So, the million dollar question: what are hashtags?
Basically they’re a way of categorising posts. They help people to find information and posts on specific topics.
What does this mean for you and your business?
It means that you can maximise the chances that your social media content is found by relevant audiences.
Are hashtags really worth including in your social media posts?
Yes! But more so on some platforms than others. For example, hashtags are used most on Twitter and Instagram, slightly less so on Flickr and YouTube. They’re used even less on Facebook and Google+, and not at all on LinkedIn.
This article will focus on Twitter and Instagram, as they’re platforms used most by businesses and individuals. But most of the principles apply to other platforms.
How can you choose relevant hashtags?
First you can check on the platform itself. For example if you’re using Twitter, search for a word you think is relevant to your target audience. Check how popular it is (i.e. how many posts have used the hashtag). If its being used by the right people then make a note of it to use again in future. Do the same on Instagram. Both platforms will suggest similar popular terms which will give you ideas for other hashtags. List them all for future use.
Searching for Instagram hashtags.
Tips and Tricks For Using Hashtags
- On Twitter, use hashtags as part of your sentences to save space. For example:
Great tips on #digitalmarketing in this article http://bit.ly/658325 - On Instagram, use a few hashtags as part of your image description, then add a second comment with heaps of hashtags. This stops the post looking spammy as the longer post will be partially hidden while still having the benefit of helping relevant people to find it.
- Save all your hashtags in a note on your phone in categories, for example ‘digital marketing hashtags’ business and innovation hashtags’ that way you can copy and paste them into Instagram or Twitter to save time. You have to choose more wisely with Twitter due to the word limit, but with Instagram you can go wild!
Using hashtags on Twitter.
Hashtag Tools
There are many tools to help find the best hashtags to use.
- A good free tool for finding related hashtags is Hashtagify. You can type in a word and it will show popular related words to use as hashtags in a spider diagram. Super quick and easy.
- Another good free tool is Rite Tag which shows you stats on how frequently related tags are used in a table form.
Have a look on Google and there are heaps more free and paid tools that do slightly different things.
Have you found a tool you love? Let us know in the comments section below.
Happy hash tagging!