Today we're going to look at the top 5 ways to use hashtags for business and the top 5 hashtag mistakes
to avoid --- right inside the video!
Hey guys, it’s Chia from Brand24 and today we’re looking at hashtags.
One of you recently asked if we could go over a few examples of hashtags, including some
do’s and don’ts on how to use them… so that’s exactly what we’re going to look at
today.
We’ll go over: (1) the top 5 ways to use hashtags for business, as well as (2) the
top 5 hashtag mistakes to avoid making, and I’ll show you some examples of all this
inside the video…
There are just a few different ways that you can make hashtags a part of your social media
strategy for your business, and the reason why you want to do this is because hashtags
can help you: (1) increase the reach of your campaign, (2) build brand awareness, and
(3) gain more followers who can become your potential customers.
So you definitely want to make sure that you include hashtags in your digital marketing
strategy… and there are a few different ways that you can do this:
If you’re already familiar with some of this, feel free to jump ahead
to the next chapter… and you'll find timestamps for each chapter in the Video Description
box down below.
So, in order to help a greater audience discover your brand, you can use some popular, pre-existing
hashtags that are relevant to your content.
You can find some of these just by running a quick search on the individual platforms
that you’re using, or if you want to get really specific, you can also use a 3rd party
app like Brand24 to monitor relevant industry keywords and get a list of the top hashtags
that are used in your industry.
Another way to help more people find your content is to throw some ‘related, trending
hashtags’ in the mix.
Instagram used to show ‘related hashtags’ along a bar on the ‘hashtag page’, but
it was removed a while ago.
Now, we have to use other creative methods to find related, trending hashtags.
You can use apps like RiteTag or Hashtagify to quickly look up some trending hashtags,
or you can use a much more specific method that we mentioned earlier, and instead of monitoring
industry keywords, you can monitor relevant hashtags to find the top trending hashtags
that are used together with them.
One more way to identify potential hashtags is by monitoring your competitors.
Since you are trying to reach the same potential audience, it’s a good idea to keep an eye
on the hashtag strategies that are working or notn working for them… and learn how to apply
all of this in the way that you use hashtags for yourself.
And in order to help build brand awareness, it’s always a good idea to create your own
branded hashtag.
These are usually really simple, and just the name of your company will do.
While this won’t help you gain many followers or increase your reach, it will help your
audience begin to associate your best content with your brand.
And, finally, it’s a good idea to create individual hashtags for each campaign.
This will help you track and measure your results and determine which campaign brought
you more reach, more mentions, and more PR in general.
It’s best to keep these types of hashtags simple, without going too hard on the branding,
so that more people will be willing to use them.
These are just a few ways to incorporate hashtags in your digital strategies.
There are definitely other ways, but these are the basics.
And in addition to this, it’s also important to know what you need to avoid when it
comes to using hashtags:
One of the biggest hashtag mistakes that have been made is failing to simply research a
hashtag before using it.
Even really big brands like DiGiorno and Dove have made this mistake and they have had to
face a lot of public backlash because of this… making this something that we can all learn
from.
Using too many hashtags is also something that I don’t recommend.
This is just because it can look spammy to your audience, and in some cases, depending
on the platform, the algorithm will even classify your content
as ‘spam’ due to hashtag overkill.
Twitter recommends that you use, about, 2 hashtags per tweet, while most people recommend
5-10 hashtags for Instagram, and just 1 or 2 hashtags for Facebook.
Focusing on hashtags over your caption or your post is another thing that you want to
avoid.
Hashtags are a tool for classification and discovery; they’re not part of your content.
For example, even on visual platforms like Instagram, you want to have a really good caption
to help draw people in and expand on the story that your image or video is telling… hashtags
can sometimes be distracting and get in the way of that.
One way to avoid this is by making your hashtags your first comment under your post, so that
your audience doesn’t get distracted by it.
A sign that your campaign is going really well is when your audience starts to use your
hashtag with their own user-generated content.
Failing to monitor this means that you could miss out on key opportunities to interact and connect with
your audience… some brands even feature really good UGC (that’s user generated content)
on their profiles which helps them build relationships with their followers and it also means more
content for them!
Finally, you also want to avoid using popular hashtags that are too general.
For example, if you are a food blogger, then a hashtag like #food won’t necessarily help
you gain too much reach because there are just too many people using it.
This means that the algorithm won’t favor your post for that hashtag, unless you
manage to get a huge amount of engagement shortly after posting.
It’s better to use a combination of moderately popular hashtags that are relevant, including
a branded hashtag, a campaign-specific hashtag and a community-based or topical hashtag.
Alright, that’s it for today!
I hope this was helpful and that I helped answer your question about hashtags… if
I missed something... if I left anything out or if you have any other questions, just let me know in the comments
section below!
Alright, thanks guys, have a good one and I’ll see you next time... bye!
Aaaaahhh! Eye contact? Really?
Mmhmm
That's gonna scare people
Something is, like, backwards...
And the top 5 ways... aaaahh... no... I messed up!
Mmhmm
I was on a roll, too!
Mmhmm
We got it? Aww, man... (laughter)... you're always trying to trick me...