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What’s the Best Way to Use Hashtags for Social Media Marketing?

Although hashtags started out as something that only applied to Twitter, as a result of their ongoing popularity among social media users, they’ve become part of other sites like Instagram and Facebook. Hashtags have become so ubiquitous that even if someone doesn’t know what this term means because they’re not an active social media user, chances are they’re at least one ad that included a term or phrase with a pound sign in front of it.

One of the reasons hashtags have remained so popular among social media users is they provide a way to be clever in a quick and punchy manner. That’s the same reason that certain rappers who are especially fond of using punchlines have been labeled as “hashtag rappers.” But, as you likely know from other marketing activities, just because users like a feature doesn’t automatically mean it’s going to be helpful from a business perspective. However, in the case of hashtags, there are definitely ways to utilize this feature for your marketing.

What’s the Best Way to Use Hashtags for Social Media Marketing?

Less is More

Cleverness aside, the actual purpose of a hashtag is to provide an easy way for people to engage with each other in a longer discussion. When multiple tweets have the same hashtag, clicking the hashtag in any of the tweets will bring up a stream that includes all the tweets. The same concept applies to all of the other social media sites that now utilize a hashtag. Putting hashtags to good use can make it easier for people to find and connect with your business.

According to research from Buddy Media, about a fourth of all tweets contain at least one hashtag. The research also found that tweets that include a hashtag have twice the engagement as those that don’t. But, that doesn’t mean you should fill up your tweet with hashtags. Updates with 1 or 2 hashtags have levels of engagement that are 21% higher than those with 3 or more. In fact, tweets that utilize at least 3 hashtags actually show a 17% drop in engagement.

In addition to using hashtags in moderation, it’s also important to keep them reasonably short. For example, if you’re hosting a conference with a five-word title, it’s better to use an acronym or abbreviation instead of the full title. Not only will a shorter hashtag take up fewer characters of your tweets, but it will also encourage your followers to utilize it.

The other thing to keep in mind is unless you do a search, you may not know exactly how a hashtag is being used. Since you don’t want your brand associated with a hashtag that’s being used for controversial discussions, it’s worth doing a quick search before you start using one.

Properly utilizing hashtags can make it easier to connect with your followers. It can also enable people who are interested in what your business has to offer to find and begin following you. This combination means that it’s definitely worth making hashtags a standard component of your social media strategy.

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Michelle Hummel is the CEO of Web Media University. She was recently nominated for the Woman-Owned Business of the Year! CEO of Web Strategy Plus, a full-service digital marketing agency. She’s a passionate Social Media Trainer with 15+ years of successful online business development, sales, and marketing experience. She also holds a valuable Internet Marketing Degree however in the ever-changing world of web marketing she strives to learn something new every day.

She travels Nationwide visiting the 26 Social Media Enthusiasts Chapters she developed Nationwide delivering in-depth social media training. A current contributing editor to The Franchise Dictionary Magazine and she has written 3 books in her series called, “The Social Media Magnet: Everything You Need to Know to Attract Customers with Social Media”, where she shares her best-kept secrets to success. She also specializes in helping Franchisors and Franchisees develop an integrated web marketing program to drive leads. She’s available for interviews via email, telephone, Skype video, news segments on location, and more. Just let her know how she can help!