From Invisible to Unstoppable: How Hashtags Get You Found

Isn't a hashtag just a keyword with a fancy number sign in front of it? Kinda but no.

Hashtags and keywords both serve a similar purpose of organizing and categorizing content but they are used in different contexts and have some distinct differences.  

Keywords are words or phrases that describe the content on a website or blog page. Search engines rely on them to rank webpages when someone queries a related term.

A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the # symbol that is used to categorize and organize social media content. Hashtags are used to make it easier for users to find and participate in conversations on specific topics.  

While keywords are ranked and analyzed by search engine robots, hashtags are used and interpreted by people. 

Hashtags were born on Twitter in 2007.

In 2007, a twitter employee suggested the use of hashtags to organization and track certain tweets on the platform. It wasn't until 2009, however, for the idea to catch on and the platform to widely adopt the practice.  

Instagram thought hashtags were a great idea and used them from the first day of their launch in 2010. In 2013, Facebook finally joined the hashtag trend and other networks quickly followed. Today, every major social media network uses hashtags. 

How to Hashtag Like a Pro:

Let's create an example of a blog post related to social media that we wish to promote on our social channels. Our keyword might be 'social media marketing' but our hashtags can vary based on our intent.

• Main keyword = social media marketing
• General hashtag = #socialmediatips

Expand Your Reach:

Most social media managers would agree that the whole point to using hashtags is to help others discover your content. Having a hashtag strategy in place will help you to choose the right hashtags for relevancy and best exposure. Ritetag and other hashtag research tools give insight on how often those tags are searched for and reposted.  

• Okay:  #marketing - while this term has vast reach (3,384,721 searches per month), it is extremely general.
• Better:  #socialmedia - This tag isn't bad as it has good reach, and though broad, is more closely related to the content.
• Best: #socialmediamarketing - This tag is highly relevant so has a great chance of anyone searching this term being interested in the content posted.  Plus, it has great reach.
• Irrelevant: #Instagram - While this tag has great reach, unless the blog post you are discussing includes specific information about Instagram, this term may be too broad and therefore irrelelvant. 

Use Hashtags to Create Personality:

Because hashtags are meant for people and are interpreted by people, they can convey more than just a category. Hashtags can be used to convey emotion, context, or add personality to a post.

• Urgent hashtag: #socialmedia911
• Fun hashtag: #sassysocialmedia
• Good vibes: #Ilovesocialmedia
  

Create a Branded Hashtag:

While these may expand your reach, creating unique, branded hashtags will help fans of your company follow your specific content across channels. Done well, these tweets can be used to raise awareness of your brand or promote a campaign. 

• Charmin: #TweetFromtheSeat
• Lays: #DoUsAFlavor
• ALS Association: #IceBucketChallenge

Best Hashtag Practices:

Do use a strategy: Use research and create a social media strategy that is defined per channel.   

Don't Use Spaces:   Hashtags have no spaces between them so if you are joining more than one word, make sure you eliminate the space.

Do Trends: Research trending hashtag that relates to your business or post, and whenever it makes sense, use these to heighten the awareness of your own content.

Don't Spam:  Don't use too many hashtags in a single post. We stick to 3-5 relevant hashtags that accurately describe your post.

Do Keep Hashtags Brief: eMinimize keywords to no more than three brief words (two is ideal).

Don't Overuse the Same Hashtag:  Use variety in your posts and experiment with relevant keywords.  

Do use channel-specific rules: Twitter, for instance, prefers no more than two hashtags per tweet, though you can do many more than that.