Everything You Wanted to Know About #Hashtags. At One #Place
#Hashtags — every digital marketer’s favourite tool. One thing NO post should go without. The tool that ensures you stay up to date with the trends. And if used right, this tool becomes your best friend.
To make things easier, your friendly neighbourhood digital marketing studio has come up with a clear and concise explanation of everything you need to know about hashtags.
Let’s dive into the science of implementing hashtags in your post. And while we’re at it, let’s debunk some myths for you to use hashtags more efficiently.
By adding one symbol ‘#’ before the word, you change the word into a searchable link. A link that leads the reader to multiple posts that revolve around the same concept.
The aim is to not just use hashtags and let your post drown in a sea of million. It’s to use the right hashtags to make sure your post stands out in a sea of plenty.
So many popular HASHTAGS, let’s use them ALL…uh, no.
If this is your thought, stop right there. Most of us falter by using the wrong hashtag.
Popular hashtags do not provide specific genres and hence you may not receive the post engagement you desire.
The Top 10 Instagram Hashtags of 2020 include:
1) #gym
2) #summer
3) #workout
4) #autumn
5) #model
6) #instapic
7) #happiness
8) #motivation
9) #life
10) #cool
Aiming at the right target…
Focus on using niche specific hashtags which ensure that your audience will be engaged with your post.
The best way is to look and see what Instagram hashtags your audience, competitors, and industry leaders are already using and customize them according to your preference.
For example, a food blogger might post a picture of a delicious vegan berry smoothie, and then use the hashtags #superfoods, #cleaneating, and #vegansofig when it’s uploaded to Instagram.
Since Twitter’s optimum number of hashtags is 2, it’s better to experiment with specific hashtags, while a combination of popular and niche hashtags for Instagram is preferable which allows up to 30 hashtags on posts and 10 hashtags for stories.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that a successful hashtag needs to be properly researched and you should choose topics which have the potential of making your customized hashtag stand out.
The Hashtag buckets…
1) Product or service hashtags: These are basic keywords to describe your product or service, like #handbag or #soap.
2) Niche hashtags: These get a little more specific, showing where you fit in the context of your industry, like #travelblogger or #foodblogger.
3) Location hashtags: Even if you geo-tag your Instagram post, it can still be a good idea to include a hashtag that refers to your location, like #vancouvercraftbeer or #londoneats
4) Acronym hashtags: Perhaps the best-known acronym hashtag is #TBT for Throwback Thursday. Other popular acronym hashtags include #OOTD for outfit of the day, #FBF for flashback Friday, and #YOLO for You only live once.
5) Special event or seasonal hashtags: These can refer to real holidays or seasons, like #summerdays, or they can be used for all those National [Thing] Day holidays, like #nationalicecreamday or #nationalnailpolishday.
How can I make hashtags my best friend?
We all could use a little help with this. Thankfully, the online world is very rewarding.
We’ve summed up a number of tools that can help make your hashtag game A1.
1) Research hashtags
What The Trend is a popular tool that helps you find the most popular hashtags that have been trending on Twhaitter for the past 30 days. Twitonomy can help you find personalized hashtags that revolve around the content you post on your Twitter accounts. Although you require a premium account to use it to its fullest potential, it’s quite reasonably priced.
RiteTag helps ensure that the tags you use are well-chosen by showing you how good, great, or overused a particular hashtag is. Local businesses might find value in Trendsmap, which shows you relevant hashtags that are being used in your geographic area.
2) Monitor social media influencers and competitors
Start by doing a competitive analysis on social media. Gather intel about your competitors and any relevant influencers within your brand’s niche.
Make note of which hashtags they use most often and how many hashtags they use in each of their posts. This will help you learn how your competitors are engaging with your shared target audience and which keywords they tend to use.
3) Use Hashtagify.me
Hashtagify.me helps you find the best Twitter hashtags or Instagram hashtags for your brand.
With this tool, you can search any hashtag and see how popular it is. For example, if you search the popularity of #springtime, you will get results showing you this hashtag’s overall popularity, its recent popularity, and the trends for the month and week. You will also information on the languages that use this hashtag and the country it has originated from.
4) Get a social media listening tool
A tool like Hootsuite lets your brand use search streams to discover which hashtags are the best for all the social networks it uses. Simply, search streams make it easy to see which hashtags are the most popular and the most effective.
5) Sprout Social
To create a more relevant list of trending Twitter hashtags, make the most of Sprout’s social listening tools. The Twitter Trends Report lets you view topics and hashtags that people use frequently when mentioning your brand. You can even get comprehensive hashtag analytics for each of the hashtags that are mentioned in the Trends Report including frequency by day, or by people and brands mentioning or talking about you.
6) Generate buzz
Creating a contest, raffle or promotion is a great way to get social media talking about your brand. Users will be more likely to retweet your hashtags if they know they might win a prize by doing so. For instance, if you’re promoting a new makeup shop called CLARA, get social media buzzing by offering free treats to users who tweet #ClaraPromo.
Wrapping up…
Using Hashtags can be overwhelming at first, but with practice, you will soon be a pro at it. Keep these tips in mind and watch your brand metamorphose into your goals! In case you would like to know more about #hashtags, visit our website or drop us an email at manish@studio4.online
