How to use hashtags to promote your business
Ellie Wilbraham - 30 September 2019
What are hashtags?
Hashtags are a word or phrase preceded by a hash sign (#), used on social media platforms to identify messages on a specific topic.
Hashtags are used EVERYWHERE…from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn to name a few, and are a great way to engage target audiences with your content and create conversation about your content.
Whilst hashtags can be a great method for promoting your business online, there are some definite do’s and don’ts when it comes to hashtagging on social media. Follow our top tips on using hashtags effectively and find out how various social media platforms use hashtags in different ways.
Go longtail
Remember, you’re not restricted to just one word; you can hashtag longtail keywords, and hashtagging singular words in a phrase separately to one another may mean that your statement loses its relevance. For example, if you’re creating hashtags surrounding digital marketing, make sure you hashtag #DigitalMarketing and not #Digital #Marketing.
Be consistent
Make sure you are consistent with the formatting of your hashtags of longtail keywords. If you choose to capitalise each word within a hashtag, make sure you do this on all of your posts. Spelling and grammar are also crucial. Make sure your hashtags are spelt correctly as not only do typos look unprofessional, they also mean that your post will be undiscoverable for anyone searching for the correctly spelt version of your hashtag.
Use tools
To use hashtags to their full potential, make use of online tools such as Hashtagify to identifying the most popular hashtags on different platforms. This will help you to maximise your social media strategy and really get your brand out there. You may also decide to use influencers, particularly on Instagram, to help gain exposure and increase awareness of your hashtag.
Be selective
Finally, don’t include an abundance of irrelevant hashtags just for the sake of it. This is pointless, and it will make your posts look spammy and won’t help you to promote your business in the correct way. Instead, be selective of your hashtags and only include them if they’re relevant and don’t feel forced.
Vary your style depending on which platform you’re posting on
The way you use hashtags to promote your business tends to vary depending on what social media platform you are posting on.
Hashtags on Twitter
Hashtags initially originated from Twitter back in 2007 and since then they have gained popularity on a number of other platforms.
Using just one or two hashtags is the optimal number on Twitter. Twitter users can use the search tool within the platform to discover trending hashtags and the top posts related to each hashtag. In this way, you can use hashtags to increase your reach and jump on trend with relevant hashtags.
Hashtags on Facebook
Facebook is also a great platform for businesses to use hashtags on, as long as they are used correctly. Be careful not to include too many hashtags, however, like Twitter, adding one or two relevant hashtags to your posts works to help create conversation around topics related to each specific theme. This will also enable you to increase your organic reach.
Hashtags on Instagram
The use of hashtags is continuously growing on Instagram. Hashtags can now be implemented on posts, in stories and you can even follow specific hashtags.
Whilst a lower number of hashtags is recommended on Facebook and Twitter, Instagram has an optimal number of 9-15 hashtags for each post, with a maximum of 30 in total.
When using hashtags in your Instagram posts, comment below the caption of your post with the relevant hashtags to avoid your captions looking overloaded with content and spam.
Hashtags on LinkedIn
Having introduced hashtags to the platform in 2018, LinkedIn is new to the hashtag scene.
Similarly to other social media platforms, using hashtags on LinkedIn will help make your posts more discoverable by increasing their reach. However, LinkedIn is a professional platform used for business purposes so it is crucial that if you’re including hashtags in your posts, they are kept professional.
Ensure that your hashtags are relevant to your business and follow hashtags that are relevant to you and your industry to keep up to date with the latest news and related trends.
To find out more about how we use hashtags to promote your business as part of our social media management service, get in touch today and a member of the team will be happy to help.
