Everything You Need to Know About Hashtags

On social media, hashtags are one of the best ways to reach more people that are your ideal clients or customers. It's free, and with a little research, you can target your perfect customer. Let's dive into everything you need to know to make the most out of this feature.

What’s a hashtag?

 A hashtag is a pound sign (#) followed by a word. For example "#puppies" or "#AzaleeMaslow". Hashtags are used on social platforms to help users find the content they're looking for. They can also be used to enter into contents ran by brands. 

Why should I use hashtags?

Hashtags are going to help you reach more people that are interested in your content. Ideally, if someone is interested in your content, they'll be interested in your products or services as well. 

Do people really look at hashtags? 

 Yes! If no one looked at hashtags, social platforms wouldn't continue to use them.

Doesn’t using hashtags make me look desperate?

No! Besides...you shouldn't be on social media to "look cool". If you're using it for business, you need people to know what you offer. That's not desperate, that's a succwessful business. 

How many hashtags should I use?

 This depends on the platform!

Instagram - Up to 30 on posts. Up to 11 on stories.

Facebook - Use 1 to 2.

LinkedIn - Use up to 5.

Twitter - Use 1 to 2.

Snapchat - Use geofilters instead of hashtags. 

TikTok - Use 1 to 5.

Where do I put the hashtags?

 This depends on the platforms as well!

Instagram - On posts, put the hashtag in your first comment. If you use a scheduling app, like Buffer, you can schedule that first comment ahead of time. On stories, just put them on the story. If you're using a lot of hashtags on a story, I like to make them tiny by pinching them with my fingers. This way you still reach more users, but you're not cluttering up your story.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok - Put it directly in the post. I'll usually put it before the URL if I'm including one in the post. I'll put it after are within my copy. For example, I might tweet - "Social media is a great marketing tool. #socialmediamanagement" OR "#SocialMedia is a great #marketing tool.". 

What hashtags should I use?

The hashtags you use is what will really make or break this strategy. You want to use hashtags that are relevant to the content you're posting so that the people that discover your content will be interested in you or your business. If you own an ice cream shop and use the hashtag "#love", that's not going to help you to be discovered by the people looking for ice cream. Instead, use a few broad hashtags that are relevent to your niche, some specific hashtags related to your niche, and some hashtags specific to the post. You can also use a few hashtags specific to your company name. Here are a few examples of the hashtags you could use if you owned an ice cream shop in Vegas and were posting a video of rolling ice cream. 

Broad Hashtags - #icecream #icecreamlover #icecreams #icecreamtime #icecreamaddict 

Specific Hashtags - #lvicecream #vegasicecream #vegasicecreamshop

Post Specific Hashtags - #rolledicecream #rolledicecreamvideos #rolledicecreamlv

Company Hashtags - #companyname 

Should I use title casing in my hashtags?

Whether you hashtag #likethis or #LikeThis is completely up to you! #LikeThis is a little easier to read, but if you click on a hashtag to use it's usually written #likethis. My only suggestion is to be consistent with whichever style you choose. 

That's a wrap!

You now know everything you need to start using hashtags to your advantage! This simple change will help you attract your ideal clients or customers. Send me a message if you have any questions about hashtags! 

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