Hashtags and How to Use Them for Better Engagement
Many people wonder about the word hashtag, its meaning, and how it can be used, given its widespread use and frequent appearance on many social media platforms.
The main goal of using a hashtag is to group content with a unique orientation or a specific topic under one category so that it is easy to find on various social platforms.
They first spread through the tweets that Chris Messina posted on his Twitter account, in which he called on tweeters to use this method to group related tweets under one category. That was in 2007.
Many social networking sites allow this classification, with Twitter and Instagram being the most used.
Rules and basics of use
Here are some general rules on how to write a hashtag:
- It always begins with a # sign.
- It consists of one or more words without spaces.
- The account must be public for hashtags to show on search results.
Hashtag Categories
The idea of hashtag classification may seem a bit strange to some users of social networking sites, but the truth is that there are different classifications for these hashtags.
With the diversity of its use, hashtag-appropriate classification becomes an urgent necessity for its success and spread.
There are many classifications, the most important of which are:
Brand Hashtags
Choosing your brand name as a hashtag is not necessary.
Instead, it’s possible to use an attractive slogan that quotes your company logo, provided the uniqueness of the words that make up your hashtags are carefully studied.
Trending Hashtags
In this type of use, make sure the trending hashtags are related to your brand, service, or content you intend to promote.
The unwise use of trending hashtags might be considered SPAM due to the use of the word or words out of their original and natural context. Therefore, you should avoid such implementation for your campaign to be successful.
Campaign Hashtags
It is usually associated with marketing campaigns for products and services. Promotion, in this case, is intended to increase interaction and speed of spread.
The campaign in this circumstance isn’t to promote a new product or service only, but rather it can be the goal of promoting the brand itself.
In this context, and to make a campaign successful, a specific incentive can be helpful to increase the spread. These incentives often could be discounts, contests, prizes, or free subscriptions to the service.
Content Hashtags
You can use content hashtags in posts you edit on social media platforms, provided they are consistent and relevant to the content used in a particular social media post.
Adding hashtags to the content of your posts will probably increase the chances of its appearing in front of social media feeds and search results.
The hashtags used are not necessarily reflective of your brand. They are used on such platforms to attract an interested audience.
You can use plain text, images, videos, or a combination for the same topic considering the maximum number of hashtags allowed on each social media platform.
How to Use Hashtags to Skyrocket Your Brand
1. Use hashtags that correspond to your type of activity.
Choosing the appropriate words for the activity you practice that are compatible with the content you publish is one of the main reasons for the success and spread of those hashtags.
2. Use short, meaningful words that are easy to be remembered.
Sometimes you may have to use more than one word to classify the content to be shared, especially when thinking about launching some marketing campaigns for a specific product or service. In this case, you should focus on using words that accurately describe your campaigns and shortening their number as much as possible.
3. Control the number of hashtags in a single post.
The number of hashtags used is platform-specific.
There may be no comparison between the recommended number of hashtags on Facebook and Instagram, even though they belong to the same company. They have a different publishing policy.
4. Don’t use the same hashtags in all your posts.
Some accounts may resort to repeating the use of words in each post and cramming them in a way that may not seem logical and irrelevant to your content.
In this case, it is advised not to repeat and limit the use of the hashtag in posts with compatible content to get more interaction with the readers of this post.
Relevancy is very important.
5. Leverage and reuse your followers’ content.
Many followers resort to using hashtags that refer to your business and the product or service you provide through the content of their posts and tweets, and reusing such words will make your business more popular.
Here comes the role of searching or using the appropriate tools to learn and benefit from what others publish, as such content is an unpaid advertisement that contributes to a greater spread of your services and products.
