Everyone wants their social media posts to stand out and achieve more views and engagement. Creative content is essential, but hashtags are the best way to spread your posts further.
In this guide, we will explain how they work and give you tips on how to boost your social media posts using hashtags.
What are Hashtags?
If you use any kind of social media, you will have seen hashtags (#), and you may have added some to your posts.
Hashtags are used to tag your content to connect it to related content. They are placed in front of relevant words. For this post, we might use #socialmedia #hashtags #digitalmarketing
Hashtags help increase your reach and are an integral part of promoting your brand on social media. Tweets with hashtags achieve double the engagement of those without.
Users can click on hashtags to find related content. It also helps to organise your content and assist users in finding what they are looking for.
Hashtags are an excellent way to grow your audience as they help your posts reach new users rather than limiting them to existing followers.
How to Choose hashtags
Businesses need to use hashtags that are relevant to their brand. You might think including a random hashtag that is currently trending would improve your reach, but in fact, it might harm your brand as it could confuse your audience.
Our top tips for choosing hashtags:
- Stick with hashtags that relate to your product, service or target audience.
- Including hashtags related to your brand’s core values is also recommended. An excellent example is Nike, which regularly includes #BlackLivesMatter as part of its campaigns as it represents the brand’s well-publicised social conscience.
- One way to find appropriate hashtags is to check out your competitors.
- Use autofill to complete hashtags by typing in a word related to your product or industry.
- Use a social media tracker to identify hashtags performing well for your sector.
What are the rules for using hashtags?
While every platform has rules for hashtags, some common ideas apply to all of them.
- Hashtags must be typed as one word
- No numbers
- No spaces
- No special characters
As an example, you should use #socialmedia rather than #social media
Now let’s investigate individual platforms for how to make the most of hashtags.
Instagram Hashtags
- You are allowed up to 30 hashtags on each post, but around 12 is optimum.
- You can use hashtags in your profile description by editing your profile.
- You can include hashtags in your posts, usually at the end of the description.
- You can add hashtags to any comments you make on your posts.
Facebook Hashtags
You can use hashtags on Facebook, but businesses are unsure whether they are successful on this platform.
It is probably sensible to limit hashtags to one or two per post rather than devoting lots of time here.
Twitter Hashtags
Historically, Twitter is where hashtags started and have been most successful.
With Elon Must taking over the platform and making considerable personnel changes, it remains to be seen whether the hashtag rules will change. For now, let’s assume that Twitter rules stay the same.
Hashtags do not work well in advertisements, but they are great in posts that start a conversation. The primary purpose is to develop your organic reach and encourage engagement.
Rules to follow here include:
- Hashtags can be used at the end or middle of a sentence.
- Twitter recommends a limit of two hashtags.
LinkedIn Hashtags
LinkedIn makes hashtags simple. You can add your own in a post or click on “add hashtags” at the end.
There is no limit, but they recommend up to three hashtags for best performance.
Since LinkedIn is a professional platform, choosing appropriate hashtags with professional language makes sense.
TikTok Hashtags
TikTok is no longer the new kid on the block. It has experienced enormous growth over the last few years.
Hashtags here have a unique role since the platform’s algorithms use popular hashtags on user content to create trends designed to snowball.
To choose appropriate hashtags, you can:
- Check out your competition
- Check out what your followers are using
- Follow a trend (e.g. music, filters, dances, pranks, challenges)
- Search popular topics related to your brand
How can we help?
Getting started on Social Media can be daunting. Get it wrong, and you can damage your brand rather than grow it.
SEO & Web can help you to choose the right platforms and deliver creative content to increase your engagement and start conversations that build your brand awareness.
Our services are tailor-made to help your business achieve its goals.
