Why use Hashtags?

It’s an interesting question to ask in today’s world of digital marketing.  Originally, we grew accustomed to the hashtag (#) on the Twitter platform.  Then we’ve seen it used extensively on Instagram.  More recently they are being used on LinkedIn.

Instead of finding them annoying, they can provide opportunities for businesses to be found.  Search functionality helps you to follow certain hashtags on subjects that might be of interest to you.  For example, you’ll find Lush Marketing using #MarketingStrategy on articles where this subject is covered well.  Or as we are a marketing agency, we often use the hashtag #MarketingAgency. The hashtag use can increase your followers on social media, as you’ll connect with others that find that subject (or hashtag) of interest too.

Twitter began to use the hashtag as a method of finding keywords to help good search results for it.  This is exactly what the other social media platforms use it for too.  It’s a great way to find keywords.

You can use hashtags that are trending (i.e. they are popular at that moment in time).  You can also use hashtags to promote your brand or marketing campaign.  For example, Cadburys chocolate very cleverly use the #GlassAndAHalf in their marketing campaign.  They are promoting the fact that each chocolate bar has a glass and a half of milk in each.

Hootsuite recommend using 1-2 hashtags on the Twitter post, 9-15 on Instagram, 1-2 on Facebook and 1-2 on LinkedIn.  This is just best practice, but a little more or less depending on the post is ok.

So, how do you know which hashtags to use?  Well, this is where nifty little tricks like hashtag generating websites are great!  The two that we recommend to use are also FREE!!  There’s lots of options, but the two that we’ve tried are All Hashtag and For Display Purposes Only

You simply add the word to the hashtag generator box and it generates as many as it can.  Some words may not generate too many options for you if it is a very niche area.  For example “restoration” doesn’t generate too many options.  However, more popular subjects like “health” will generate up to 30 options.  It’s just a matter of then picking the hashtags that you feel most suitable to use.

Hashtag generating websites are great to source relevant hashtags to your chosen topics.

If this is something that you’d like to receive some training on for you and your team, then get in touch.  We host interactive training workshops for small teams and keep your learning fun and interesting!