Marketing these days has taken on a new face. While you have standard marketing options, you also must have a voice with social media to make the most of your business within the current market. Getting a solid grasp of marketing your business on the internet can take some time.
There are many ways you can learn, but one of the best is by doing. Getting content out on various platforms is the first step. Next is making sure it is noticed, and therefore, you will need to understand hashtags and how best to use them on the various platforms.
To help you get started, we’ll cover some crucial tips on how to use hashtags. We’ll include tips specific to different social media platforms for the best hashtag use. You’ll also learn how to be intentional with how you use your hashtags on different social media platforms.
Overall Hashtag Tips
Before getting into platform-specific tips about hashtags, there are a few important things to keep in mind:
- Always confirm your account is public.
- Hashtags always begin with “#”. You can’t include spaces, symbols, or punctuation.
- The best hashtags are short and easier to read and remember, so avoid long phrases.
- Be specific and relevant with your hashtag use.
- Don’t use too many hashtags, as it will appear spammy.
To help keep the content organized on Twitter, short phrases or keywords are used with a #hashtag symbol. Users gain access to similar content by clicking the hashtag word in any message. Smart businesses take advantage of this to help people find their posts.
You can use hashtags on Twitter to boost your audience. Including hashtags also provides context, making it easier for people to find content that interests them.
Conveniently, Twitter also has a hashtag page that takes users right to their news feed, letting them view trending hashtags.
When choosing hashtags, try to limit yourself to two or three per post. This keeps things clear. You also want to focus on hashtags that are shareable, discoverable, and inclusive, so don’t force a brand slogan into a hashtag.
How important is hashtag use on Twitter? Using hashtags boosts your chances of being retweeted by 33%. That dramatically increases the spread of your Tweet.
Like with other platforms, hashtags on Instagram help gather all of the relevant content in one location or stream. Instagram is particularly appealing from a marketing perspective, thanks to its audience. Specifically, the audience is nearly evenly split between males and females. You also get the ability to reach a wide audience.
There are plenty of places on Instagram to use hashtags, including feed posts, IGTV, and Stories. As a refresher, Stories only last 24 hours, while posts and IGTV will remain until you delete them.
As expected, including a hashtag on your Instagram content will cause it to appear on the dedicated hashtag page. There are also hashtag Stories that feature Stories that use the given hashtag, potentially boosting the prominence of your Story.
One important hashtag-related feature of Instagram that not all platforms offer is the ability to follow a hashtag. Take advantage of this to reach people who aren’t following your brand but do follow relevant hashtags.
Another unique Instagram feature is the ability to hide hashtags. You can do this by including them in a comment on the post instead of in the caption. Or you could include it in the post but decrease the font size.
When an account uses a hashtag and keeps current with them, they’re likely to have higher engagement on their profiles. Hashtags on Facebook have their own functions, so companies need to understand them before using them. For example, hashtags on Facebook are commonly used to categorize conversations. Additionally, searching hashtags on Facebook gives you more than just posts, like it does on other platforms. It also gives you pages and other information.
The character limit for posts on Facebook is lower compared to media outlets such as Twitter and Instagram. You can only use between 40 and 80 words, and with Facebook, studies have shown that fewer hashtags will get you more engagement.
Even if you think it is easier to track hashtags on other platforms, don’t neglect to do so on Facebook as well. That’s because it can give you valuable insights, and due to the differences in how they are used. With billions of searches on Facebook each day, using hashtags helps users find your content among the vast sea of content.
TikTok
TikTok is one of the newer, trendier social media platforms out there today. Creators can easily record their content, edit it, and upload it to the platform with all the built-in editing and recording abilities, helping it go viral.
In the same manner that hashtags help you discover content on Instagram and Twitter, they will help your content get to those who will enjoy it most. Placing a hashtag on your videos will help when someone searches the tag, encouraging more people to discuss your business.
Hashtags have two important functions on TikTok. They are first used to help identify people who are interested in this type of content. Second, they help to keep the videos categorized.
When you are using hashtags on TikTok, it is recommended to use between one and three. When using four or more, you can expect a dramatic decrease in engagement as opposed to keeping it to three and under. This is because, with more hashtags, this platform finds the content difficult to categorize effectively.
It is best to use a mix of trending hashtags and those that give an accurate description of your content. Knowing TikTok trends will help you keep your content ahead of the competition.
Those spending time on the platform will find songs and hashtags that are trending on their For You Page, or FYP. This lets you know what is popular now. Stay relevant by keeping an eye on the trends and competition and staying ahead of it. Just remember to use hashtags that fit your post in addition to the trending ones.
Overall, hashtags are the simplest way to draw more attention to your TikTok content. Hashtags help get videos to For You Pages, which, in turn, helps videos go viral.
YouTube
This platform hosts millions of videos posted by different people from around the world to share with others. Many have found that it is the perfect learning tool and ideal for keeping up with family. Because there is so much content on this platform, it can be very easy to get lost in the overwhelming supply of videos. As of 2022, there were estimated to be more than 720,000 videos posted every day. Hashtags are one of the best ways to keep your video from getting lost with all the others.
Adding a hashtag to your YouTube video will help it get noticed among all the rest that have similar content. You can create these with the same methods you use on Instagram as well as other social media platforms. When you are on YouTube, the first three hashtags are the most important because they are the ones that become clickable underneath the video.
Hashtags aren’t to be confused with other tags on the video. They can be added even after and aren’t to be confused with the video description. There are specific YouTube hashtags that make sense to this platform but not others. These are #subscribe or #youtuber. These hashtags help boost your video, making it easier to find among the competition.
LinkedIn is unique to other social media platforms. The design is specifically tailored for professionals and businesses alike. This focus makes it the largest network of professionals online. The site allows for professional relationships, developing skills to further careers, and the ability to find the best internships and jobs. When hashtags are used, people are able to engage with followers.
As with other sites, hashtags help users on LinkedIn get to the content that is relevant to them. Published articles, status updates, and business pages all will benefit from the smart use of hashtags in the post. The LinkedIn feed of hashtags helps users get to the content most useful for them. People can also follow hashtags on LinkedIn.
The recommended number of hashtags for this platform is three per post. Two of these are recommended to be broad or big, and the last should be simple and directly related to the post.
Overall, hashtags are one of the best ways to get your content noticed on LinkedIn. Remember, there are many professionals and, therefore, important people frequent the platform. Hashtags help connections get made. Once one hashtag is followed, other similar content and possible connections will come up for the account.
Conclusion
Using hashtags is a smart way to expand the reach of your content across social media platforms. While every platform has hashtags, there are some slight variations in best practices on each platform. The above best practices will help you create and execute a successful hashtag strategy on every social media platform.