Whenever I feel a need to verify something, Google is not my first choice. Instead, I use Twitter to confirm the news. Why? Because on Twitter, I can find news in real-time. Without working too much, I can verify news in a blink of an eye.
Unless you are not living under a rock you exactly know what the no. sign means and the power of it cannot be overstated. Born in 2007, the hashtags have evolved as a major social lingo.
You know those blue-colored keywords that appear on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn and even on tiktok with a “#” before them. They are hashtags that decide the trend of the market.
You must be living in 1770 if you deny the power of hashtags
What’s going to happen in #LaCasaDePapel’s next episode?
This may seem off beat to you but all the Money Heist fans use the power of hashtags to find the relevant information.
Similarly, Marvel comics fans search for #IronMan to find out how Tony Stark leads the team of superheroes in the IronMan 2
People use hashtags to find specific posts or topics that interest them. There are certain types of hashtags that attract customers and if you are willing to be found on social media, hashtag is your way to appear in front of the search results that your target audience will get.
Why use hashtags?
- Do you know that more than 200+ million Instagrammers visit one business profile every day?
- There are 500,000 active influencers on Instagram.
- With over 145 million active users, Twitter is a go-to place for brands to market their products.There are plenty of reasons that can convince you to use hashtags on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and even on LinkedIn. But let’s keep it simple and easy to grasp:
- Hashtags will increase your engagement with users.
- It is reported that tweets with hashtags get 55% more retweeted than those with no hashtag at all.
- Hashtags are the fastest way to establish a reputation for your brand. Whether you are using promotions or announcing a new product, you can use a hashtag to grab the attention of interested people easily.
- You can use hashtags to find your target audience or vice versa.
As you might have known that Facebook has limited its organic reach so that people use more promotions.
Whether you use social media marketing or not, the only way to get out there in front of your target audience is to leverage the power of hashtags in social media.
Rules of Using Hashtags
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Memorable: It’s necessary to engage as many people as you can. And to do that, you must pick a hashtag that can easily be memorized.
Not Just Brand Name: Avoid using the brand name as a hashtag with every tweet or update that you send on social media.
Research: Before you even start using hashtags, you must use tools to know the right hashtags. We will discuss it later in the blog.
Relevant: Of course, you cannot pick every other hashtag. You must pick those hashtags that are relevant to your brand.
Use it everywhere: If you want people to think and talk about it, you must use hashtags on every platform.
Consistent: The critical ingredient of hashtags success on social media is to stay consistent.
Insanely Easy Ways to Find Trending Hashtags
Now that you have an idea of what is a hashtag and why it is essential, it is time to learn how to find the best hashtags for your business?
Because even if you can get engagement, build your brand, find your audience, nothing will matter if you have leveraged the wrong hashtags.
Here are some quick tips for finding the right hashtags:
1. Monitor the Influencers: If there is anyone who knows how to use hashtags, it is the influencers. HashtagifyMe is an excellent tool to search for specific keywords on Twitter and Instagram. You can use this tool to see which keywords the top influencers are using.
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Upon searching the keyword “health,” you’ll see that there are influencers on Twitter and Instagram that are using this hashtag.
This will give you a clear idea of which niche can give you maximum traffic on the website.
If you have a specific niche, try to pick influencers from that niche. An influencer from the same niche can bring authenticity to your brand value.
2. What’s Trending: Away from influencers, you must keep an eagle eye on what is trending in the industry. When you know the trending topics in your industry, it will be easy to increase your brand awareness. Use a tool like RiteTag to get instant real-time data updates on social media. This will help you to keep an eye on the latest trends in social media.
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3. Be specific: You must understand that the deeper you go in your niche, the more natural it will be to attract the relevant customers. For instance, if you sell handbags, you can create a board on Pinterest and use hashtags to generate sales.
Image Courtesy: https://www.pinterest.ca/ecrf/leather-bags-and-purses/
Try to pick a theme that people are passionate about. When people share an interest, you can target them with a hashtag and create engagement around that interest.
Find all the hashtags that fit in your niche and use them as much as you can. When people see these hashtags, it should remind them of your brand.
4. Use Relevant Unbranded Hashtags: It is not necessary that as a brand, you use your brand name. You can create a hashtag that is unbranded but still attracts the relevant customers to your brand.
For instance, when British Columbia created the hashtag #exploreBC, they were able to share the iconic photos from the city to attract people.
Embed link: https://www.instagram.com/hellobc/?utm_source=ig_embed
When people saw photos from the #exploreBC hashtag, they were able to recognize the brand, and without mentioning the name, the brand was able to create a powerful impact on their social media accounts.
Unbranded hashtags are a great way to create user-generated content. For instance, if you remember the popular #DoUsAFlavor hashtag by Lay’s, that enabled people to share their best flavor ideas, in that the brand created much engagement and collected ideas for a new product.
Source: https://www.lays.com/
The brand was able to gather many insights on what the users are thinking, and, on that information, it was easy for the brand to create campaigns that people loved.
You can use unbranded hashtags in campaigns and promotions. You can try various hashtags and see which of the hashtags attracts your target audience. Stick to the ones that are giving you attention and value.
How to Use Hashtags on Social Media Platforms?
Now it’s time to break down how to use hashtags on social media to promote your business?
Using Hashtags on Twitter
Ideal hashtags: 1 – 2
It is not a surprise that Twitter is a fantastic platform to use hashtags, considering that the trend originated from the platform.
The users use the Twitter Search feature to search a top trending via a hashtag.
As long as people are using hashtags to search topics, brands can take advantage of that.
A tweet with a hashtag will be visible to the audience, and people will search and engage with anyone who is giving some useful information regarding the topic.
As mentioned earlier, you must keep the trending hashtag relevant to the values of your brand.
Using Hashtags on Instagram
Ideal Hashtags: 9 – 15
For the past couple of years, digital marketers and influencers are using Instagram to sell products like hotcakes.
The good thing with Instagram is that you can use hashtags in stories and make it more visible to potential users.
When you use hashtags on Instagram, there is no limit in the number of hashtags that you can use. This gives it leverage over Twitter, which provides a bit with low favor to hashtags when compared to Instagram.
Of course, you cannot use any hashtags you like, and you use hashtags that are relevant to your brand. The ones that will create a clear perception of your brand in the eyes of the users.
Using Hashtags on Facebook
Ideal Hashtags: 1 – 2
Like Twitter, you must keep minimum hashtags on Facebook.
Unlike Twitter, most of the profiles on Facebook are private, so it leaves less room for targeting people that don’t have their profile public.
However, you can use hashtags in Facebook Groups that will give you a chance to reach the relevant people without even bothering them. Only those who feel that your hashtag is worth their time will engage with you, and if you are good, they will make a sale.
You can also use hashtags to start a conversation. When people learn about a conversation that interests them, they will jump right in without even worrying about privacy at all.
Lastly, with Facebook hashtags, you’ll be able to know precisely which of the hashtags are working for your brand, and you can use those hashtags for Facebook promotions.
Using Hashtags on LinkedIn
Ideal Hashtags: 1 – 2
Hashtags on LinkedIn will operate differently than other social media platforms. LinkedIn is a network for professionals. So, it would help if you used decent hashtags that don’t sound like you are spamming the network.
Like Facebook and Twitter, people will search and follow hashtags that are useful for their career or help them in any way. This means that you can use hashtags for articles and posts with keywords that relate to your brand.
And it’s simple: Whenever you write an update or article, add the hashtag using the # symbol as you would other social platforms.
Just keep in mind that whatever hashtags you use, make it straightforward and professional. This means that you are creating an impact with every hashtag you use. Every hashtag will reveal the personality aspect of your brand.
Using Hashtags on Pinterest
Ideal Hashtags: 7-8
If your business is related to eCommerce, then Pinterest can serve as a heaven for your business. You can search with the relevant hashtag of your industry and see which specific hashtags you can use.
Mostly, people on Pinterest come to search for product ideas. But in some cases, they search hashtags for products too. For instance, in the example above, the customer was looking for a handbag, and the relevant hashtag landed them on a brand page.
However, on Pinterest, just using hashtag won’t be enough. You must hire a professional photographer to shoot product photos. And even if you are selling the only service, you might want to use high-quality photos to attract customers.
Winding it up
The purpose of using a hashtag is to make the brand more visible. Regardless of whichever platform you use to get your hashtag out there, you must understand the mission and values of your brand before you start searching for relevant hashtags.
It is essential to know that each hashtag will add an element to your brand personality. Just like humans’ brands also have personalities that people perceive when they interact with the brand.
Using hashtags is a way to communicate your message in an organized way. And when you want to scale more, hashtags can get the attention of people that you haven’t even dream of.
Every brand is trying its best to understand the power of hashtags. But one thing is for sure. The brands and influencers who know how a hashtag will boost their sales, they will come back and reread this blog.
Author Bio
Alma Causey is a Freelance writer by day and sports fan by night. She writes about tech education and health related issues. Live simply, givegenerously, watch football and a technology lover. https://muckrack.com/alma-causey
