Hashtag

What is Hashtag?

Hashtags are words or short phrases that follow the # symbol.

Brands use hashtags to help their existing customers share their experiences and content created for the brand. Not only that, but these hashtags also help new and potential brand users find their branded content easily. 

Other than that, these hashtags are clickable in nature, which takes the searcher to a landing page that has the same posts from the hashtag, thus helping your brand increase traffic and visibility. 

Hashtags help the searcher to get directed to exactly what they searched for. Through them, you can also locate all the social media campaign content created and shared by participants.  

Moreover, you can find popular topics through hashtags on any social media platform, such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. 

As a brand, you can use hashtags to smoothen your marketing strategies, expand your reach, and leave your footprint on every social media channel. 

History of Hashtag

A former Google employee, Chris Messina, shared his idea to use the #symbol to categorize social media posts. 

As this idea became popular, most prominent social media platforms started following it, eventually helping their users find content on specific topics faster. 

How to Create A Hashtag

If you look at it, it is pretty easy; you must put the symbol before your phrase and publish the post. But as simple as it looks, it has some rules you must remember for effectiveness. 

To learn more about the basics and guidelines, read the following.

Short and catchy

To catch your audience's attention and attract participants to get involved and share content, you must stick to some short and exciting hashtags that can be remembered instead of going long.

Stay trendy

Go with something current and influential. Find something that goes with your marketing campaign, or better, when facing problems, ask your followers to create one themselves or give them a choice between 2 options. 

Stick to relevancy

Being authentic and appropriate is one of the vital things to remember throughout your social media marketing campaigns. So ensure that your hashtag is not related to indecency in any way possible and that people find only your content, away from spam and profanity.

Keep it shareable 

When you start working with hashtags, make them shareable, meaning they should be unique and align with your campaign in a way that the hashtag itself depicts what the campaign is about. 

How to use Hashtag

As discussed above, we know you can use hashtags to elevate your campaigns on many social media platforms. Go ahead and learn the key points.  

How to use a hashtag on Instagram

When working with hashtags on Instagram, choose 3-5 relevant ones that fit your post's content to maximize their impact. Then, use them in your posts to reach a wider audience. By doing this, you can increase engagement and connect better. 

How to use a hashtag on TikTok

To maximize your presence on TikTok, don’t use extra hashtags on your posts while posting videos to avoid spam. Use current and new hashtags to stay trendy. Come up with something creative to stand out from other creators. 

How to use a hashtag on LinkedIn

When you use hashtags on professional platforms like LinkedIn, it is simple but requires attention. Keep in mind: Use less. Keep them straight to the point and simple to catch the eye of your reader, achieve better results, and maintain your image. 

Now that you know how to create and use your hashtags on multiple platforms, it's time to find out how to find the one that fits best for you. 

How to find the best Hashtag

Finding the best or trending hashtags can be a valuable strategy for increasing visibility; here are some valuable insights to remember while finding your Hashtag. 

Watch your competitor's steps

To find the best hashtags for your social media posts, check out your fellow brands and what influential people are working on in their posts. 

Get an idea by watching them closely, how many hashtags to use, and how to capture attention using hashtags. Learn and improve your marketing strategies. 

Search relatable hashtags

After identifying effective hashtags that work like a charm for your brand, try finding related hashtags that are more specific to your niche to connect better with your target audience.

You can search for hashtags around your content on social media platforms and get inspiration to get to your destination. 

Track past work

Your Hashtag will affect the performance of your social media post and, eventually, your campaign, so going through which worked the best and gave you your desired goals in the past is recommended. 

This way, you can use your older hashtags again based on their impact to increase engagement and attract more eyes. 

Employ a tool 

Simplify the process and take the help of a hashtag tracking and analytics tool to find the right fit for you. Go with the one that matches your budget, aims, and requirements. 

These tools make the whole process fast and helpful, giving detailed information on their prior performance.

Why do people use hashtags?

Among many other benefits of using a hashtag, here are some top advantages you can bag using hashtags. 

Increase Engagement

Using hashtags is a great way to get people’s attention. But you can use it to increase your engagement as well. 

Let’s understand this with an example: Suppose you own a small painting business and share posts with the hashtag #painting to expand and get visibility. This way, other painting enthusiasts can find you when they search on this simple hashtag employed by you, so be mindful and precise with your hashtags. 

It makes your brand easier to find

It is no surprise that hashtags can help people find you very quickly. For example, if someone searches #cookies, they can reach you effortlessly if you use the same Hashtag.

This can increase your brand's visibility and attract more potential customers.

Spread your campaign like a fire

When you run a social media contest, you can use a specific hashtag; this can help you in multiple ways, including quickly tracking how many people are participating. 

Not only that, but you can also see how people are reacting towards your brand and campaign. 

Additionally, you can encourage your followers to ask their friends to participate in the campaign and to use the hashtag in the post. 

How do you keep track of hashtags?

There are mainly 2 ways to check and get detailed information on how your Hashtag is doing and giving you in return. 

Using the original app

You can go with the native application and find out your campaign impressions, likes, and shares. Social media apps provide a system to find your analytics right where you run your campaign. 

Hire a tracking tool

Another way of doing the same is through a tracking aid. Twitter and Instagram offer free tools to track your posts' performance on their platforms, but you can use third-party software for a more comprehensive view of your social media stats.

Expand through hashtags 

As we conclude, hashtags are one simple and highly effective way to reach your goal faster while doubling your progress.

So try using them in your next campaign and grow quickly.