Have you ever wondered what’s so special about hashtags (#) on social media? These powerful symbols help you connect, engage, and get discovered on social media.
In the last few years, hashtags have become necessary for bridging your content to interested audiences.
You can use them to make your content stand out in the ever-crowded social media. In this blog post, you’ll learn all about using hashtags to increase social media reach across different platforms.
Summary
- The Role of Hashtags in Social Media Algorithms
- The Use of Hashtags for Different Social Media
- Choosing the Right Hashtags
- Tools for Conducting Hashtag Research
- Platform-Specific Hashtag Strategies
- Mistakes to Avoid When Using Hashtags to Increase Social Media Reach
The Role of Hashtags in Social Media Algorithms
Social media algorithms use hashtags to categorize and promote content.
- Classification and Searchability
Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram heavily depend on hashtags for content sorting. Hashtags help them determine the specific topic to show users.
- Priority Setting
Well-positioned hashtags help identify relevant or trend content, making your content more visible.
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The Use of Hashtags for Different Social Media
Instagram and TikTok: Both use hashtags for discoverability.
Twitter – Links content to similar conversations.
LinkedIn – Connects posts to professionals in industries.
Facebook – event promotion and connecting with niche or community.
Choosing the Right Hashtags
Choosing what hashtags to use is difficult if you’re just starting. Even if they should serve the same purpose, all hashtags are different. Using the right hashtags is key to increasing your social media reach.
Types of Hashtags:
1. Branded Hashtags
These are branded hashtags or hashtags unique to a campaign (e.g., #thevitalia and Nike’s #JustDoIt).
2.Trending Hashtags
Trending hashtags are popular tags used during specific events to increase visibility (e.g., #IstandwithUkraine, #OlympicsParis).
3. Niche Hashtags
These hashtags target specific niches with smaller audiences (e.g., #Cleanbeauty).
Tools for Conducting Hashtag Research
Hashtagify
It automates hashtags for Instagram. Hashtagify can automatically generate hashtags from your visuals and find you popular and related hashtags.
RiteTag
This tool recommends hashtags based on the relevance of your content. It’s a good tool for generating hashtags for Pinterest and Instagram from images.
Keyword Tool
Keyword Tool can help you find hashtags on Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and Pinterest.
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Platform-Specific Hashtag Strategies
Each platform has a specific approach when using hashtags to increase social media reach.
Instagram recently recommended 3- 5 hashtags per post, a far cry from what it used to be (8-15). You can also add hashtags or captions to your first comment to get more visibility.
It’s best to mix less popular and more niche-specific hashtags to get the best result.
X
The founding home of hashtag X suggests using at most two hashtags to maintain readability.
Due to the platform’s bit-size content, use trending hashtags to join conversations.
TikTok
Many experts recommend using 3 – 5 hashtags for your TikTok videos. Though unexpected for this trend and fast-paced platform, quality over quantity.
Use a mix of viral, niche, and content-specific hashtags for your content.
For this professional social media platform, 3 -5 hashtags are ideal. Use hashtags that are industry-specific, like #DigitalMarketing, and tags relevant to your brand and content.
Although hashtags are not as impactful on Facebook, they contribute to brand awareness. They are great for event promotion and connecting with others in your niche or community. Meta recommends using one or a few hashtags per post.
Mistakes to Avoid When Using Hashtags to Increase Social Media Reach
Mistakes can affect your hashtag strategy, regardless of your best effort.
Too Many Hashtags
Overusing hashtags can dilute your message and make it look spammy.
Using Irrelevant Hashtags
Misleading or non-related tags confuse your audience and can affect your credibility and engagement.
Shadowbanning Risks
Specific hashtags, like banned hashtags, can hurt your posts by suppressing your content’s visibility.
Lack of Consistency
Using different hashtags can confuse your audience and the social media algorithm. Be consistent with your hashtags, especially for personal branding, like #YourName.
Your hashtags must also align with the content of your posts.
Ignoring Analytics
No matter what you think, nothing beats data. Failure to follow insights can make your effort unproductive.
Always monitor how your hashtags perform using social media insights and refine them as you deem fit.
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Hashtag – The Symbol That Connects
You can connect with your target audience by using hashtags to increase social media reach. However, you must choose the correct tags and best practices for each social media platform. By avoiding common mistakes, you can significantly boost your social media reach.
Start today and use hashtags to get your message to the right channel and people.
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