How to use Hashtags on Social Media

Hashtags are an excellent tool to improve searchability and visibility, as well as allowing businesses to monitor the social environment (e.g. track an event). Hashtags group posts together, by allowing users to click or search for posts that use a hashtag. 

How to use Hashtags

Tips for effectively using hashtags:

1. Ensure that hashtags are relevant to the audience and industry to prevent penalties (e.g. YouTube can remove videos with misleading hashtags). 
2. Ensure that your spelling is correct and that you do not include spaces or punctuation. Check to see if the # sign is in front of the keyword. 
3. Ensure that your account is set to public. If an account is set to private the posts will only be available to the followers. 
4. Create a list of hashtags. Producing a hashtag list will save time when posting. You can grow your list over time to provide easy access to relevant hashtags. 
5. Follow and/or search for industry leaders and competitors. You can gain an idea of which hashtags are effective for your competitors. 
6. Search for hashtags on Instagram. Instagram notes the number of posts with the hashtag. Avoid popular or ‘saturated’ hashtags (e.g. #dog) as your post is highly unlikely to gain any reach. Avoid hashtags that are unpopular or infrequently used, unless you are targeting a niche. 
7. Gain inspiration from the hashtag generators. We really like this free tool: All Hashtag

Each social media platform uses hashtags differently. 

How to use Hashtags on Instagram 

Instagram is a hashtag friendly platforms that allow businesses to include up to 30 hashtags per post. Users have the ability to follow hashtags. We recommend adding three key and popular hashtags that sum up your post directly under the caption. You should add another 27 hashtags in your comments immediately after the post is published (within 30 seconds is the recommended time). If you’re including all 30 hashtags within the caption of your post, in order to not make your post look spammy, you can hide them somewhat by adding three full stops, and then list the hashtags. 

How to use Hashtags on Twitter 

Twitter was the first platform to introduce hashtags. Hashtags are used to tie conversations together. Hashtags are great if you want to join a conversation on Twitter. Twitter recommends using no more than two hashtags per tweet. 

How to use Hashtags on Facebook 

Hashtags never really took off on Facebook, however there are suggestions that Facebook is looking into introducing features to encourage hashtag use. Using the search tool, users are able to find content that uses a specific hashtag on Facebook. The general consensus is that only a few hashtags should be used (maximum of three). The most effective amount of hashtags for Facebook is likely to change if the platform encourages hashtag use.

How to use Hashtags on LinkedIn

Linkedin is similar to Instagram in the sense that you can follow hashtags. LinkedIn is a professional network and requires hashtags to be used professionally. Create a professional tone by avoiding ‘text talk’ and captions with only hashtags. Limit each post to a maximum of five hashtags to prevent your post been marked as spam. 

How to use Hashtags on Youtube 

Youtube also allows creators to add hashtags to their videos. Youtube allows for up to three hashtags above the video title and 15 hashtags in the video. The platform will not display more than 15 hashtags. You can use a hashtag to group a series of videos together (i.e. #bloommarketingtips). We recommend using three to four hashtags per video. 

Adding hashtags to Google My Business is pointless as the site doesn’t support hashtags. 

We hope that this marketing tip has been helpful! Follow us for more marketing tips or get in touch if you more information about our one-on-one coaching sessions.