Now that you’re familiar with the basic hashtag concept, let’s apply principles specific to small businesses. Follow these five tips to improve your brand’s hashtag strategy.
Nowadays, hashtags are increasing being used on all social networks, from Pinterest, to Twitter and Facebook. Hashtag consists of words or phrase, preceded by a # sign. Social media users have embraced hashtags as a way to discover new content and connect with others. Hashtags are the key to communicate and link information. They are a part of calls to action in commercials and sponsored posts on social media.
As a marketer, you can’t ignore them. Hashtag strategy is an important part of social media success. This needs to be done correctly to avoid damaging your reputation or causing problems for your business.
Let’s have a conversation about hashtags and what it’s all about and how to use them that they bring positive results for your online business.
THE PROBLEM WITH HASHTAGS
Hashtags are increasingly being used on social media, but not everyone knows why they matter? Tweets with hashtags tend to get twice as much engagement as compared to tweets that don’t use hashtags. Too many people see hashtags in posts of others and think it is just a # sign to any word or phrase. It’s a big mistake to underestimate or avoid hashtags.
How to use hashtags to enhance your online presence?
• Identify business-specific phrases
You need to seek where your posts or subject matter fits in. you can also look for someone who is active in your field and see which hashtags they are using. If you find hashtag that you like, click on it and a new list will appear that will include all posts with the given hashtag. Make a list of hashtags that would part of your campaign.
• Make use of trending hashtags
Trending hashtags are those hashtags which has become very popular and are trending now. You can engage in a trending hashtag by using it in your content update and get your message across to a massive audience. It is a good way to reach out those who are not your fans or followers. Some of the popular sources to get an insight about popular tags are Hashtags.org, Trendsmap and Statigram. You can also use popular niche hashtag to get your post seen by a lot of like-minded people.
• Choose hashtags with care
You can use hashtag research tool to find out important hashtags relevant for your business or marketing campaign. Take the time to research and avoid any embarrassment that can come with using hashtags with a negative connotation. You can find out hashtags that make sense for your business at What the Trend or Trendsmap. Now, easily search for hashtags by using the URL www.facebook.com/hashtag/ and then include your keyword.
• Don’t create hashtag that’s too long
Keep your hashtag short and simple, easy to spell and remember. You need to create hashtags keeping in mind the character restrictions of the social networks. You can pair the tweets with hashtags like #apps or #tools. Also, don’t use too many hashtags. Your thoughts will be better delivered with a thoughtful selection of 1-2 hashtags per tweet.
• Include hashtags in offline marketing efforts
Don’t limit the scope of hashtags to just online social networks! You can incorporate hashtags to your marketing materials like magazines, newspapers ads to promote your reach.
• Hashtags have a strong business value
Hashtags are a great opportunity for learning, connecting and reaching new people and communities. Photos, videos and status updates with hashtags stimulate more participation.
• Promote special events and contests
Hashtags are a good way to promote something special and tempting on your social media platforms. You can help people find the content by including hashtag in your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ posts.
CONCLUSION
It’s strongly recommended to start using hashtags as an important part of your marketing strategy and measure your results. Use services like Hashtracking or Simply Measured to measure the success of your hashtag strategy
How are you using hashtags in your posts? Share your thoughts about hashtags by commenting below.