What are Hashtags?

What is a Hashtag?

A hashtag is a word or keyword phrase preceded by a hash symbol (#). It’s used within a post on social media to help those who may be interested in your topic to be able to find it when they search for a keyword or particular hashtag. It helps to draw attention to your posts and encourage interaction.

Hashtags can be used on just about any social media platform, but they’re most popular on Twitter and Instagram. They are used to categorise content and make it more discoverable. Hashtags are also clickable so anyone who clicks or searches a relevant hashtag will see a page showing all the posts tagged with that hashtag. Hashtags also have relevance and popularity, so using an unpopular hashtag not relevant to your post is going to have poor regulates and low engagement.

If you are using social media to market your brand, then you should use hashtags. Hashtags can help boost your brand’s social media reach and engagement. But using hashtags effectively is more than just making #ThrowbackThursday posts on Instagram.

A good social media strategy should include a mix of popular, relevant, and branded hashtags. 

How Do Hashtags Work?

The point of using hashtags on social media is that you are indicating to a follower/user and algorithm that your content relates to a specific topic or category. Ultimately, it helps users to find relevant content easily across platforms so your content is discoverable to a wider (or niche) audience.

Hashtag Basics

They always start with # but they won’t work if you use spaces, punctuation, or symbols. Don’t string too many words together. The best hashtags tend to be relatively short and easy to remember. Use relevant and specific hashtags. If it is too obscure, it will be hard to find and it won’t likely be used by other social media users.

Limit the number of hashtags you use. More isn’t always better. It actually looks spammy.

Why use hashtags?

Hashtags are a great way to connect with like-minded people, and they can be used for just about anything. As a David Reid Homes Franchisee, you could use hashtags to promote your products or builds i.e. #DRHABuilt

You could also use hashtags to raise awareness for a cause or to start a conversation. Hashtags are also a great way to keep up with trends and breaking news. Using a hashtag can be a simple way to contextualise what you’re talking about, without using up valuable characters or writing repetitive captions.

Here are a few more reasons you should be using hashtags in your social media strategy.

Increase engagement with your followers

Including hashtags in your posts means taking part in a conversation happening on that social media platform. And most importantly, it makes your posts visible in that conversation. This can lead to greater engagement, boosting your brand’s social media engagement through likes, shares, comments, and new followers.

Build brand awareness with branded hashtags

Creating a branded hashtag can be an effective way to promote your business and drive conversations. Branded hashtags can be as simple as using your company name or incorporating a tagline into a hashtag.

Partnerships

Using hashtags is a simple way to indicate that your post in conjunction with a particular brand (#insertbrandnamehere).

Add Context

If you can use fewer words, then you should. Social media platforms limit you to a set number of characters. Using hashtags allows you to give context to your posts without using sentences.

Next Lesson: Using Hastgas and Keywords