Ultimate Guide to Using Hashtags 2022

A hashtag which is the pound symbol on the keyboard can spice up any marketing campaign as it lets businesses reach a lot of audiences and engage more with their customers. It became popular on social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter but hashtags can be used on platforms that have an audience. Do you want to learn how to use hashtags effectively? In this article you can read everything about hashtags, why it is important, and how to choose the right hashtags on social media platforms.

How To Use Hashtags

• A hashtag should contain one word, with no space, punctuation, or special characters
• Hashtags must be short and easy to remember
• Use relevant and specific hashtags. The key is to think about what words are the most interesting for your target audience to search about
• When you plan to use a hashtag, your brand’s account should be on public

Benefits of Using Hashtags

• Boost engagement

By using hashtags in your social media posts, you can increase engagement with your audience, where they have the freedom to like, comment, and share with other users. Also, when users follow hashtags like #DigitalAgency, they can find out about your brand if you include this hashtag in your post.

• Build awareness

Hashtags can help promote your products and services on different platforms. It will result in starting a conversation and connecting with your target audience.

• Support for social media issues

Aside from promoting your brand, you can show support for trending issues and news on social media.

• Provide context on a social media content

Using hashtags can give context to your content without posting a lot of captions, where the audience can understand immediately what you are talking about.

How to Choose the Right Hashtags to Use

• Know your audience and competitors

The first tip is to research possible keywords that your target audience might search. Monitor your competitors on what hashtags they use in their content to attract an audience.

• Utilize social media tools

You can use social media tools/websites to help you in formulating hashtags such as Agorapulse, Hootsuite, and RiteTag to discover popular hashtags, hashtag suggestions, and industry-specific hashtags that you can include in your content. 

• Tailor your hashtags per platform

The hashtags that are used on one platform like Instagram do not apply to others like Twitter. So you must create different hashtags depending on the platform that you are using.

• Search for related hashtags

Aside from using specific hashtags for your brand, you can also include relevant hashtags to help you reach more audiences. Start by discovering hashtags in the search bar of any platform.

• Analyze successful hashtags that were used in the past 

Collect and analyze top-performing hashtags that you’ve used in your past posts, if those are still relevant in the present you may consider including them again in your social media content.

How to Use Hashtags on Social Media Platforms

Twitter 

• Since Twitter has limited character numbers in a tweet, you can use 1-3 hashtags
• You can use hashtags to let the audience know about you, engage in conversations and join trends
• You can use unique hashtags for your brand
• Hashtags can be added in any position on your tweet, such as opening, middle, and ending
• It can also be included in replies and Twitter bio
• You can see trending hashtags on the Trending page

Instagram

• You can use 3-5 hashtags in Instagram posts or comment section
• You can include hashtags in the profile bio of your brand
• When commenting on hashtags in a post, it must be written on the topmost comment.
• You can follow hashtags on Instagram where it will display relevant posts or videos to your brand.

Facebook

• 2 to 5 hashtags can be used in Facebook posts or comments.
• Hashtags are used to categorize content on Facebook
• Use hashtags that are relevant to your post
• You can see other posts that use the same hashtags when you click on a certain hashtag.

YouTube

• Three to five hashtags can be used in a YouTube video title or the description page.
• The hyperlinked hashtags can feature other relevant videos that use the same tag
• Trending tags can be found when searching at Youtube’s search bar.

LinkedIn 

• Ideal hashtags must be 2 - 5
• Use professional and popular hashtags, words that are relevant to the job, courses, and other interesting professionals
• You can find trending LinkedIn hashtags on the “news and views” page

Pinterest 

• You can also use hashtags on Pinterest, it must be 2 to 5 hashtags that are relevant to your post
• As hashtags will describe what your Pin is all about, use words that are searchable, specific, and descriptive.

TikTok

• Ideal is 2 to 5 hashtags
• Effective in categorizing content (posts/videos)
• Trending hashtags can be found on the search bar, For You, and Discover page
• Use only specific and trending hashtags

Conclusion:

There you have it, the guide for hashtags. When used properly, hashtags attract a wider audience and increase engagement with your brand. Remember that you must not only rely on hashtags, it is essential that you formulate content that is interesting and informative to catch the attention of the potential audience. 

References:

https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/how-to-use-hashtags-in-social-media

https://www.takeflyte.com/blog/hashtags-explained

https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-to-use-hashtags/amp/