How do you find the right hashtags for your brand and/or content?
I get asked that question a lot in the social media and marketing courses I teach. Here are some tips and resources you can use to find the right hashtags to increase reach, grow your brand, and to generate leads.
- Research a hashtag you want to use, before using it. You might be surprised what some acronyms mean on Twitter.
- Review what your competition is using. Leverage the same or spin it to create competition.
- Create a unique one or find lesser-used ones so the posts don’t get lost.
Hashtag Pitfalls
- Slander or defaming a brand, known as “bashtags” (remember you’re in business not high school).
- Yes, Instagram allows for up to 30 hashtags, but seriously what’s your content about anyway? Keep things focused.
- Lengthy hashtags that are difficult to read.
- One-time use. The goal is to drive traffic toward your content. If you have such a unique hashtag for one piece, it might lose spark in a short period of time.
Hashtag Success Tips
- Join a conversation with a trending hashtag, such as sport, events, conferences, culture, days of the week, or well-known tags, like #TBT
- Use short tags related to content, such as #BusinessTips, #DigitalMarketing, #TaxTips, #B2B #FunFriday
- Make them easy to remember and spell
- Limit them in a post, 3 max in Facebook and LinkedIn, 10 for Instagram, and about 5-7 max in Twitter
How to Find Trending Hashtags
There are plenty of hashtag resources out there. Here are a few to help you with research and use. However, my favorite tip is if you’re unsure about the hashtag you’re about to use, put it in a search engine or Twitter to see what comes up. You might be surprised to find an innocent hashtag might be connected to a controversial topic.
Now that you have your hashtag how to, what will you use on your next content post?