The social media hashtag is almost as ubiquitous as punctuation these days. We tag friends (#JaneJones), businesses (#WeAreKymera), cheers (#WayToGo), frustrations (#NotAgain) and moods (#RainyDayBlues). But your business needs more than just a playful hashtag to move the needle. Hashtags can — and should — be an important component of any smart digital marketing strategy. According to socialmediatoday.com, tweets that include hashtags get double the engagement as those without hashtags, and users are 55% more likely to retweet when a hashtag is included. Here are tips to get the most mileage out of yours.
Use broad and narrow hashtags. By dipping your toes in the best of both worlds, you’ll get more views and searches from customers in the top, middle and bottom of your sales funnel. Start with the broadest descriptor that applies to your business (#FineJewelry), then a sales category (#LuxuryTimepieces) and finally brand- and product-specific hashtags (#RolexWatches).
Location, location, location. Geographic hashtags are perfect for local businesses who want to attract customers in their area. You could use #OrlandoInsurance or #OrlandoAutoInsurance for example, to reach insurance prospects nearby. Location tags can also be regional (#CentralFlorida) or neighborhood specific (#CollegePark).
Build your brand. Include branded hashtags, like your company name, brand-specific products and tagline, to boost brand awareness. You can add these hashtags to your social media bio section in most cases as well as use them in your posts.
Review best practices. Hashtag possibilities are limitless, but when, where and how many you can use varies by channel — and changes from time to time. The rules can limit which hashtags you can use or how often you can use them before the system flags them as spam. For example, Twitter will let you include as many hashtags as can fit in a tweet, but recommends no more than two at a time. Do your research and become familiar with the requirements for each platform so you can create specific posts and schedules to support your strategy.
Be creative and fun. Hashtags give you the opportunity to connect and interact with people in a whole new way, so get creative. Start a hashtag challenge. Encourage clients to use the hashtag whenever they use your product or service — and turn customers into influencers. Or use a hashtag to launch a new meme for people to share and enjoy.
Don’t break the rules. Your social media strategy can lose traction or quickly backfire if you break the rules and invalidate hashtags: Avoid multi-word hashtags and omit punctuation and symbols within them. Also, always do your research before implementing a hashtag into your brand strategy by searching for it on each platform you intend to post on. The last thing you want is to be associated with anything that could damage your brand.
The following hashtags, for example, are invalid:
- #Happy Holidays (no spaces, would only be valid for #Happy)
- #Big-Win (hyphens and dashes not allowed)
- #Black&White (symbol not allowed)
- #Win$Now (symbol not allowed)
If you’re ready to up your hashtag game, Kymera has a team of social media specialists standing by to help create highly effective content with maximum reach. Contact us today for a free social media marketing consultation. #WeAreHashtags
Sources:
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-business/8-top-hashtag-mistakes-and-how-avoid-them
https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/how-to-use-hashtags
https://influencermarketinghub.com/hashtag-marketing-strategy/
https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/how-to-use-hashtags
https://www.hashtag.expert/growth/how-many-hashtags-on-social-media
