Hashtags can be an effective aspect of your digital marketing campaign, forming an interactive connection between you and your client base. The hashtag is a tool that creates a “social media search engine” on multiple social media networks. By using a hashtag for your business—whether its name, a product, service or location—you are improving the chances that other users on social media will find your post in search results. They can also act as a means to generate buzz for a marketing campaign. Reach Beyond Marketing has a few tricks up their sleeve on how to effectively and properly use the hashtag:
- Keep your hashtags simple, but consistent. Avoid long hashtags, even though they may serve as comedic relief, they have no use for marketing and these types of hashtags are not search-friendly. Also, remember that #CapitalizationIsKey so people can actually read your hashtag.
- Be aware of the amount of hashtags you should use. The amount of hashtags used per post varies with each social media platform. For Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest we suggest one to two (three at the max) hashtags. However, on Instagram you can use as many hashtags as you’d like. Since the hashtag trend is slow growing on Facebook (but we think it will catch up), we recommend keeping it simple with one to two hashtags per post. Using more than the recommended amount of hashtags for each platform can come across as excessive (and slightly annoying) in a marketing context.
- Create your own hashtags. This is a great strategy when announcing a new product, service or event that is uniquely related to your company. A unique hashtag can generate conversation about the announcement before the actual date of an event or product launch. This is where creativity is encouraged and can be rewarded. Users will be able to connect with your brand and message through conversations created by hashtags on social media.
Master the hashtag to expand your audience, boost online conversation, and increase your chance of ranking in a “social media search engine” result.