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How to use a # Hashtag for social media marketing. Almost everyone is either on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest or Google+.
While using social media, you may have come across popular hashtags such as #love, #food, #marketing, or you may have even used them yourself.
So questions like:
- What is a hashtag?
- Why do people use hashtags?
May not bother you because you have quite a good idea about it. But don’t you want to know about the hashtag marketing campaign and how you can use it strategically for your business?
You can make a great impact on your content reach, brand, market, by using hashtags strategically.
It can increase the chances for your content to be found and considerably improve your SEO.
For this, let us consider answers to important questions like, why use hashtags and how does a hashtag work.
Understanding Hashtags
If you want to know how to create a hashtag, well, you simply type the hashtag symbol # followed by a word, or a group of words.
To get started, search the internet for a list of popular hashtags, best hashtags ever, best brand hashtags, and the latest hashtag trends to get an idea of how hashtags are being used for marketing.
You also need to know how to use hashtags correctly. You can read articles on:
When used along with your brand for marketing, this can achieve great results in engaging your customers.
It increases the visibility of your brand, making your followers feel more comfortable with it, in turn enhancing your online presence.
Using a hashtag helps link your brand with other popular and trending topics. This opens out your presence to new viewers interested in those topics. Of course, the saying, “too much of anything is good for nothing,” holds true in this case too.
So to best utilize the power of hashtags, you must be careful not to use too many of them.
In this way, you avoid spamming your followers which defeats the core purpose of hashtags.
Here are some tips that can help you use hashtag effectively for your social media campaign.
#1. Don’t Overuse Hashtags
You don’t like a person trying too hard to please you, do you?
The same applies to businesses marketing themselves using social media.
You don’t really need to hashtag every post. It may actually drive off your followers and annoy them.
Just one hashtag is usually perfect, but you can use a maximum of two when it makes sense.
Put yourself in the place of your prospective customers and consider what you would like to see in a post if you are to follow it.
Obviously, overuse of hashtags can kill your interest (not to mention annoy the wits out of you).
Examples:
Avoid hashtags like: #love #TagsForLikes #TFLers #tweegram #photooftheday #20likes #amazing #smile #follow4follow #like4like #look #instalike #igers #picoftheday #instadaily #instafollow #followme #girl #iphoneonly #instagood #bestoftheday #instacool #instago #all_shots #webstagram #colorful #style #swag
Just a simple #tbt also known as “Throwback Thursday,” is a popular hashtag for those learning how to market on Instagram. It encourages people to post images taken in the past.
#2. Keep Hashtag Relevant
A hashtag helps define the category of your content and gives your followers a hint of the topic.
Therefore, it is vital that you choose a short and simple hashtag that your followers can relate to and that’s relevant to your business.
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This helps your audience get a clear idea of what to expect from your content and they are more likely to click your hashtags and follow through on what your brand promotes.
Avoid using sentences as hashtags as they become long and sometimes give unclear and wrong messages and you may end up driving away customers rather than attracting them.
Examples:
#nowthatchersdead can be read in two ways: #NowThatChersDead and #NowThatchersDead, confusing your followers.
#followme and #superfoods are quite clear as to the intention and topic.
#3. Check on What Is Trending
Hashtags that most people are talking about currently, usually sensational news topics or events that are taking place in the world, are known as trending hashtags.
You can find these on Twitter, Google+ and hashtag monitoring sites such as hashtags.org and Trendsmap.
If you come across a trending hashtag that relates to your business, use it in your post. This opens up your post and makes your brand visible to a larger audience and not just your followers.
Ensure that the particular hashtag adds value to your conversation before using it. If it does, your post will be shared by many people, in turn increasing your overall brand awareness.
Examples:
#4. Don’t Stick To Just One Social Media Channel
Hashtags started on Twitter and spread across to almost all social media platforms.
And we all know that the more people see something, the more they will remember it.
You can use this fact to your business advantage and market your product on multiple social media channels, thus exposing your brand to a wider audience.
Simply use the hashtag before the keyword on all the social media channels you’re on. This is a sure shot online marketing strategy to familiarize people with your brand or product and this is what all successful social media marketers do for every one of their campaigns.
#5. Stick to the Point
A well-chosen hashtag can do wonders for marketing your brand. But you need to keep in mind that different channels use hashtags differently and you just cannot afford to remain ignorant as a marketing person.
It really pays to keep yourself updated and informed on the new features and innovations in social media. This ensures that you know and follow the best practices and hence utilize them to the fullest.
#6. Don’t Plagiarize Hashtags
If you want to engage your audience and invite others to join the conversation and interact, you need to use hashtags well.
Hashtags such as #food, #marketing or #seo are very generic and saturated.
If you want people to re-share or re-tweet your post you need to use a unique and specific hashtag. Try not to copy someone’s hashtags blindly.
Using hashtags that simply pop out of your mind are not a great idea either because no one may be following it.
If you want to make sure that you’re not plagiarizing hashtags, search for them before using.
You certainly don’t want to be in trouble later on down the line for actually ending up promoting someone else’s campaign instead, leading to your downfall.
#7. Search Before You Use Them
The importance of researching a particular hashtag just cannot be stressed enough.
Though it is true that hashtags help you build up audiences, make them aware of your brand, encourage conversation, and also increase your sales, you also need to be very careful while choosing them.
Make sure you check each social media channel for your hashtag before you zero in on it.
Sometimes it may be used for the wrong reason, or it may be ambiguous as to interpretation. Drop such a hashtag, since it may do more harm than help your brand.
It is good to find out if your competitors are using that particular hashtag for their own promotion too.
Once you get to know what competition is using, plan to use the same or similar hashtags strategically so that you can up your game and slowly become the leader in your domain.
#8. Engage Your Users
A hashtag connects your brand to various trending, visible topics that people are talking about.
It brings in a wave of fresh new viewers to your page. Now it’s up to you to catch them and keep them engaged.
Wisely chosen hashtags enhance the visibility of your brand and familiarize people with it.
But do remember to limit the use of hashtags to your posts. Do not use them in dialogues with your customers or followers.
It not necessary to use hashtags in re-tweets or replies either. You focus on having genuine conversations with your followers and let your posts do the marketing.
After all, there is much more that is conveyed to users in what is said than what is unsaid, especially if you use your hashtags appropriately.
In Summary
The smart use of hashtags can go a long way towards building your social marketing campaign.
So evaluate your options and understand how best to use hashtags if you are not to make the same redundant mistakes that many people have made and continue making.
In a market that is saturated with tons of people competing with each other, it is certainly possible to get past this cut-throat competition with the right application of your strategies.
So choose the right trending hashtags and use them well to build your online brand image, engage your users and become a leader in your very own niche to build your business.
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