The use of hashtags can be helpful for businesses of any size that are looking to elevate their social media marketing strategies. A hashtag is a word or number following the # symbol. It is sometimes called an octothorpe or the pound sign. You’ll notice hashtags used often on social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok. Other websites like LinkedIn and Youtube have also made use of hashtags.
Websites and applications utilize hashtags to help users get easy access to content that they wish to view. Once content is posted with a specific hashtag, it is connected to other content with the same hashtag. This allows the content to become searchable by users.
This is great for businesses to curate content for their target audience. For example, a clothing retailer could promote their summer clothing online by including hashtags such as #SummerVibes or #SummerBathingSuits.
Effective Strategies You Can Use
Social media platforms and websites use hashtags in similar ways. However, there are methods you can use for each social network to take advantage of its algorithm.
When using hashtags on Instagram, it’s best to use three to five hashtags per post. When you post your hashtags, try using them in comments, stories, and your posts’ text. It’s important to only use hashtags that are relevant to the content you are posting. It may not be an effective approach to target an unintended audience.
Facebook hasn’t released official information on how to best utilize hashtags on its website in many years. However, businesses can still find ways to benefit from the social media site. Social media experts suggest using only one or two hashtags per post. It’s suggested that businesses use hashtags related to timely events.
TikTok
Businesses have reported finding much success with using hashtags on TikTok videos. As one of the newly popular social media sites, TikTok opens up businesses to a new audience and possible target audience. When using hashtags for TikTok use between three or five hashtags for the best results. This site is also driven by trends so try to use hashtags that are popular at the time you post. You can use hashtags in videos and TikTok stories.
Twitter is one of the most hashtag-friendly social websites. Using hashtags on Twitter can help promote your products or services. Use one or two hashtags per post. You can also use hashtags in replies, and retweets. Social media experts suggest using hashtags related to events, holidays, and anything trendy that can relate to your business.
LinkedIn is a popular social networking website and it also uses hashtags to connect people. You can use hashtags on this site that are industry-specific. Try to limit your hashtags to three per post. Hashtags will show up on your posts and your business’s page.
One More Thing…
Part of effectively using hashtags involves finding out which hashtags your business should use for social media. When developing your strategy, you should think about impressions and engagements. Impressions are words or phrases that your customers would use to find the product or service. While engagement hashtags are used to find and interact with your customers.
Pick a social media site and search hashtags that you think would be a good fit for impressions and engagement. For example, when using Instagram, if you see a hashtag that has more than 500,000 posts attached to it, you may want to avoid it. This means that the hashtag is being used by a lot of people and businesses which you might think is a good thing. However, it could also mean that your posts will get lost among the thousands of other posts using the same hashtag.
Look to use hashtags that have under 500,000 posts and keep a record of these hashtags. You can create a Google Document to help you keep track of this. You can also create categories for hashtags that will relate to your business and what you will be posting. For example, some categories for a restaurant could be location, food, drinks, holidays, etc.
The Best Strategy for Your Business
An effective method of implementing an effective social media strategy may be to employ a service that can focus on it while you handle other daily tasks. Digital Mules can help elevate your brand and help you to expand your reach. Our goal is to assist companies to achieve their desired levels of success.
Our services include but are not limited to developing content strategies, profile management, content calendars, social media posting, and engagement. Please contact us to set up a discovery call and determine how we can optimize your online presence!
