The use of hashtags has become a permanent part of social media, and is used by major brands in their ad campaigns; their usage has even extended to text messages, chats, and advertisements. Hashtags categorize content on social media, and in turn, allow people to discover your brand’s specific content and the varied interests of other social media users. However, unless you know how to utilize hashtags properly, they will yield you no benefit, so today we will discuss best practices for hashtag use on social media, particularly on Instagram and Twitter.
Social Media Hashtag Best Practices
Although the use of hashtags to group topics began with Twitter, hashtag usage has broadened to other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest.
Anyone can throw in a hashtag or two on a post, but there are a few key guidelines you should follow in order to maximize their effectiveness. Here are some reasons why you will want to learn how to properly utilize hashtags:
- Tweets with hashtags get two times more engagement than tweets without
- Brands can see a 50 percent increase in engagement when using hashtags.
Let’s take a look at a few strategic uses of hashtags that will dramatically boost your brand’s reach and engagement level.
Choose Hashtags for Each Platform
When creating or searching for hashtags on different social media networks, Twitter is where hashtag usage all began, so hashtags are more adaptable by nature on Twitter and more topic based. Results are displayed via popularity and relevancy and tweets are shown with a specific hashtag in real time.
Hashtags on Facebook reveal trending topics but are not as effective as they are on Twitter or on Instagram. We don’t often recommend their usage on Facebook.
On Instagram, hashtags actually help with brand discovery and to showcase your brand’s content. Hashtags form a kind of colony of users with shared interests who browse through images and engage with others, so the more original the better. Also, add them as your first comment to keep the legibility of your post easy.
With Tumblr, the hashtag symbol is added automatically, and entries are organized according to topics, as with Twitter.
Create Hashtags Exclusive to Your Brand
Carefully choose a hashtag that dovetails with your brand’s theme, mission statement, and values — the idea is to streamline all of your marketing efforts with clever, and consistent messages about who your brand is, and what your brand, say Coca-Cola, stands for. #GamingGoesBetterWithACoke
Once you’ve chosen a few brilliant business hashtags, don’t forget to include them in all of your marketing efforts, such as print, flyers, event announcements, email signature, and business cards. Now virtually all brands include their business hashtags on television advertisements.
Always Strive for Original and Diverse Hashtags
When you’re shopping around for hashtags, pretend you’re out looking for a new house or apartment — take your time and be selective, be particular. Don’t settle for 2nd best. Do a little hashtag research for ideas and write them down. Then check each network to see what content is being associated with those tags. If your competition and your customers are utilizing those hashtags, then you’re on the right path.
Don’t get lazy and use unoriginal hashtags such as #followforfollow. Those offer no long-term benefit and are too broad and spammy to help you see an ROI from your efforts. Those hashtags are a waste of time and opportunity. The people and brands that use those tags are not your customers. The name of the hashtag game is conversions, so having a targeted audience is more important than numbers.
We have put together a hashtag directory for different industries and holidays so that you have a great place to get started.
Review and refresh old hashtags on a consistent basis to spike more interest from your followers. Specificity breeds intensity, so the more specific you can get with your hashtags, the more calculated the response will be from your audience, the more intense their reaction will be, and the livelier the level of engagement.
Simplicity and Trends
We suggest the use of no more than three hashtags per post on Twitter, all 30 on Instagram, and none on Facebook.
Determine what hashtags are trending, and use them only if they are relevant to your brand. Don’t use irrelevant hashtags no matter how popular. Find and use the keywords and hashtags associated with your brand.
How to Manage Your Brand’s Social Media
Now that you have all the information needed to use the perfect hashtags for your brand on all social networks, you need a solid but inexpensive social media tool. Socialdraft is an all-in-one social media tool that allows you to:
- Schedule posts to Facebook pages, LinkedIn pages, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
- Schedule single or recurring posts.
- Duplicate posts.
- Schedule in bulk via CSV.
- Pull reports for Facebook and Twitter
- Engage your Audience.
- And much more…
You can manage all your brand’s social media pages using Socialdraft. It’s a hassle-free platform that will help manage your workload and hit deadlines. Take Socialdraft for a risk-free trial today.
It’s absolutely critical to take advantage of social media today if you’re going to have any real measure of success in business – but that doesn’t mean that the majority of businesses, marketers, or entrepreneurs have any clue of what they are doing when it comes time to figure out how to create and Instagram caption that converts!
In fact, the opposite is usually true – most people have breaking down specific Instagram filters to a perfect science, they know hot to find the perfect Instagram hashtags, but have next to no idea how to create effective Instagram captions that transform followers into prospects, prospects into customers, and customers into brand ambassadors.
A good caption is even more important now that Instagram has announced their algorithm implementation. Posts with high engagement will be prioritized, so that means that likes AND comments will be integral to you coming up in the feed.
Check out this quick guide below and you won’t be one of those people!!!
Remember the value of an Instagram caption
Think of Instagram captions as a headline on an advertisement.
Just as you wouldn’t use your headline to do the bulk of your selling for you – but instead use the help line headline to capture attention and get them to read the rest of your ad – you’ll want to learn how to create in Instagram caption that converts ambivalence into attention and does so in record time.
What length should my caption be
A lot of websites will tell you it should be short. But this is not always the truth. Just look at the example above. It has a write up longer than 1-2 sentences and has over 600 likes. The internet likes things short since people have short attention spans, but if you have an engaged audience that is willing to read a long write up, then you’re totally ok. As long as your people are engaged, you’re good to go. If you’re not getting engagement, you may want to start experimenting with the length of your posts. Insert a Call to Action
Calls to Action are ridiculously important. There are tons of studies that show that including an effective call to action can increase your ROI. Ask your community to visit your site, tag a friend, or answer a question. All these will get them to participate with your brand, not just be passive spectators.
When you include your call to action test out placing it in the beginning and end of your caption. Measure results and see what works better.
PRO TIP – if your CTA is asking for a website link, include your at handle @username. This way they won’t have to scroll all the way up to get to your profile where the only clickable link lives.
PRO TIP 2 – Use emojis to draw the eye to your call to action. These are great visual tools.
Ask a question of your audience
One of the best ways to dramatically improve the amount of conversion that you’re getting on Instagram is to learn how to create effective Instagram captions that ask questions of your target market.
Not only will this provide you with the chance to get instant feedback from your market, but it will also increase the affinity and engagement that you have with your prospects. It’s a great way to build relationships in the online world today. While the example above only had a little over 100 likes, it is worth noting that this was one of their first posts, and that the post got 91 comments. That’s strong engagement.
Take advantage of multi-step (and multimedia) campaigns with your captions
A really savvy way to leverage everything that Instagram has to offer from a marketing standpoint is to use it as the “entry point” of a sales funnel.
Figure out how to create in Instagram caption that converts ambivalence into attention, but then use that caption to send them deeper into your sales funnel – perhaps even on another social media platform that leads them deeper still into that same funnel.
Multi-step marketing is the ultimate way to convert customers these days.
Don’t forget about hashtags!
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Of course, you’re going to utilize hashtags to take advantage of “trending” topics, but most importantly….targeted topics so you can attract the right audience towards your image, and then to your caption.
We’ve made it easy for you to learn how to use hastags, click here for the in depth guide. Stay away from crappy hashtags such as #LFL odr #Follow4Follow. These will not get you targeted followers, merely people that won’t convert (conversions should always be your goal).
Instead aim for industry specific hashtags that are popular but not too popular (should have been used between 100k-500k). Why? Take the hashtag #Paris, it has been used 49 million times. If you post an image with that hashtag, how long do you think it will stay on top of the feed. Compare this to say #montmartre which has around 600k uses. You have a much better chance of staying in the feed and of coming up on top posts.
Social media platforms are, after all, social ecosystems – and hashtags allow you to more effortlessly tap into your market.
How to Manage Your Instagram Accounts
Socialdraft is an all-in-one Social Media Dashboard that helps you manage Instagram. It is the most robust and simple tool for agencies and teams to effectively handle social media. With Socialdraft you can:
Schedule posts to Facebook pages, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn Business Pages (and one LinkedIn account) and Pinterest Boards
Schedule posts individually, as recurring posts, or bulk upload them as CSV
Easily re-schedule with a drag & drop action
Schedule GIFs to Facebook and Twitter
Download content calendars as PDF
Find content on Instagram and easily schedule reposts not just to Instagram but to all other social networks
Engage on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin
Download Facebook and Twitter reports
and tons more…
If you are curious about Socialdraft, take it for a risk-free trial. You’ll get to try out all the features and decide if Socialdraft is right for you.
If you’re into social media, then you need to pay attention to Zach Clayton. Although he is in his teens, he is one of the most powerful social media personalities of his generation. How did he get here? He started a YouNow account in 2014. This is a broadcasting app where you can either go anonymous or public. Zach started broadcasting on a daily basis for extended amounts of times. He quickly grew his audience and has become one of today’s most powerful social media stars. Need proof? Over 500,000 people follow Zach Clayton’s channel.
If you’re going to talk about Zach on social media, specifically Instagram, then you should use the hashtags above to get the most targeted likes and engagements for your posts.
BruhItsZach Zach Clayton hashtag Madness! Here are a list of the top Instagram BruhItsZach Zach Clayton Hashtags. Use them by clicking on copy below the hashtags via your iPhone, Android, iPad or PC. Get more love!
#Bruhitszach #Zach #Bruh #Zachclayton #Clayton #Zebruh #5quad #5quadaf #5quadfam #Younow #Younowers #Youtuber #Younower #Likesforlikes
#Funny #Bae #Zabruhnation #Topliketags #Lovehim #Hot #Guys #Cute #Zebruhs #Partyline #Bruhitsevents #Snapshot
Hashtag usage in social media has become like butter is to bread, which explains why hashtags are used by major brands on all their ad campaigns. Hashtags are like social media magnets that highlight your brand’s particular content on a specific topic, and they make it easier for users to find information on a specific theme. Hashtags are how you get found on Instagram. If you’re not using hashtags, or if you are using the wrong hashtags, you will not come up for your target audience, and it will be much harder to achieve your goals.
11 Hashtag Research Tools for Instagram
In 2009, Twitter began to hyperlink all hashtags in tweets to Twitter search results, but the use of hashtags has since broadened to other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram, to name a few.
Did you know you can schedule, engage and grow your Instagram using Socialdraft? Watch the video below to learn how…
[fve]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBfLmyWjkSU[/fve]
One important detail worth noting is that hashtags function somewhat differently on each social media platform. For example, hashtags on Facebook reveal trending topics, but on Instagram, hashtags serve to locate and showcase your brand’s content; users with shared interests can then browse through images and engage with others. On Instagram, hashtags can be used by posting pictures and hashtagging it with its subject.
That’s why you should spend enough time to carefully choose singular hashtags related with your product, that compliment your selected images. However, you don’t want your hashtags to be too specific, otherwise no one will search for them. A good rule of thumb is to use hashtags that have been used between 50,000 to 300,000 times (this will change as the network grows). Here are a few examples of poor (too broad), good, and too targeted hashtags using the weight loss industry:
Worst: #followforfollow – used 171,018,896 times – this hashtag will not get you targeted followers. This hashtag is also too broad and you will be pushed down on the feed quickly
Bad: #WeightLoss – used 20,514.490 times – this hashtag will at least put you in the eyes of some targeted people, but it is too broad for you to make an impact
Good: #JumpingJacks – used 49,894 times – this hashtag will get you in the eyes of people who are interested in fitness
Good: #Plyometrics – used 160,054 times – very targeted & niche but not obscure to the target market
To help you accomplish this goal, we’ve provided 10 research tools you can use to find the perfect hashtags on Instagram.
Hashtag Research Tools for Instagram
1) Keyhole
Keyhole shows how many people posted with your hashtag, along with the number of Likes and Impressions your campaign is generating. And Keyhole also tracks the most influential people engaging with your keywords. You could use Keyhole to find all the hashtags relevant to your brand.
2) Websta
Since you should avoid the use of popular hashtags that aren’t relevant to your image, you could use Websta Search to generate the 50 most popular hashtags that start with a word you input, so you can avoid using hashtags that are too popular.
3) Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a rich source of hashtags. Search for the subject you’re interested in to find all the keywords on Wikipedia, and then use these as your hashtags. These keywords will help your target audience find your hashtags.
4) Hashtagify
Hashtagify helps your brand with intelligent Hashtag Marketing by making smarter marketing decisions to secure new business. Hashtagify measures each hashtag’s popularity by reporting on how frequently the hashtag is used in comparison to all other hashtags. Hashtagify is easy and is a free tool. For those willing to go through the registration process, you can access some advanced reports.
5) Archie.co
You tell Archie what your customers talk about in social media. Archie then scans for customers interested in your product, and automatically interacts with them. With Archie, you can select tags you want Archie to find on Instagram from people who don’t follow you. You can also isolate people you don’t want Archie to interact with. Archie then begins to schedule entries it will like. A Business subscription costs $19.00 but the personal version is less money.
6) Hashtags.org
Hashtag.org details trending hashtags by the hour and includes information on popular hashtags by category, as well as what’s trending up and down. They also offer an analytics tool to track hashtags and gather data for a monthly fee. You can use Hashtags.org to see what’s trending as well as popular hashtags by different categories.
7) TrendsMap.com
TrendsMap puts trending hashtags on a map so you can see what’s trending by country, state and city. TrendsMap is a great tool if you’re interested in focusing on a local audience to market your event. TrendsMap tracks what is trending with your local audience so you can use these trending topics to manage your hashtags.
8) Tagdef.com
If you’ve ever read a hashtag and had no idea of the meaning of the hashtag, Tagdef provides you with a definition. But Tagdef also lists popular hashtags and users every week. You can also see analytics and usage charts for a specific hashtag, along with examples.
9) Google.com
Put in a key term for your post. Scroll to the bottom of the page. These are all key terms that Google suggests for search. These make for great Instagram hashtags.
10) Instagram
Do a search by a single hashtag on Instagram. When your results come up, look on top. Instagram will give you tons of related hashtags. Nothing like a primary source, right 😉
11) Hashtap
A big thanks to Tinfox Creative for bringing this one to our attention on Instagram. This app lives on your phone, so it’s easy to use and you don’t have to go from your desktop to mobile.
