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Hashtags are visible to us almost everywhere we go online, from the biggest campaigns to the smallest of posts. They have become a very essential part of our communication and marketing online.
Simply put, a hashtag is any word or phrase that comes after the # symbol. It is a tool that helps draw attention to any published post on social media.
Why are hashtags important?
Hashtags are a simple yet highly effective way of boosting reach. When a hashtag is used for a post, it appears along with all the others that used the same hashtag. This increases its viewership dramatically by allowing people to discover it with ease and in a very natural way, and guiding them to find what they are looking for. Hashtags may also be used on Stories, having the same effect in terms of reach as they do on posts. Users may also ‘follow’ hashtags, a recent feature that shows them all the latest content that the hashtag is attached to. This helps build a community of like minded people who share an interest in the topic that the hashtag is related to.
In the context of driving business results, using the right hashtags can result in a burst of activity from a large number of people, and that too in a matter of minutes, depending on the popularity and search extent of the hashtag. They help the content attached to it stay relevant for a longer period of time and build engagement with the content, given that it pertains to a topic that people are looking for. If the hashtag is within a specific/ particular niche, it has a chance of ranking as a high-performing post.
How can you find the most relevant hashtags for your brand?
Research is the first and most important step when it comes to hashtag discovery. Looking into the kind of hashtags your competitors are using is a good place to start to understand what other brands are talking about. In addition to this, glancing over hashtags that influencers within the same/ related industry are using also helps put into context what people are searching for through hashtags. But above all this, it helps to use an online research tool and social listening tools that will help you find what you’re looking for. Better yet, it is more beneficial to partner with a digital marketing agency that has expertise in these tools and can help draft the best hashtags to build your brand’s visibility online.
How to use hashtags to build your brand’s presence online
As a platform, Instagram allows for up to 30 hashtags per post. Having said that, it’s best not to actually use 30 hashtags per post uploaded on your brand’s page. Doing so can make the post’s content look cluttered as well as unorganized, as well as give off the impression of going overboard. It is recommended to use 15-20 hashtags per post strategically to bring relevance to the posts to which the hashtags are attached.
Hashtags may either be written directly on the captions of posts themselves, or in the comments below that post. Either approach will deliver similar results in terms of post-discovery.
After adding the hashtags to your brand’s posts, it’s time to review them to see if they are performing to their potential. The easiest way of finding out this is by reviewing the post insights, which can be accessed for every upload. This will reveal the total number of impressions generated by the hashtags, where these impressions came from, how many website clicks were achieved after viewing the post, and so on.
How can you choose a hashtag specific to your brand?
Aside from using numerous hashtags to promote your brands’ posts, it helps to have a hashtag that is almost exclusive to your brand and uses your business’ name. It can also help further shape your brand’s identity and drive recall by giving people a catchy phrase to remember through the hashtag.
When creating a hashtag for your brand, it helps to keep some important things in mind:
• First and foremost, keep it as short as possible. Ideally, it helps to have a hashtag that fits in the 10-20 character range.
• Don’t overcomplicate it with words that people may not understand without having to look them up. Doing so would achieve the opposite effect intended. Make it so the meaning is simple to understand.
• Ensure that it is easy to remember. This can have an incrementally beneficial effect, as it gives people another way to remember the brand.
Hashtags are an integral part of marketing on Instagram, presenting themselves with many benefits to those who are able to tap into their potential effectively. They come with a trifecta of key benefits: a) reaching more people; b) growing an online audience; and c) driving more engagement toward your content. Ticking all these three boxes off your brand’s online marketing checklist will inevitably result in achieving the online presence you have always dreamed of for your business.
A digital marketing agency that has a history of providing social media management services is exactly what you should be looking for when it comes to hashtag research, optimization, and implementation for your business’ social media posts.
Team Pumpkin is a digital media agency in Mumbai that knows the ins and outs of hashtag marketing. Boasting a portfolio of brands in different industries can be the key to helping your business unlock the doors to greater online potential.