How do Hashtags Work | How to Use Hashtags: A simple & Quick Guide

Social media has greatly dominated the ecommerce market these days, with hashtags playing a larger role in it. The hashtags in social media campaigns are an integral part of enhancing brand awareness. When one know how to properly use hashtags and how to strategize them in an effective manner, one will be able to reach unprecedented heights of success. In this article, we will find out how hashtags work and how to use them to achieve maximum productivity. The article would serve as a complete guide and provide you with easy steps to follow on how to use hashtags. But, before diving deep into the topic, let’s discuss what actually a hashtag is?

History of Hashtags

It all began in 2007 when Twitter used hashtags in a different way by indexing the keywords for easier discovery. Before that, the hashtag was just a pound symbol like this: #, which was used to mark the numbers. Twitter brought a huge revolution and after that most of the social media platforms started to incorporate hashtags in their working process as well. Moreover, Hashtag can be basically referred to as the group of words which succeeds the pound symbol. Using a hashtag, users can find content that pertains to a particular topic or trend, and they can use it to group related posts gathered in a particular location. Hashtags work on a simple premise. For instance, if you want to search about social media marketing, you type #socialmediamarketing. All the contents be it on Facebook, Instagram or any other website would get grouped in a single place. You would be able to see it in a fast and efficient manner. The right hashtags can help you achieve a variety of benefits.

Why should you use hashtags?

Hashtags indeed play a major role in social media advertising. The usage of hashtags offers you a variety of benefits. Following are some of the benefits of using hashtags:

• Enhance the engagement rates

Hashtags promote your business by reaching a larger audience and gaining more followers for your social media accounts. Whenever anyone searches for the content related to the hashtag that you used, they would also see the posts and contents of your websites too. It helps in increasing the engagement rates and enhancing the effectiveness of your content by making people like, comment and share it.

• Brand awareness

You can use hashtags to help people find your social media accounts and website. Each time someone searches for a certain brand along with a hashtag that you've used, your post gets incorporated in their recommendation. This is how hashtags work and when put to use more effectively can deliver a lot more in terms of followers and growth of the social media accounts and business in particular. The use of a hashtag on social media that relates to a societal issue can also help you to reach a wider audience.

• Conciseness

Through hashtags you can share your beliefs and sayings with others in a short amount of time. Many social media platforms like Twitter which has a maximum wording limit of 280 characters, Instagram and Facebook where long captions are not recommendable, hashtags can help you there. You can convey your message to the whole group of people by using two or three words, in a short and concise manner. It is the most effective way to conceptualize whatever you need to communicate without using several characters and repetitive sentences.

How to use hashtags, Do’s and Don’ts

Having known, as what does a hashtag mean and the importance of using the same. Now, let’s gain insights related to the use of hashtags. Hashtags if not used in a proper way would not be able to serve its purpose. So, following is the list of dos and don’ts that you can follow in order to achieve maximum efficiency and productivity.

DOs of hashtags

• You should identify and discover the types of hashtags which are used by people belonging to your line of business.

• You should go through the rules and regulations related to the different social media platforms as each has a different set of rules. Instagram focuses more on the description portion, whereas Twitter focuses more on the topic. You should use hashtags according to the platform you are using.

• STP which stands for segmentation, targeting and positioning are the three pillars of marketing. You need to analyse the business goals and objectives properly and incorporate the specific hashtags which you feel that your target audiences would search for.

• Innovation is the key to business success. As you gain a better understanding of hashtags and how to use them, you should focus on creating creative and innovative hashtags. If your hashtag becomes popular, it may become a trend on its own.

• You need to analyse and understand the needs and demands of your customers. Afterwards, you would be able to sell them your products. Consider using hashtags in a much more creative way and connecting with your customers and audiences rather than just focusing on marketing and promotion.

Don'ts of hashtags

• The biggest mistake anyone can make is using a hashtag without understanding its history. Determine the context and audience of a hashtag in order to know its purpose. Don’t just use the hashtag haphazardly.

• You need to keep a balance between the words and hashtags related to a particular post. Don’t use a lot of hashtags as it would make your posts look spammy.

• You should make sure your hashtags are short and crisp. Avoid using a long hashtag as this may lead to confusion among the audience and they might leave your posts.

• As discussed previously, hashtags should be used in accordance with the social media platform where you are posting the content. Avoid using the same hashtags on all social media platforms, including LinkedIn, which requires more professionalism in regards to hashtags and contents.

• You should avoid using unpopular acronyms and try to use the most popular and relevant acronyms for your posts.