In 2007, Twitter introduced the hashtag to the world of social media and it soon became a sensation. Who knew a symbol could be so popular? Even though other sites like chatrooms already used the hashtag, Twitter made its use mainstream thanks to the number of active users it had.
Nowadays, communities are created all throughout the web thanks to hashtags. It’s the most popular way of indexing your posts making it easier for others to find it. Hashtags have now become an essential way of being discovered on any social media.
Today we share with you some hashtags 101 basics to help you navigate and improve your hashtaging game.
Branded Tag
Community Tags
When & How
How many Tags
Choosing right
BRANDED TAGS
These are the tags you create that are related to your brand. Their main use is to gather any content related to your brand in one place. It provides an opportunity to engage with users.
COMMUNITY TAGS
Community tags are used by everyone without them belonging to a particular brand. One of the best parts is that if a hashtag doesn’t exist you can simply just create one!
These tags are the ones that are related to your content and make it easy for other users to find similar content.
NUMBER OF HASHTAGS
Research has shown that using 11 or more hashtags gives the most engagement on social media. Of course, this depends on the network you are posting to. Using too few hashtags limits your exposure but when used right you can directly target your potential users.
WHEN & HOW TO USE HASHTAGS
The ideal frequency of using hashtags is as often as possible.If you want your target audience to see your posts you need to uses hashtags to help them discover your content. Avoiding them will only make you go unnoticed with so many active users online.
There are a couple of ways to incorporate hashtags into your posts, you can either use hashtags in the caption of your post or add them to the end all together.
The best practice is to be discreet. When incorporating them into the text, use only one or two and if you want to include more add them to the end of your post.
CHECK BEFORE USING
Checking the tags you want to use before posting will save you a lot of trouble.
Communities that have little to do with the segment you want to reach, may already be using one of your hashtags. By doing a little research before posting will ensure that you are making your posts seen by the right people.
It’s also important to check how many people follow a certain hashtag. When many users use the same hashtag, it becomes very active. As a result, new content replaces yours at a rapid pace. It’s much more important to aim your post at the people who you want to see it.
Hashtags have become a must have when using social media. Keeping updated on hashtaging trends will make a big difference when competing with other users.
Following these tips, as well as some other Instagram tips posted previously, will surely give you the results you desire.