How to Use Hashtags to Attract The Audience You Want
The right hashtags can boost your following and your business—plus, you don’t have to be a social media expert to use them. A crucial part of any social media strategy, hashtags aren’t just for Twitter; you can use them across all social platforms to engage with your community, increase your follower count and attract new customers.
Where Did Hashtags Come From?
During the summer of 2007, Twitter web marketing specialist Chris Messina came up with a way to help Twitter users find content they loved—the pound sign. The pound sign, later dubbed “the hashtag,” grouped related tweets so that users could search by hashtag to engage with popular, trending content or just content they enjoyed.
Since then, hashtags have grown in popularity. In 2021, any big brand or business that you follow is probably using hashtags. So why are hashtags so important?
How Hashtags Work
Hashtags are powerful little tools that help put your business, message, product, or service in front of your target audience.
No matter what social platform you use, hashtags will always work the same as they did in those early Twitter days; they connect related content to make it easier to find posts and engage in conversations around specific topics.
When you include hashtags in your social posts, you automatically insert yourself into the conversation happening around that tag and expand your reach. Hashtags help you increase post engagement and bring in more followers.
The Three Hashtag Types & When To Use Them
General Hashtags
General hashtags are the tags you know, love, and use every day. These hashtags will revolve around your business, products, or services and all you to connect with your community and leaders in your industry.
For example, say you run a business selling soy candles in upcycled glass bottles. Each time you post about your product, you could include hashtags such as #soycandle, #upcycler, and #smallbusinesslife. Those three hashtags alone gett your product in front of people who like soy candles, people who care about upcycling and the environment, and people who like to support small businesses. How easy was that?
Branded Hashtags
These are hashtags that are unique to your brand or business, such as your business name or tagline. While branded hashtags probably won’t increase your following or engagement for the first few times you use them, they’re a great way to promote your business.
Campaign Hashtags
Campaign hashtags are unique to a specific marketing campaign. Think Airbnb’s #BelongAnywhere or Obama’s 2008 campaign slogan #YesWeCan. Campaign hashtags are especially useful when you’re collaborating with another brand, business, or influencer because they’ll tie all of that related content together.
Hashtags Best Practices To Grow Your Business
Whether you have a few hundred followers or a few thousand, using the right hashtags will help you grow and maintain an engaged following.
A few things to remember:
Before you start hashtagging away, check to see if your accounts are public to make sure non-followers can find your posts.
Hashtags should be short and easy to remember, so avoid using hashtags that have too many words strung together.
Give yourself a limit of no more than 10 hashtags. Less is more, in this case, to avoid looking spammy to any potential followers and/or customers.
Twitter
Each social platform has its own best practices for hashtag use. Since tweets are limited to 280 characters, it’s best to stick to 1-2 hashtags to save room for your copy. You can also use hashtags when you comment, reply, or retweet, and you can include them in your Twitter bio to maximize reach.
Facebook
As with Twitter, you want to use 1-2 hashtags on Facebook. You can include hashtags in any Facebook post or comment.
Instagram
It’s best to use 5-10 hashtags per Instagram post. You can also follow hashtags on Instagram, so the top posts using those tags will show up on your feed. This allows you to interact with accounts that you don’t follow yet.
Want help using hashtags to grow your following and your business? Check out this Social Media Engagement Package to find great hashtags, increase your engagement, and grow your following.
