Communities are born and bred off hashtags. International movements, from #metoo to #blacklivesmatter, all began with a hashtag. They’re the single most influential thing you can type into a social post.
If you want to attain success on social media as a new, unknown brand, or as a company already established, it’s through hashtags that you’re going to reach people. Use hashtags correctly and you can light up social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
What’s great about hashtags is that they don’t cost a thing. It’s all on you to choose social media hashtags, create your own, and use them to entertain, inform, and participate. This article’s to help you get a strong grasp on what’s the right approach to hashtags on a social media campaign.
What is a hashtag?
A hashtag uses a word, phrase, or keyword put together as a single word preceded by the pound sign. An example of this would be taking ‘Instagram marketing’ which would then become #instagrammarketing in hashtag form.
Hashtags were first popularized on Twitter and microblogging platforms in 2007 as a sort of metadata tag for common posts. Hashtags have since spread and been accepted across every major social media platform from Instagram to Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit, and beyond.
What is the purpose of a hashtag?
The purpose of a hashtag is to be found. It’s essentially a form of user-generated SEO, in the sense that hashtags allow you to rank according to relevance, keyword, date, and other metrics in a worldwide conversation.
Another use is to join a conversation happening around a certain topic, such as a social or political subject. Hashtags can be invented as a means of expressing one’s creativity, used to entertain or for humour purposes, and/or to associate branding or information with a conversation.
What are the basic rules of using a hashtag?
If you are completely new to using hashtags for digital marketing, there are some rules to consider if you don’t want to annoy others.
1. Hashtags should be short and memorable.
2. Use hashtags that people are already searching for. As a brand, if your interest is being clever or unusual, it’s unfortunately not going to win you any clicks or followers.
3. Use hashtags that are specific rather than general ones. Broad terms mean your post is likely to be lost in a sea of thousands, if not millions.
4. Don’t force hashtags. If it doesn’t come naturally, don’t use it. They should stimulate interaction, without feeling desperate.
5. The number of hashtags you use will depend on the platform. In most cases, one or two hashtags are recommended. You don’t want to cloud your post with meaningless hashtags.
6. Search hashtags to uncover content related to your topic. Scout out a competitor’s hashtags and see what they’re using, and the kind of response they’re receiving.
Who decides what hashtags to use?
Hashtags happen organically. No person, corporation, or social media platform decides the hashtags that are going to resonate with an audience.
If you want to know where to look for hashtags though, look to the influencers in your niche. Influencers influence audience. The hashtags they use will generally reverberate throughout an audience. Celebrities, bloggers, YouTubers, and similar voices trusted by the public have a sizeable influence over the creation of new hashtags and the maintenance of those that are trending.
How do I use hashtags on Instagram?
Instagram marketing should use between 10-11 popular hashtags per post. Experiment with it. Instagram has a search box where you can check out influencers and competitors to see hashtags they’re using. Instagram is a huge platform with many hashtags to choose from. Compared to other social platforms, Instagram is the friendliest to using a lot of hashtags. That said, you don’t want to overdo it. Stay within a reasonable amount of no more than a dozen. Use them on posts, photos, comments, and wherever you can.
How do I use hashtags on Facebook marketing?
Hashtags in Facebook social media marketing aren’t as popular but they do exist. It can be annoying to some users to read posts with a lot of hashtags on Facebook so try to stick with a maximum of two. Also, any posts on Facebook should be set to ‘public’ permissions, if you want others to find them.
How do I use hashtags on Twitter marketing?
Twitter marketing only uses one or two hashtags per post. As with on other sites, whenever someone searches for the hashtag on Twitter, your post will appear. Research trending Twitter hashtags to maximize your impact.
What other social media sites can I use hashtags on?
You can use hashtags pretty much anywhere on the Internet. They’re an accepted part of the lexicon. Here are a few more quick guidelines on how to use hashtags on social media.
Hashtags on LinkedIn aren’t as popular as they are on other sites. They aren’t needed, many would argue. If you do publish long-form articles on LinkedIn, including one or two hashtags in the body is a smart move. No more than three hashtags per post are needed.
Hashtags on Pinterest are what let others find you. The whole of Pinterest is based on keyword research so hashtags are a must. Don’t use broad terms. Use only hashtags specific to your topic. This is what will get you found.
Hashtags on YouTube aren’t as popular as they are on other social media platforms. Fortunately, they do work and in our opinion, brands should be using them. They improve searchability and give you more visibility.
What is the best hashtag marketing strategy?
Hashtag marketing is relatively basic. The more you invest in the choice of choosing the right hashtag, the better the result will be. In a nutshell, that’s what it comes down to. We already shared some of the basic rules for getting started with hashtags. Now we outline hashtag marketing strategies that can be used to deliver your best campaign possible. If you are out of ideas or need some inspiration on where to go with your campaign, refer back to here.
Created branded hashtags, named after your company or a marketing campaign. In business, this is one of the most popular social media marketing strategies used and oftentimes gets paired with a giveaway or user-generated content.
Promote contests and giveaways with a hashtag. A successful and fun way to get interested parties involved and engaged is to hold a contest under a hashtag. The #icebucketchallenge is one such example.
Raise awareness about a topic that is near and dear to your heart. If there’s a charity or organization you want to try to raise money for, use your hashtag to build around a particular topic or participate in a conversation already happening.
Join trending topics. Look at the top conversations being had on social media right now. Assuming you have one that is relevant to your business and which isn’t going to cause controversy, capitalize on it.
Hashtag facts
More than 85 percent of the top 50 websites by traffic on the Internet use hashtags.
The demographics most likely to use hashtags are millennials, Generation Z, politicians, influencers, and celebrities.
Businesses who use hashtags on Twitter and Instagram have been shown to boost engagement on average by 12.6 percent.
The top three hashtags of all-time on Instagram are #love, #instagood, and #fashion.
The top B2B hashtags on social media are #quotes, #video, #picture, and #work.
Instagram posts with the highest engagement, as of January 2020, use 5-7 hashtags.
Hashtags on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter are a very effective way of cutting through the noise of all those brands trying to get attention. Choose specific, unique hashtags to reach audience organically and without having to pay-per-click or anything similar. Partner with Unlimited Exposure today for your next results-driven social media campaign. As experts, we can help design hashtags, infographics, photos, video, web design, email, content, and more. Improve your social media on every platform and win clicks!
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