Understanding #Hashtags on Social Media

When it comes to promoting your brand on social media, hashtags are a wonderful tool to drive views, likes, shares and comments. Hashtags are a way to make your content discoverable by the right audience. They were first widely used on Twitter; however, they have now become a common feature on other social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok and Pinterest. Mastering the use of hashtags gives you a greater power to engage your audience and increase your social impact at no extra cost than the time it takes to do some research and pay attention to trends.

Utilised correctly, hashtags can allow you to reach new users that may be interested in your topic, ultimately allowing you to expand your influence and followers.

So, what is a hashtag?

A hashtag is a keyword or key phrase preceded by a hash symbol (#). They are used within a post on social media to help people interested in your topic find your content when they search for a keyword or topic. Hashtags help to draw attention to your posts and encourage interaction.

How to create hashtags?

If you are new to the hashtag game, I am glad to tell you – that it is quite easy. When using a phrase as a hashtag, you type it out without spaces, for example, #examplehashtag. You can include numbers but no symbols or punctuation. You can add your hashtag at the start, middle, or end of your social media post. By using this strategy, people who are not following your account will still be able to find your content.

Although it sounds simple to add a hashtag in front of your keyword, there is still some other basic information that is important to know when you are trying to be found via hashtags.

Using hashtags will only make an impact on your social media strategy when done correctly. So, we have curated a list of tips to help you:

• The number of hashtags you can use depends on which platform you are using. For Instagram and Facebook, for example, you can only add up to 30 hashtags per post. However, in most cases, adding three to six targeted hashtags can have more impact than a lot of them.
• Keep your hashtags short and memorable.
• Choose hashtags that people are going to search for and avoid using words that are too clever or obscure.
• Be detailed and specific, this will lead to better results than broader terms. Broad terms are not likely to be searched, and if you do use them, there is a high chance that your content will drown in an ocean of unrelated material.
• Don’t force hashtags into every post. Use them when they add value.

Hashtags are an important part of your social media strategy as they enable your content to be discovered by the right people. The key is finding the best ones that match your content and appeal to users. At WebEagles, our social media wizards have the expertise to find the most relevant and trending hashtags to complement your social media strategy. For more information, contact us on 1300 123 808.