Social Media Hashtags for Business

Best Hashtag Strategy for Social Media?

The concept of hashtags may be widely popular across online platforms but it is not widely understood result of which poor hashtag strategies get executed. Most people see it as a mere “trend” of social media. Uninformed usage of hashtags can cause poor engagement with your audience. Thus, it is important for us to begin with a brief introduction about hashtags and their usage.

A hashtag is a symbol of hash (#) followed by a word without spaces. For example, #SocialMedia. The basic function of hashtags is to categorize content online, both for the users and the creators. They enable posts to get indexed and allow people to discover and view it.

Magic of #Tag:

If you search for a particular hashtag on one platform, you will get all the posts with that hashtag. This way we can view all the posts that carry the same hashtag in real time under a single search result.

When many people use a certain hashtag, it becomes trending. These trends, however, change with metrics of time, region, platform, etc.

Difference between Keywords, Tags, Hashtags and @?

It is easy to get the four mixed up but this should set things straight.

A. Keywords:

We relate this to your SEO. It is the set of words that your main content is centeredaround which is used in SEO strategies, titles, subheadings, and your main content.

B. Tags:

This functions within a website and helps you in categorizing your own content. Thus, if the reader needs to go over a certain theme, they can do so. For example, Poems, articles, essays, etc.

C. @:

The @ symbol applicable across various social media platforms to mention an account or an individual person. Mention the person/company name inserting this symbol. Example @Onlineseoblog.

D. Hashtags:

These sometimes represent keywords, tags and even @.

HashTags Rules for Social Media:

Before writing the Hashtag Strategy for Social Media let’s cover the basics rule: 

• Don’t overdo it:

Different hashtags work on different platforms and types of content, ensure that you do extensive research to figure out which hashtags will work best for your content. Do not mindlessly make a hashtag out of every word.

• Keep them short:

Shorter hashtags are easier to remember. Since there are no spaces between words in hashtags, if they are too long, readers are likely to skip.

• Be specific:

There are a plethora of online creators using hashtags to promote their content. If you use generic hashtags alone, your content may not do so well, getting lost in a black hole of the internet.

• Keeping track of your competitors:

Hashtags can be a helpful tool to gauge how your competitors are doing and learn from them.

How to create your own hashtags?

Planning a good marketing strategy can go a long way in engaging users with your content. Creating the right hashtags for all of your campaigns is an essential part of it. Here are few pointers to get you started:

• Contextualize:

Think and plan according to your field, the product/service/information you are promoting, the platform you will use, etc. Do not use generic or dead hashtags. Try to remain rooted in your own context.

• Capital Letters:

Again, since hashtags have no space between words, it is better to give your readers the benefit of the doubt and use capital letters so that the readers are not confused about what the hashtag is aiming to mean. For example, #UseCapitalLetters

• Mix it up:

If you use the same hashtags with all of your posts across social platforms, you are not optimizing your reach. Be more varied. Make use of insights about various trends and analytics tools to help you figure what fits better for a particular platform and type of content.

• Keep a lookout:

Pay attention to your content and competitors’. Keep a track of what getting you more exposure and what does not seem to work. Always be alert and on the lookout for new trends and opportunities.

How to execute hashtag research?

Social media managers and campaigners should put in the research to figure out their online niche, its users and ways to appeal to them. Optimizing your hashtags will boost your SEO efforts and help improve page ranking.

The easiest way to go about it would be to observe and analyze how your competitors in the field are doing and what seems to work for them. But for quality analysis of large data updated in real time, employ a renowned online tool.

• RiteTag:

This tool offers suggestions and reports about how well your content is doing across various platforms in real time.

• Tweet Binder:

It compiles lists of similar hashtags to your search query and also provides the latest posts for those hashtags.

• Hashtagify.me:

This is a free useful tool that can efficiently map out all data metrics for a particular hashtag.

• Tagboard:

Shows hashtags used across a wide variety of social media platforms.

How do use hashtags on social media?

A strategic way of Social Media is yet to cover before please have a look at how to use HashTag on various social media platforms: 

• Twitter:

I say one or two relevant hashtags in a tweet to be an optimal mark for engagement on Twitter. Appealing to your audience to retweet hashtags can also increase engagement as people are always looking to be a part of online conversations. Twitonomy is an effective tool for understanding trends on Twitter.

• Facebook:

Crowding your posts with a lot of hashtags will get you nowhere on facebook. It is much more advisable to pick up on the most effective hashtags and mix them up while posting. Using over two hashtags per post may decrease user engagement.

• Instagram:

The numbers may work in your favor. You can use as many as 30 hashtags here but usually, 12-13 seem to be best. Do your research on the hashtags that other people in the field are using and proceed accordingly.

• Others:

While specific and targeted hashtags are more successful on sites like YouTube, hashtags are not searchable on Pinterest. Tumblr provides you a list of tags and you can choose the relevant ones for your content.

Strategies for using hashtags on social media:

Here we come with 6 Best Hashtag Strategy for Social Media to enhance traffic and engagement: 

• Social Media Outreach

Do extensive research on the audience you are targeting and the hashtags that are trending with them. Be on the lookout for the most popular hashtags related to your content, region and different platforms. Since hashtags can also serve as pointers to your brand, use them creatively to pique interest in the readers.

• Branded Hashtags

Every brand has a tagline; a subtitle of sorts that explains the essence of the company. Use your tagline as a hashtag to establish your brand image. If people see it on multiple posts and related posts, they will associate it with your brand and increase popularity.

• Social Listening

We can use hashtags as an effective tool for keeping track of your social media mentions and conversing with your users. You can use it to pay attention and respond to the needs and complaints of your users.

• Participate in the online community

The online community is very dynamic and changes with every second. New conversations gain pace and the old (usually) get lost. The users today would like to see some responsibility in their creators, thus it is a good idea to stay updated with the time and take part in relevant conversations.

• Event Engagement

This is a great way to introduce and establish your hashtags and brand. Use your own hashtags for the events you organize, this will help boost visibility and result in better engagement.

• Building a community

Your ultimate aim should always be to provide your users with a hassle-free and enjoyable experience. Being active online in user groups and conversations with your hashtag is a great way to make connections with your users on an individual level and promotes a positive public image.