The item formerly known as a number sign or pound sign has gained a lot of notoriety as Twitter started a trend that has now become so mainstream that they are used in spoken language and every social media forum available. This article will explain some common uses for hashtags in an effort to help you hash out the best way to incorporate them into your online marketing campaigns.
What is a Hashtag Exactly?
It is a word or phrase, unspaced, prefixed with the ‘#.’ Most commonly used in mircoblogging and on social networks, the incorporation of hashtags allows sorting through data for information on a single topic easier to identify. Due to its usage the words has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary in June of 2014.
How Do Hashtags Help You
Hashtags can help you quickly reach people searching about a specific topic or niche. As social media users search for meaningful content about specific topics they are more likely to find your content if you have it contained within a hashtag. Creating a campaign around specific hashtags may also help you to sort through data and find people interested in a topic you are an expert on. By adding hashtags to words or phrases you instantly transform a word into a clickable link in your post.
Cross Platform Usage
While it is not ideal to use the same content for posting across platforms, using the same hashtags is a good idea. Using the same hashtag to speak about your company or brand means that searching for others talking about it on any platform will be easier to identify. Just make sure that your hashtags are unique or you will pick up a lot of generic information as well.
Brand Hashtags
Create a hashtag for your brand, it can be your company or tagline. Do a search for hashtags you are considering using and implement one that is not widely used, then incorporate it into your social campaigns. Use it on every social media site and every time you post. You will want to keep it pretty short to ensure that you can fit it into your Twitter posts and easy to spell for users. Use different hashtags for your contests and promotions. And finally use the hashtags to monitor your brand and campaigns.
Trending Hashtags
Since a trending hashtag is a constantly changing topic finding a trend that is related to your business may be a challenge, however, when you find one use it in your content updates and you are more likely to be seen by a massive audience. You can find trending topics on Google+, Twitter and Facebook easily, so keep an eye and take advantage when you see one.
Hashtag Spamming
Don’t use a ton of hashtags, especially ones that don’t relate to your business, products or services. Besides the fact that Twitter may block you for such usage it is considered bad etiquette, turning off more people than it attracts. Limit your usage to your brand and specific ones regarding your topics.
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