Hashtags when used correctly can make a tremendous impact on your posts. This post will show you when to use a hashtag, how to use it and what the purpose and results will be for using it. Specific hashtags can help you track and measure your product or service to see how many times it is being shared. Commonly used hashtags help you curate content, engage with posts that you may not have found otherwise and expose you to material that could lift your game in your industry. The #Hashtag can be as complicated or as simple as you want to make it.

Personally, I love the #hashtag and as social media evolves, the hashtag may evolve as well. In fact, Google+ have already started using the hashtag differently.

Here is a video explaining The Power of the #Hashtag.

Why are #Hashtags important?

  • When you click on a #Hashtag it will take you to public posts that have the same Hashtag. This is true for Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Google+ have gone one step further and link not only to the actual word hashtagged but to similar words and phrases.
  • Your content is exposed to an audience that may never have had the opportunity to see your information.
  • It is easier to search for content using a #Hashtag

How many #Hashtags should you use?

  • We have found that in Twitter, Google + and Facebook – 2 hashtags work really well. In fact we have seen a decline in post viewing with three or more #hashtags
  • Instagram – many #hashtags work well and we have seen up to five work fine for the post.

What to #Hashtag

  • Choose the one or two words or phrases that are going to drive traffic to your post.
  • Use these one or two words consistently.

How to #Hashtag

  • Simply place a pound sign # in front of the word with no spaces. E.g. #dogs
  • If you want to hashtag a phrase, put the words together. E.g. #Ilovedogs
  • You can make a phrase look more respectable by adding an underscore but we have found that the search brings up different results, especially in Twitter. This method works great in Instagram e.g. #I_love_dogs

How does this benefit you?

  • Access to other ‘resources’
  • Keeps you up to date in your field
  • Engagement with other people with similar interests.
  • Get content ideas
  • Find relevant connections
  • Measure the importance of topics

Registering a hashtag

If you are going to use a hashtag consistently for your product or service, then choose a hashtag that relates to this specifically. Make it unique. The point of this is that you want to be able to measure how many people are engaging with your hashtag and to measure the extent of the use.

You can register your hashtag at Twubs

If you have any other tips on how to use the #hashtag, we would love to hear about it.