In today’s world of social media, users can quickly get bogged down by information overload. Using hashtags makes it easy to cut through the digital clutter and focus only on the information we really want. Hashtags are typically used on social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, and Facebook.
Hashtags can be used to get your content in front of a bigger audience, raise awareness about your brand, target a very specific group of people, boost your SEO, and use hot trends and topics to your advantage.
The following are some of the greatest benefits a good hashtagging strategy can provide:
1. Increase Brand Awareness
Hashtags have the fantastic ability to connect your brand with many famous and incredibly visible topics.
The use of the right hashtags will drive new viewers to your social media and allow you to engage with them. When you use hashtags carefully, it helps you expand your reach to a targeted audience and improve customer relations. The more comfortable your followers feel with your brand, the more likely they are to interact with you on social media.
For example, hashtags related to health and nutrition can help you to get your posts (and your product and brand message) in front of people who have an interest in these subjects and they will be more inclined to check out your business.
2. Keep Up with the Competition
Social media hashtags make it easier for you to find your competitors online. They also help you to check out their social media campaigns and get an idea of what’s going on with the common target audience.
For example, if you find another brand selling products similar to yours, you can check out the hashtags they used in their posts and then look for which hashtags have generated the most audience engagement. When it comes to choosing your own hashtags for your posts, it becomes easier for you and your team members to select them.
3. Improving Search Results
Hashtagging is an easy way to find posts on specific topics or moods. When you use the right hashtags in your content, the chance of your target audience finding your content increases. That’s because their search will return relevant results, and your content will have a chance to feature in those results due to the right hashtags used.
For example, when you write your posts make sure to add as many hashtags as relevant to your posts. Even common terms that go with your posts if used in your hashtags, will invite more audience.
4. Describing your Content
Great photos are the key to success on social media and should not be overlooked. Make sure you use great hashtags that describe your photos accurately so that you get found by people searching for content similar to yours.
5. Promoting your Content
Hashtagging is a great way to engage your followers and give them an opportunity to participate in what you’re doing. If you create your own hashtags, people can easily follow those particular topics.
As a marketer, you want to reach out to your community using a hashtag, especially during special events and offers.
However, if you want others to join in on the conversation, you need to engage the audience by using unique hashtags. You can’t use generic hashtags, such as #marketing or #seo, and expect people to engage with your post.
6. Improve your Reputation
When your existing and potential customers use your brand’s hashtags, they’re essentially using the virtual version of word-of-mouth marketing to spread the word about what your business has to offer.
This type of promotion helps to boost your company’s reputation, and it gets more people interested in what you’re selling. Over time, this adds credibility to your brand and can improve your bottom line.
7. Grow your Local Audience
If you want to attract more customers in your area, using local hashtags can make a big difference.
Let’s say you run a coffee shop in San Francisco. Something like #SanFranciscocoffeeshop or #SanFranciscocoffeeseller could make a big difference when it comes to catching the attention of people who are in the area or traveling to the area and looking for a local coffee shop to visit.
8. Getting Feedback from your Followers
It is important to listen and respond when followers have something to say and require. Hashtags allow you to track customer input and feedback easily. They’re especially great for gathering opinions on promotions, events, and more. Taking this input into consideration will ensure that your social media pages operate smoothly without any hiccups along the way!
9. Specifying your Niche
Whatever type of content you’re sharing on your pages, the best hashtags will lead people to the content they are interested in. Hashtags are the best way to specify your niche, location, and any other details you want people on social media to know about.
Hashtags are an essential part of social media strategy. They give your brand more exposure so you can spread the word about your product to a massive audience. Besides, when you use it multiple times on different channels, people will easily remember your hashtag.
However, each social media platform has its own benefitting hashtags frequency and crossing it might lead to lesser engagement. In fact, using 10+ hashtags can reduce engagement by 68.2%, as inferred from the Social Baker study.
- Twitter: Because of character count restrictions, avoid using more than 2 hashtags per tweet for best engagement.
- Facebook: Use 2 hashtags on Facebook; one popular hashtag and one custom hashtag for your brand.
- Instagram: It allows up to 30; however, keep it to no more than 9 per post for better engagement.
- LinkedIn: There is no constraint on the usage of hashtags. But it has been recommended to limit it to a maximum of 5. Otherwise, LinkedIn Algorithm could mark your posts as spam.
- Pinterest: Use 2 hashtags on Pinterest to help pinners to find relevant content.
- TikTok: Use 4-5 hashtags on TikTok to boost your reach on the platform.
Hence, hashtags are an essential tool in today’s social media world. They not only provide you with increased exposure and engagement but also help to analyze the competition by looking at what they are hashtagging about. Before jumping right on board, though; try to find out how to make the most out of them.
When using hashtags, make sure that they are relevant and fit your content. Instead of copying and pasting entire lists saved, try to add some creativity to each of your posts by finding the keywords and phrases which best describe your content for your target audience.
Need help coming up with your own social media hashtags and/or content? Contact us and we’ll help!
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