More and more small businesses are realizing how important social media marketing is to their business’ visibility and outreach to current and potential clients. However, there are so many businesses competing for attention, you need to make sure your efforts are effective. One essential way to increase your views and audience is by incorporating hashtags when using Instagram and Twitter. When you put a hashtag term into Facebook’s search bar, it will pull the same information as if you had left out the hashtag. It’s really just seeing the hashtag as a general “search” term.
For Instagram and Twitter, hashtags are used to categorize similar content. It’s a fact that Tweets with at least one hashtag receive twice as much engagement as those without and Instagram hashtags receive about 12.6% more. In order to correctly use hashtags, you first have to establish key words that match the services or products of your company. For an example, if you own a local bakery, you have to look over trending hashtags that aline with your goods you want to publicize.
There are two types of hashtags use:
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- Branded hashtags
- Community hashtags
Branded Hashtags
In order for a hashtag to be considered branded, you have to include your company’s name, or the name of a specific product. The main goal of using branded hashtags is to redirect potential clients back to your company. Aside from the posts your company generates, there is also user-generated content (UGC). You can actively advise users when they post information about your business to include your branded hashtags. This tactic will increase your amount of views and social media following.
Community Hashtags
Community hashtags are topics that attract the general public. This tactic can increase visibility and build your audience. Here are some helpful tips:
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- Create a list of 100-150 hashtags you can incorporate into your posts. You don’t want to overuse or repeat your hashtags.
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- Ideally your hashtags should be short and specific to your industry, product or service.
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- Find topics that relate to your audience and that they might “search” for.
- Find topics your audience is already talking about/trending. Hashtags allow social media users to follow a trend and help you gain an engaged community.
If you need help creating a social media strategy plan, we’re happy to help – just send us an email!
Danielle Foley, President
Foley Marketing Advisors
dfoley@foleymarketingadvisors.com