Social media is all the talk of marketing in the modern world. The internet has allowed marketers to reach a wide variety of people and social media has made this even easier by automatically connecting like-minded people. This gives marketers unprecedented access to a large target market and one that they can divide into their own audiences.
The introduction of hashtags has added another element to this marketing labyrinth and understanding how to use them could have a significant impact on the success of your campaigns. Understanding what they are, how they work and how to use them will give your social media marketing a much needed boost.
What are hashtags?
Hashtags are the words that you see on a post that are clickable and accompanied by ‘#’, for example #hashtagmarketing. When these are clicked, they take you to all of the recent posts that are related to that topic. Using a hashtag makes that post searchable using that specific hashtag or topic.
How do they work?
When you are posting about a specific topic, simple follow your post with ‘#’ and then relevant words that relate directly to your post. For example, when posting something about your new shampoo product you may use hashtags like ‘#shampoo’, ‘#thickerhair’ etc. or other trending hashtags.
There are a few things to keep in mind when using hashtags;
- Don’t use spaces, for the hashtag to work it must be one word.
- The case of the letters doesn’t matter but can be used to make it easier to read.
- Research existing ones so that you can link your content to other content and build a stronger profile.
- Don’t over dot it. Hashtags are great but too many can become overwhelming and annoying.
How do you use them?
Hashtags are a great way to increase the visibility of your posts and your brand in general. The most important thing about hashtags is making sure they are relevant and will lead users to other related content that could be interesting or useful.
It’s likely that you have seen posts with heaps of hashtags on them already. This may increase short term visibility but it is unlikely to win anyone over as it becomes too much to take in when ready the post. Use the hashtags sparingly with only a couple per post and understand whether it is best to use them within the text or at the end. Use them throughout the text if it doesn’t impact the readability but otherwise just put them at the end.
Using hashtags correctly will help you to build your brand and increase visibility to relevant customers.