Importance and smart usage of hashtags in social media marketing

The internet has amazingly evolved over the last decade as far as social media is considered and Hashtags are at the core of this evolution. Hashtags constitute an integral part of any social media post that decides post reach and effectiveness. Even if your mobile or web app is perfectly optimised and doing good. It is the duty of hashtags to provide an easy way for users to quickly locate the posts of their choice among tonnes of content that is shared every hour over various social media platforms.

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Purpose of using hashtags:

The ocean of content that is present online can be easily categorized using hashtags. Hashtags will enable your content to show up in searches and help you to expand your brand awareness and establish brand identity.

Properties of powerful hashtags:

- Short and punchy yet descriptive

- Creative, unique and relevant

- Can be remembered and spelt easily

The correct way to use hashtags effectively:

- Using 2 or 3 hashtags that are relevant to your business is really beneficial to improve your brand visibility among the target audience. sometimes we come across posts that have hashtags(#) attached to the entire sentence which is not appreciated by users as nobody seems interested in reading an entire sentence full of clickable words and not to mention it makes your post look less organized.

- Never give space or punctuation to your hashtag. When using a hashtag on series of words then ensure they are put together as well as the first letter is capitalized which will make it readable for users not to mention capitalization will have no impact on search results.

Incorrect Use- Had #FunwithFriends and Family during camping

Correct Use- Had Fun with Friends and Family during camping#Travel #Camping .

- Hashtag should never be used with every word of the sentence as it appears distracting and moreover, it doesn't resolve the purpose.

Incorrect Use - Had a #gala #time #at #college #reunion

Correct Use - Had a #GalaTime at #CollegeReunion

-Including appropriate domain related hashtags will provide you more likes and re-tweets as they will cover a broad audience pool.

Example - If you provide training for Bharatanatyam, then you should include the hashtag on #FolkDance dance also.

- Leverage the power of location-specific hashtags. When you include a location where your product n services are based that is bound to give your post an amazingly increased visibility by being visible to all online user who resides in that location. Location hashtag is more useful when you plan to organize or participate in an event that might interest users.

- Do the required research. Research is important to ensure the hashtag you have chosen will be used for the right reasons. Never use any negative or controversial hashtag related to politics or religion which might misrepresent your message. Using correct hashtag upon proper research will ensure that brand visibility is increased to the right audience without creating any controversy. 

Another important consideration for effective usage of hashtags is to go with the hashtags that are currently drawing engagement on social media. No need to experiment with hashtags that have a little conversation or lesser audience.Niche trending hashtags help you connect with your target audience before your competitor as well as it will give the impression that you are first in your industry with good online presence.

How to smartly use hashtags on Twitter:

Hashtags are very impactful on Twitter as it convinces the users to participate in a conversation with those who don't follow each other. The hashtags on general words like #Adventure or on some upcoming event like #io17 will take your tweet beyond your follower list.Always stick to rule of using either one or max two hashtags for higher engagement rate instead of using hashtags in an excessive quantity that might put off the user as well hamper the visibility.

How to smartly use hashtags on Instagram:

There are two popular types of hashtags used on Instagram. These are branded and community hashtags. Branded hashtag are company specific and are same as your brand name, product or any campaign for business promotion. They are recommended when you want to measure the popularity level of your brand.Community keywords are used to connect users with same interest on a particular topic.

These keywords will help you in increasing followers by engaging them.Instagram allows the use of up to 30 hashtags on a post but that many will make your post look overcrowded with hashtags so keep it toor 4 relevant keywords. The logic behind the effective usage of the hashtag on Instagram is to analyze the keywords that are used by your audience and relate your hashtags with those keywords. This will let your post get more exposure than general hashtags used to tag your post. 

How to smartly use hashtags on Facebook:

Facebook is one of biggest and most popular social media platform. The quantity of user that access on daily basis is more than millions. The important thing to consider before choosing hashtags is to search for the tags in facebook search bar and go through posts to find which tags are used in posts that are most related to your content you are planning to share on Facebook.

How to smartly use hashtags on Pinterest:

Pinterest wants you to be specific and descriptive while adding the hashtags. You need to use words or phrases that are self-descriptive. As far as quantity of the hashtags is concerned, Pinterest will display only first 4 hashtags under the Pin previews on streams and boards on every pin.

How to smartly use hashtags on LinkedIn:

The LinkedIn platform is meant for professional networking rather than connecting with people on behalf of your areas of interest or personal matters. Being a business networking platform it is recommended to include hashtags within your LinkedIn company pages that to inside About Us section. A good way will be putting hashtags on your specialities and area of expertise at the bottom in About Us section.

Tools suggested by experts to monitor hashtag performance:

Effectively tracking the hashtags is important but becomes a bit challenging as the number of hashtags being used simultaneously in different languages, countries, and context is enormous.

Hashtag tracking tools are the solution by experts that promises to reveal efficiency of hashtags.

Hashtagify

Brand24

RiteTag

Keyhole

Trendsmap (Twitter specific)

The above-mentioned tools provide you with the accurate insights about your hashtags so you can accordingly plan an effective strategy to spread your content using correct hashtags in the correct context.

I hope you are now familiar with the importance of hashtags in social media marketing as well as confident enough to effectively use them for highlighting your content in best possible manner.

One more tip, I would like to share is always capitalising the first letter of every word in the hashtag which will improve the readability of your post as well increase the likes and share.