How to Use Hashtags with Your Social Media

Hashtags (#) have been in use on Twitter for some time, but they have become common on other social media sites such as Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and now even on facebook.  But what are they for and how can you use them to boost the reach of your social media presence.

A hashtag is a key word (or group of words, with no spaces) prefixed with the "#" symbol in a social media message.  The format would look like this: "#topic".  These hashtags then become clickable text that allow users of social media to see what others are saying about that topic. People use hash tags to highlight events, ideas, conferences, products, TV shows, and many other subjects.

Any user can make any word or combination of words in to a clickable hashtag.  If you open a facebook status and type the "#" followed by your chosen phrase, you'll see that the text becomes highlighted by a blue box.  Once you hit post, the tag will appear in bold in your update and other users will be able to click on it which will show them a listing of all the other posts featuring that hashtag.

It is important to remember that this system is a simple form of organization and it can often have trouble with hashtags that are too complicated.  For instance, you can have a tag like "#thingsididwheniwassevenonmybike", but how often are other people going to use that tag?  If the answer is never, then it is probably not an effective tag to use.  Try to keep the tags short and relevant to what you want your message to be. If you would like to see what hashtags are currently trending or if the tag you want to use is already being used, you can visit www.hashtags.org or hashtagify.me.  Also, don't put too many hashtags in one post.  Research is showing:

http://blogs.constantcontact.com/product-blogs/social-media-marketing/how-to-use-hashtags/

As a business, you can use hashtags to make an event more social, join other conversations that are trending up with your customers, boost the visibility of a promotion, or engage more visitors.  Take for example an event like a customer appreciation picnic.  You could announce it on your page with a hashtag of #welovecustomers encouraging your fans to bring friends with them to the event.  Your customers share the information with their friends using your hashtag, and that gets passed around to and even wider audience.  You can then click on your tag #welovecustomers and see who is using it and get an idea of your posts reach.

It may seem complicated or just another part of social media that you have to learn, remember that 71% of users on social media are using hashtags in their posts.  43% of those users think tags are useful and 34% use them to follow categories and brands of personal interest like your business.