Hashtags are on my mind today. Here’s why.
I’m a member of a weekly networking group here in Queen Creek, AZ. I’m the marketer of the bunch and love to occasionally share my area of expertise with the other business owners.
Recently, I was tasked with a new responsibility by the group leader. He asked me to regularly share news or tips that could benefit our group. They could be about marketing, social media, networking or really anything I thought would be of interest. (Nice to be given carte blanche like that!)
For some reason — like maybe too much time spent on Instagram at 5:30 a.m. today — social media hashtags came to mind for what I could share at tomorrow’s networking meeting. So I created this 10 Tips and Tidbits About Social Media Hashtags handout to give to everyone.
Re-purposing content (even a short piece like my handout) gets me more bang for my content marketing buck. That’s why I’m publishing my hashtag advice here on my blog, so you can pick up a new idea or two on how to more effectively use hashtags on your social media accounts. (I’m a fan of re-purposing content and dedicated a blog post to it here.)
10 Tips and Tidbits About Social Media Hashtags
Here’s my talk track that will go along with the handout I’ll share with my networking group tomorrow.
Hashtags were created by Twitter in 2007 as a way to organize topics and filter content. From what I found online, the era of social media-inspired the symbol to be called a hashtag, when before it was known as the pound or number sign.
Hashtags are ideal for Instagram and Twitter, but not Facebook — though this is a topic my social media marketer pals and I like to debate! When I see more than one or two hashtags on a Facebook post, it looks like the person (or brand) either auto-posted the same message from Instagram to Facebook (using an app). Or they’re trying something that (to me, at least) stands out like a sore thumb on Facebook.
Also, with the majority of Instagram and Twitter accounts being open to the public and Facebook accounts (personal, not business) typically not public, it makes them more hashtag-friendly and searchable.
My advice: Use hashtags sparingly on Facebook (one to two max, if any) and generously on Instagram and Twitter.
If you’re using hashtags for your company’s social media, choose ones that support your content and help ideal customers find and follow you. If you’re using hashtags for fun, there’s no need to be strategic … unless you like that kind of thing!
Use a Tool to Discover Great Hashtags
A great tool for finding popular Twitter hashtags is hashtagify.me. On Instagram, you can search for a hashtag to see its popularity. However, using the most popular hashtags on Instagram may work against you because larger accounts use them, too. And the big guy is likely to win the algorithm race (meaning yours might not be seen since your account is smaller). I like the advice from Instagram Marketing Secrets podcaster Derek Videll about using a variety of hashtag sizes — he calls them small, medium and large. Here’s one of his episodes on the topic: In-Depth Hashtag Strategy.
Hashtags aren’t case-sensitive. If it helps readability, though, feel free to use capital letters #JustLikeThis.
Local Businesses Should Use Local-themed Hashtags
If you’re a local business with a singular focus on your immediate market area, always use a few local hashtags on your posts. If you’re one of my Queen Creek realtor friends, be sure to include #queencreek, #queencreekaz and #queencreekrealtor, along with other hashtags, in your posts. Location-stamping your posts like this helps more people find you, because they’re also following the same area’s hashtags. And don’t forget to use geotags on Instagram, too. (Here’s a good overview on geotags from Sprout Social.)
Creative, proprietary (e.g., your brand name) or nonsensical hashtags can be a waste of social media retail space, unless you’re a big guy. For example, Starbucks uses #starbuckslife — but its fans do, too. But here’s where these types of hashtags might not make sense: If you work for the Arizona Republic and have red hair, you could use #redhairedreporter on social media. But you could be the only person who uses or cares about that hashtag. So … it’s your call as to whether a unique hashtag has value for your brand and business.
You can use up to 30 hashtags on Instagram. Twitter isn’t limited but the maximum number of characters is 280, no matter what text or hashtags you use. My advice is use as many hashtags as you can on Instagram and two or more on Twitter.
Not a Hashtag Fan? #NEVERSTRESS … Use them for Fun Instead!
Think the hashtag below (see photo) is a good one? It’s not if it’s written with a space between the two words: #never stress. Use #neverstress instead.
Even if you don’t use hashtags much for social media, they’re still fun to experiment with. Next time you’re bored, search Twitter for trending hashtags. #3PopularThingsIHate is a recent one. And, no surprise, there’s always a passionate mix of #trumpsomething hashtags.
#NeverStress about hashtags! Experiment with them, see what works and tweak your approach on using hashtags for #socialmediamarketing. (That’s a popular hashtag … 8.9 million on Instagram, as of this moment!)
Photo: RAFAELA BIAZI Via Unsplash
