When you hear the word Hashtag you immediately think of social media, because that is where it all started. No social media marketing campaign is complete without using Hashtag. However, simply adding the Hashtag symbol to your content will not give you the engagement you want, and let’s face it, #it #just #looks #ugly #when #you #use #too #many #Hashtag. This blog will give you an overview of how to incorporate Hashtag into your social media content so that you can boost your brand’s social media engagement.

What is #Hashtag?

A Hashtag is a word or a phrase that is spelled using the pound, or octothorpe, a symbol on the keyboard. The Hashtag was first introduced by marketing specialist Christopher Reaves Messina, who proposed the idea via a tweet with the words “How do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?”

Ever since that first tweet back in 2007, the use of Hashtags has, for all intents and purposes completely transformed the world of social media. The best way to describe a Hashtag is to look at it as a way to connect social media content to a specific topic. 

Here are some points about using Hashtags on social media:

• Hashtags always start with the pound symbol # 
• Do not include any spaces, punctuation, or symbols.
• Hashtagged content is only visible to non-followers if the account is public.
• Avoid clubbing too many words together in the Hashtag.
• Effective Hashtags tend to be short and easy to remember.
• Use relevant and specific Hashtags for your content.
• Do not spam the content by simply increasing the number of Hashtags you use.

Guide to Using Hashtags in Social Media Marketing

Increase User Engagement: The inclusion of a Hashtag in a social media post or campaign is sort of like an ice breaker since it allows you to participate in an ongoing conversation or trend. It makes your content visible so that other users can interact with you.

Using relevant Hashtags will boost user engagement and make your brand more prominent on social media platforms. You can judge your engagement by monitoring the likes, shares, comments, and new followers you get.

Builds Your Brand: Remember, Hashtags don’t just need to be about current trends. You can create your own Hashtag using your brand name or motto and get it trending on social media.

For example, Coca-Cola used the Hashtag #ShareACoke to highlight its new campaign of using cokes with names and titles on them. People were snapping pictures of sharing a Coke bottle with their friends and the Hashtag #ShareACoke was trending in no time.

Support Social Issues: Hashtags are a sign of what is trending in the social sphere today. Many social media users share their views about social issues using the Hashtags connected with that issue.

As a brand, you can extend your support for an important cause or issue by using a Hashtag that’s connected to an issue. For example, Always, a brand of menstrual hygiene products used the Hashtag #LikeAGirl to show how young girls are uninfluenced by society’s expectations.

Adds Context to Content: It is common knowledge that on social media, writing long posts with a lot of content will not always get the desired result. People just don’t have the patience for it.

The use of Hashtags allows you to add a little bit of context to your content and let people know what you’re talking about. Short and simple Hashtags will allow you to get the message across without using up valuable characters.

For example, to honor the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, NASA simply tweeted out an emoji with astronauts in space using the Hashtag #Apollo50th. It was an instant hit with people following up with tweets of their own.

Help Users Find You: Social Media sites like Instagram and LinkedIn use Hashtags as a way to help new users find the content they need. When users search for a Hashtag in the search box, all the posts that use that Hashtag will show up on their feed.

How does this benefit you? If you have a sports store, you can use a post about your products using #sports. The next time a user is looking for content related to sports, bam, your post will top the lost. If you keep at it, who knows? You may just earn some new followers on the way.

Use Hashtagify.me: Finding the right Hashtags to match your brand can be a little tricky. You cannot always wait to see what is trending and then create content accordingly.

Using tools like Hashtagify.me allows you to explore different Hashtags and see how popular they are on social media. You just need to type in the Hashtag you want and you will see results about the Hashtag’s overall popularity and possible future trends. You can also get Hashtag suggestions based on your content.

#Conclusion

The most important thing to remember when using Hashtags is to be patient. You may get it right sometimes or you may not. Since social media trends change so rapidly it is tough to say what will catch on and what sticks with the user. However, with a little time and effort, you will learn to master the use of Hashtags as a way to connect with your target audience and make your social media marketing more effective.