Hashtags are a simple way to turn a word or group of words into a keyword in your social media post. Whatever you choose to hashtag is indexed by the social network and is searchable by other users. By using popular hashtags in your posts you can increase your potential audience and join into conversations that are taking place, improving your social media marketing tactics.
Although hashtags are a great tool to use on social media, there are some unwritten rules that should be known prior to using them. We made it easy for you and wrote some of these rules out to ensure your social media presence is a valued one.
Some brief do’s and don’ts when using hashtags include:
Be specific when using hashtags: The more specific you get with your hashtag, the more narrowed your target audience becomes, generally meaning better engagement
Use relevant, unbranded hashtags: your hashtag doesn’t need to mention your brand name, but should represent what it stands for.
Don’t over-do your hashtagging: Keep it short and sweet. Make sure your hashtag is easy to search and engage with, rather than being long and complicated.
Don’t have more hashtags than words: Excessive amounts of hashtags will not get you the followers you want. Too many hashtags often leads to a broad audience, as your message becomes diluted. Instead, try to be specific, and hashtag the words you think your audience will be searching for.
Once you got the do’s and don’ts in your back pocket, figuring out how hashtags work on each social network will help you attract the audience you want with the right social media platform:
Being the network that introduced the hashtag, Twitter is the platform to use hashtags as once you start typing one in it filters options for you that are already used on the platform. Keep it around 1-3 hashtags. The Discover tab also features the top-talked about hashtags that are trending on the site.
Interacting with a Facebook hashtag takes you to a page with posts that are visible to you based on user’s privacy settings. Once you post with a hashtag and share it to the public that post will be accessible to anyone on Facebook that searches for that particular hashtag. Anymore than 5 hashtags will result in a decline in post interaction, but we suggest keeping it around 1-3.
Since Instagram is all pictures and short videos, hashtags are huge when looking to increase interaction on posts. Once a hashtag is interacted with, users are taken to a page full of pictures posted with the same hashtag. Interaction with posts jump to a high level when 10+ hashtags are used in a post, so feel free to let loose on this platform.
You need not worry about figuring out your own hashtags on Google+, as the platform lets users enter their own along with automatically adding hashtags to posts without them. It’s better to pick your own hashtags rather than letting the system do it, and try to keep the number of hashtags to around 3.
Follow these simple do’s and don’ts when looking to add some flare to your social media posts through the use of hashtags. Remember to be mindful of what platform you’re on and tailor your content to attract the narrow audience that you want.