Hashtag 101: Never Fear, Hashtags Are Here!

This post may seem like it’s a little late, however, you wouldn’t believe the number of people who are too afraid to ask. I hear it all the time; “we know people are using them—what exactly are these silly phrases that start with a pound sign. Is this just another dumb trend?” So.. never fear my social media friends, hashtags are here to stay…and after you read this, you’ll know exactly what to do and how to use them!

If you use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Google+ for marketing, you’ve likely seen or heard of hashtags being used. They look like a string of words put together, and seem a little pointless at first. Why would anyone want to look at a string of jumbled letters?

Well, they are extremely useful for your marketing! And truth be told, used strategically, they can really jettison your online marketing.

What Exactly Are Hashtags?

You use the # symbol with relevent words that link to your post. The idea is that they help reach other people outside of ones friends and followers. They identify messages on a specific topic which then form on lists out in social media.

Hashtags help group a lot of posts together when people search for those them—they can find many opinions or posts about a particular topic as well as other like-minded people.

By doing this, you’re instantly boosting your market reach beyond those who are already following you.

It’s also great for you. You get to track discussions, and see what people are talking about. You can then link those popular discussions to your content and boost your reach that way.

Wouldn’t it be nice to market without too much effort?

Using Hashtags Effectively

While you can put as many hashtags in as you want, minimal appears better. Hashtag overload makes it difficult for people to see what your content is really about. It also makes it more difficult for others to share (especially on Twitter!).

From an SEO perspective, using too many hashtags can be used as keyword stuffing—which then reduces your effectiveness in the online world.

So the basic rule is no more than 3 per post.

Be sure to avoid punctuation in your hashtags. They’re not supported and will only make part of your tag linkable. Numbers and letters are perfectly fine.

Also, don’t pile them at the end of your post as you write a tweet, put your #hashtags inline or inside the post with the #awesomecontent you’re writing! It avoids duplication and saves character count for your smiley faces! 🙂

Some “Do’s When Using Hashtags:

Do keep an eye out for the trending hashtags. These are the ones that people are looking for, and could really help you boost your reach. Twitter shows them on the left-hand side to make it easy for you. Think about ways your business links to those trending tags, and then add them in.

Do use the tags for commentary or to bring out specific emotions. Have a sarcastic blog post you want to promote, add a sarcastic hashtag to make people smile.

Do boost your marketing by using hashtags! If you’re promoting your business it’s very important to keep in mind that Google is all about your brand. Don’t forget to use one of the three of your hashtags as the name of your business. This way when it’s searched, all of your relevant posts will appear in that list.

Do use hashtags strategically to get you places you want to go and remember they’re collecting your posts into search results for others. That results in a boost of the number of people seeing your tweets or status updates, without having to follow you right away. Upside is…they get to know and trust you and then follow you to do business with you!

And that’s #hashtagawesomeness!

oh and one last point. Did you know that you can also search for hashtags on Google? Just put your topic with your hashtag symbol in the search bar and several hashtag lists will appear in the results! #Goodstuff!

Enjoy a little more about hashtags by watching this video below—it’s a lot of #fun!