You see them everywhere online. Those little blue pound signs with words attached. Hashtags.
Hashtags have totally taken over social media; so much so that many children don’t even know what a “pound sign” is. The presence of hashtags can be viewed as annoying or as a super helpful marketing tool! Whatever your current opinion of hashtags, here are some tips on how to put them to good use.
#WhatAreThey
Hashtags are links created online that are used to join posts of similar topics. They often follow written content and can be parts of movements, events, or simply silly and fun. When someone clicks on your post’s hashtag they are redirected and see other posts which use the same hashtag.
Using #hashtags
Below are a few ways that hashtags can be used to interact with people online.
Marketing Campaigns
Companies often use a common hashtag or two to link pieces of their marketing campaign together. They can create brand awareness and make a company stand out. To do this, be sure to use a unique hashtag that is special just to you, or indicate your business is taking part by using another company’s hashtag.
Coca Cola’s #ShareaCoke campaign is a great example of the use of a hashtag for marketing. This hashtag is very popular on social media, with 671,849 posts on Instagram alone.
Be on the lookout for the #BlackFriday and #CyberMonday deals this weekend.
Social Causes and Activist Movements
The use of social cause hashtags has a similar purpose to those of marketing campaigns. They focus on bringing people together, raising money or taking a stand.
You may recall the use of the hashtag #IceBucketChallenge to raise funds for the ASL Association in 2014. This trending hashtag campaign helped to raise more than $100 million dollars for the foundation. Other notable hashtags in this category include #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter.
Holidays and National Days
Hashtags can be used to link holidays and let people celebrate together while seeing how others are celebrating. Traditional holidays like #Thanksgiving and #Christmas are a great way to wish people well. #HappyThanksgiving is already trending on Twitter as Americans celebrate this weekend.
Other national and international days happen year round.
Upcoming national/international days coming up include:
- November 24, 2018: #SmallBusinessSaturday- Encourages customers to shop at small businesses
- November 26, 2018: #NationalCakeDay- eat some delicious cake and post a picture in appreciation.
- November 30, 2018: #ComputerSecurityDay- check on your computer security, update passwords, and remove some temporary files.
As your marketing company, we use hashtag calendars like the National Day Calendar to decide what hashtags are appropriate for your posts. Let us know if you would like to opt out on social media posts involving national and international hashtags.
Additional Fun hashtags
Sometimes you’ll want to use a hashtag to add a bit of fun or context. These hashtags can be great, just be sure not to get too overzealous with your tagging! “Trending” items are hashtags which have had a large increase in usage.
Some of the top hashtags this year are:
#food
#photooftheday
#love
#selfie
#style
#Tips
- Keep your hashtags short and sweet. Nothing is worse than trying to guess what something says.
- Plan your hashtags in advance. Think of a hashtag and see if it has been used, and in what context. You don’t want to use a hashtag that has a totally different meaning than you intended.
- Don’t go overboard. Too many hashtags can get overwhelming and cause your message to get watered down.
- Think about the platform. What works on Instagram and Twitter might not work on Facebook. Instagram posters tend to use many hashtags, while Facebook posts with multiple hashtags are frowned upon. As a general rule, it is suggested to use between 5-11 hashtags on Instagram, however, some people claim using 30 is the ultimate number. Test the waters yourself and see what works best for you.
- Consider a monitoring tool. Many analytics tools can be used to monitor the popularity of a particular hashtag. Sites like Tweet Binder, Hashtagify, and Brand24 could be useful if you want to up your hashtag game.
For additional help with hashtags, we’ve linked the help sections from Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Check out what the social sites themselves are saying!