The ultimate guide to using hashtags on social media

Social media marketing is all about driving traffic to your profile and increasing engagement on your platform. Hashtags serve as a great way of making your content discoverable and improving its visibility.

Although hashtags started on Twitter, they have become an integral part of every other social media platform including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and YouTube.

What is a hashtag?

Hashtags are the keywords of social media. Hashtags are words or phrases without spaces, starting with a “#” sign used to group together similar content on social media.

How do hashtags help?

Using hashtags not only helps a brand to be discoverable but also, helps a user to find content that interests them.

• Hashtags allow categorising posts.

• Hashtags help in increasing reach and engagement.

• Hashtags make content easily discoverable.

• Hashtags allow connecting with users with similar interests.

How to create hashtags?

When creating hashtags, a few things need to be considered:

• A hashtag always starts with a “#” sign.

• Numbers are allowed in hashtags.

• Punctuation, symbols and spaces are not allowed in hashtags.

• Keep hashtags simple, relevant and easy to understand.

• Make the hashtag unique.

• Don’t make a too-long hashtag. For example, #keepitsimpleuniquerelevanteasywithoutspaces.

• Keep the first letter of each word capital in case it is difficult to read. For example, #FirstLetter.

Types of Hashtags

• Industry hashtags are general and used by millions of users. It helps the algorithms understand what your posts are about and help users find posts as every one may not know the niche hashtags. Use 1-2 industry hashtags. For example, #socialmediamarketing, #photographer.
  

• Niche hashtags further define a brand. These are less competitive than industry ones and help reach a specific set of audience interested. Use 2-4 depending on your niche. For example, #contentcreation, #babyphotographer.
  

• Brand hashtags are unique for each brand as their name or logo. It helps in grouping a brand’s posts. It could be used for encouraging users to mention a brand. You can use 2-3 hashtags.For example, #marketinglaunchpad, #BMWrepost.
  

• Campaign or event hashtags are specifically used for any marketing campaign or event. For example, #CREDPowerPlay in IPL 2022.

Choosing the right hashtags for your brand

When creating content for social media, hashtags are one of the important part of the content. Choosing the right hashtags will help in reaching the right set of audience.

Research for hashtags

Research on social media platforms to know which hashtags are being used by competitors and others in the industry, check their usage, popularity, etc. You can also research hashtags on hashtag finder websites.

Use relevant hashtags

Relevance is a crucial factor when choosing hashtags for a social media post. Using too general hashtags, the posts might get lost in a sea of other posts. Using too niche hashtags, the posts might not reach a wider audience. So how do you choose relevant hashtags?

One needs to have a mix of industry, post, brand, campaign, event, and other relevant hashtags to get a perfect balance.

Don’t use too many hashtags

Using too many hashtags can be spammy. It may get you more reach but the audience may not be relevant to the brand. Using 5-10 hashtags is considered to be good. But you can always play with these numbers if it helps you. Make sure the hashtags are relevant and the posts are reaching the right audience.

Pick up trending hashtags

Trending hashtags are popular hashtags at a particular time. These can help you get more reach in short term. Search for the trending hashtags in your niche. Before using them in posts, check if they relate to your brand.

Where to find hashtags?

A little research is all it takes to find the hashtags relevant to your brand.

Monitor your competitors

Research and check your competitor’s posts. Check which hashtags they are using, how often they use those hashtags, and how many hashtags they use. This will give you an idea of what kind of hashtags you need to use to attract your target audience and engage with them.

Keep an eye on trending hashtags

Trending hashtags can be helpful to reach a wider set of audiences. Monitor trends in your industry and pick up the hashtag that is relevant to your brand.

Use hashtag finder tools

There are a lot of tools available that one can use to find hashtags to use in social media posts. Some of them are:

• Hashtagify Hashtagify is a hashtag research and tracking tool. The free version of the tool allows to search for trending hashtags and gives a report of their search and use in the past week or month. It also suggests related hashtags. The paid version gives in-depth analytics and full reports on hashtags for Twitter and Instagram.
  

• Ritetag RiteTag gives you instant hashtag suggestions for images and texts. It can be used on desktop and mobile. It even has a chrome extension. You can even group together hashtags and compare them.
  

• Keyword Tool Keyword Tool can be used to find hashtags and keywords. It can be used for Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube. It can be used without creating an account for free. It has a paid version too.

Getting the right hashtags

Now that you know what is a hashtag, how to use them, and where to find them. It will be a lot easier to use them in your posts. But don’t forget to track the results. Make a few sets of hashtags, use them for a month, and see how they are performing. If any time you think, any hashtag isn’t working, stop using it and go for another one.

After all, what’s working today may not work tomorrow. This is how social media marketing works. One cannot stay constant on one thing. Want to learn more about social media marketing, enrol in our Social Media Bootcamp course and learn social media marketing the practical way.

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