Do you use hashtags as part of your social media strategy?
Hashtags when used correctly can have a great positive impact across your social media but use them incorrectly and it can in fact have the opposite effect!
But first of all what exactly are they and how can use use hashtags as part of your social media plan?
Hashtags began over on Twitter but these days they are used across all the social media platforms! Hashtags group content and post together under a category – think of them as files in a filing cabinet and it becomes easier to understand! Before you jump in and create random hashtags that have very little to do with the topic you are posting about think about them carefully and do some research! It varies on each social media platform but the general idea is still the same. If you’re posting a piece of news on a topic that is trending be sure to use the correct hashtag to ensure that your post reaches a wider audience.
How many hashtags should you be using per post?
The originator of hashtags! almost all trending topics over on twitter begin with a hashtag. When it comes to tweets and using hashtags don;t go overboard as this can in fact put people off engaging with you. Best practice says to use between 1-2 hashtags which can actually help increase engagement!
Twitter networking hours are a fantastic way that hashtags are used to reach a wider audience. throughout the hour each
It’s not always been clear if using hashtags as part of our Facebook posts makes any difference to the reach. Our advice? do some testing yourself to see if they are beneficial to you but the same as twitter don’t got overboard, use no more than 3 industry related hashtags as part of your posts and in order for your posts to remain neat and easy to read add your hashtags at the bottom of each post.
Instagram is a completely different ball game! Whilst the majority of social media networks would advise you to no more than 3 hashtags per post Instagram in in fact very different and most users post no less as than 11 as a minimum!
Before you go hashtag crazy do some research and see what hashtags the competitors in your industry are using. The more you make use of hashtags the more likely it is that your images will get noticed by other people!
How to track hashtags before you use them
To ensure you know which hashtags will have the best positive influence on your posts it’s a good idea to track them and research. For this we recommend a great website called hashtagify.me, if you have any questions about hashtags then feel free to drop us an email or tweet us at @thecheerfullime!
