

Some Common Hashtag Strategies

Branded Hashtag

These are the hashtags specific to your brand, but it doesn’t mean that it should always contain the whole brand name. It may be related to your tagline or specific product or campaigns. These hashtags sometimes may not have anything related to your brand name but will be related to your brand identity.

Community Hashtag

Community hashtags are intended to connect the like-minded people and initiate a discussion around a particular subject. People having interest on photography or let’s say technology can follow the contents published on subject of their interest

Campaign Hashtags

Campaign hashtags are those which are related to a particular campaign. It may be related to awareness, for cause or for any live event. They are usually short terms and run for a few days or season or year. Usually short form of brand name along with the campaign and year is used as campaign hashtag.

Trending Hashtags

Sometimes the brand can reap benefits from the trending hashtags. Putting post relevant to the trending hashtags can prove your brand’s creativity as well as make people remember the brand for a particular inspiration. Usually Amul doesn’t fail to capture the trending hashtags.

Different Platform Specific Hashtags

Most social media platform started using hashtags after twitter accepted their use but each social media platform use them differently.

Twitter

On twitter the hashtags are used to find conversations to get involved in or get people to be involved in the conversation you started. Tweets with one hashtag generally get most engagement and it drops when you use more than two.

Instagram

An Instagram collates all photos with the same hashtag into a same stream. It is used to expose your content to a greater audience and revolves around discovering new content. An Instagram post with at least one hashtag is found to perform better than the ones with none. Instagram allows multiple hashtags. The exact number cannot be determined as it has differed on several studies. Try experimenting with your niche. When you type a # and some characters, Instagram starts proving suggestions.

Facebook

Facebook profiles are generally private except that of brands or influencers. So, the hashtags here work much differently. They were not recognized before but now they are recognized. It is suggested to use 1-2 hashtags per post and characters of them inbetween 6 to 15.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the latest platforms to experiment with the hashtags. It is also aimed at linking posts following the same hashtags.

We aim to disseminate what we know in subjects relating to integrated marketing that includes digital marketing, advertising, content creation and marketing, public relations, branding, event management, web solutions, video/photography, corporate social responsibility, etc. that might help you remain informed. Drop in your feedbacks. We are happy to improve; always!

Sources:

https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/how-to-use-hashtags-in-social-media
https://sproutsocial.com/insights/how-to-use-hashtags/
https://later.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-using-instagram-hashtags/