Use hashtags on your social media posts to stand out in a crowded online world.
Hashtags now work on almost all the major social platforms and can be a relatively easy way to get your content and brand to stand out.
Get three tips on using hashtags in your branding strategy below:
What are hashtags?
If hashtags are new to you, then simply think of them as a system to quickly and easily categorize things like topics, events or brands.
Placing a hashtag (the # sign) in front of a word or phrase places that word/phrase in a category that becomes “searchable” on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and even LinkedIn.
The hashtag becomes a “clickable” word in the post (except on Pinterest Pin descriptions), so users can quickly find more information on that topic whenever they click on the hashtag.
For example, a few (topical) hashtags I use regularly are:
#PersonalBranding
#SocialMediaTips
#SocialMediaMarketing
I’ll use these hashtags on my Facebook posts, Tweets, and Instagram content. You can capitalize the first letter of each word to make the hashtag easier to read, but do not put spaces between the hashtag or words.
So now that you know the basics of hashtags, here are a few ways to incorporate them into your social media strategy:
3 Tips for Using Hashtags
1. Develop a list of your “go-to” hashtags
What topics do you write about, share tips on, and align with your personal brand? Start with at least 5-10 that you want to use on a regular basis. When people are searching for resources on those topics, you want your brand or content to show up.
You won’t necessarily use all of your go-to hashtags in one post, especially on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. This is a revolving list to choose from based on the topic or occasion.
On Instagram where you use more hashtags per post, you may find it helpful to save your go-to hashtags in a Note App on your phone so you can quickly copy and paste them into your posts.
Best practices on social sites differ, but the number of hashtags to use per post is generally 2-3 on Twitter and Pinterest, only 1-2 on Facebook, and on Instagram as many as 10-12 per post.
Current thoughts on putting hashtags in Instagram posts:
Some people recommend putting the top 1-3 hashtags in the Instagram post caption, and then adding a separate comment under your post with the rest of your hashtags.
You can also simply include all of your hashtags in your post caption, but leave a few empty lines between your content and the hashtags to look less cluttered.
2. Create unique hashtags for you/your brand
These hashtags are used as a way to make you/your brand stand out, and be readily found through search.
For example, I’ll use the hashtags #TerryLeague and #socialmediaLCS for some of my content on social sites. Then I can tell people to type that hashtag into the search bar on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc. and they will see even more of my content.
If you’re hosting an event, a webinar, or launching a new product, create a unique hashtag for it. This is a great way to ask people to easily spread the word for you in their social media posts.
Here is an important note when creating a unique hashtag: you don’t actually “own” any hashtag you create and others can use the same hashtag for any of their content (that has nothing to do with yours), so do some research on the sites themselves before using the hashtag.
3. Use trending hashtags for more exposure
Check out the trending / top hashtags on Twitter and Instagram.
If you discover that a trending hashtag has some relevance to you/your brand, then you may want to create some posts that include those hashtags.
Note: Pay attention to trending hashtags that relate to current events or news, as hashtag hijacking (especially during disasters or tragedies) can quickly turn people off.
So be very careful, and do some research before jumping on a trending hashtag.
You may find it more advantageous to use theme-related hashtags that trend on certain days of the week such as #ThrowbackThursday or #MondayMotivation.
Start using hashtags in your branding strategy with these tips, and stand out on your social media sites!
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