Hashtag, the mysterious Tagging style that helps people to be found and/or find specifically anything in the virtual world. Hashtag and the use of Hashtags are not that straight forward as we think. Everything shouldn’t be a Hashtag or What should be a Hashtag, Let’s check out Hashtag and everything to know so far –
What is a Hashtag?
The hashtag is a sign that looks similar to the Sharp note in the musical notation or more of a smaller tic tac toe board. It is needless to introduce this “#” Sign to you as the Hashtag because anyone having any kind of presence in any social media must have seen a Hashtag.
The hashtag is a Tag with a Hash sign. This is a simple, pretty straightforward concept and used as a content organizer.
History of Hashtag
The hashtag was introduced on popular and leading social media, Twitter. The purpose was to maintain an organized way to search for content precisely. The functionality being so powerful, Hashtag is now on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Google+, and almost on every other social media platform out there.
How to create a Hashtag?
Well, you can create a Hashtag in no time by remembering three NOs-
- No Spaces (in between the words or phrases)
- No Punctuation (among the words or phrases)
- No Special Characters (For Example @,$,%,^,*, and so on)
That’s how you create a Hashtag simply. Say Creating a Hashtag “Hashtag is Fun” which will look like this –
#HashtagIsFun, Yes, you can capitalize the initial letter of a word in a Hashtag so that it’s easier to understand by all.
Why People Use Hashtag?
The hashtag has the functionality to provide searchable organized content for all, as mentioned above and there is more.
Using hashtags in a proper way will allow others to find your content more effectively. If you are a small business, you might have lesser chances to be discoverable by others through searches. Hashtag increases that chance for you to be found by your targeted audiences. As there are no complicated algorithms to be followed here, a simple matched Hashtag will pull your content to the audience who searched for it.
The hashtag is a two-way thing, It helps people who want to be discovered and people want to discover as well. From the audience or consumer point of view, if you don’t search for the correct Hashtag you might end up with crappy results. Searching for the right Hashtag will allow you to have the precise topics that you were looking for. People with similar interests and goals can find each other, and also get communities to add through proper searching of Hashtags.
However, there are certain ways to put hashtags on your content. Too much Hashtag won’t do any good to you, That part is covered later in this article.
HashTag on Twitter
Well, you can use as many Hashtags as you want. You can place them at the beginning of the Tweet, at the middle, and/or at the end. You can also reply with a Hashtag added with it. But Twitter recommends no more than TWO Hashtags within a 280-character limit.
“When you are a newbie you should post your hashtags soon after you post. When you get more engagement and followers (over 500) you can post your hashtags hours later. I typically post in the morning before 8 am then go in at noon to add 6 hashtags. Days later I will delete the hashtags to refresh my post.”
– Sue B. Zimmerman, Sue B. Zimmerman Enterprise, LLC
Hashtag on Facebook
For any Facebook post, you can use Hashtags according to your will. Too much won’t do any good. If your profile is locked or private on Facebook, your content with Hashtags won’t appear to others. Mixing too many Hashtags will create confusing outcomes. There is no limit or recommendation but 2-3 Hashtags seem nice for a 300 words long post.
Hashtag on Instagram
Instagram is a photo-sharing social platform where Hashtag is the key to let others know about your content. However, private profiles won’t get any benefit here. Public profiles can get more than 40% viewers only from Hashtags used on your content. Instagram suggests 30 Hashtags on a post and 10 Hashtags on any Instagram stories. Too much isn’t good here as well.
Hashtag on YouTube
Hashtag works like a magic on YouTube. You can get more than your desired views on YouTube if you use the right Hashtag which represents your content accurately. Please note that YouTube recognizes only 15 Hashtags for a single piece of content. That is, if you use more than 15 Hashtags, YouTube will use only the first 15 Hashtags against your content. Other Hashtags will not be effective as they will be considered normal texts, for some cases malicious texts.
“While hashtags on YouTube are a feature that helps organize content similarly to any other platform, they’re not utilized that often by creators nor viewers. The average YouTube viewer browses the platform and discovers new content through other traffic sources like home page placement, suggested videos, or search.”
– Tim Schmoyer – Video Creators
Hashtag on LinkedIn
LinkedIn, the platform for professionals allows Hashtag for precise content sorting. There is no conventional limit here. Keeping a decent number will portrait a professional and less messy look on your content. People don’t like to make fun on LinkedIn.
Hashtag on Pinterest
Think of Pinterest as a search engine, and you search content there through Hashtags. Yes, Pinterest allows up to 20 Hashtags, and most content you get to search on Pinterest is searched by matching your query with the Hashtags use by publishers.
“When it comes to hashtags on Pinterest – they’re in, they’re out, they’re back, they’re optional! Given Pinterest’s sophisticated search algorithm, you use them if you like, but it’s no longer considered best practice. In fact, the mention of hashtags recently disappeared from Pinterest’s content tips pages.
If you do choose to use hashtags, don’t use the ones that work on Instagram. #throwbackthursday doesn’t mean anything on Pinterest.”
– Alisa Meredith, Alisa Meredith Marketing
Which Hashtags Are Good For You?
Well, that’s really easy to find out. When you are posting something on the internet, you need to research a bit. Look, the internet is really vast. Like you, there are hundreds of thousands are out there but you need to be unique to bit them all. To be someone unique –
Firstly,
you can search for a Hashtag you want to use and see how others are doing. You have to be very specific about your content here. Try more searches to get your best tag.
Secondly,
Put yourself in the Audiences’ point of view, then search for the Hashtags that will point to your content see the outcome of others. Pick the ones with good responses.
Thirdly,
Put yourself in your competitors’ shoes. Check for relevant Hashtags that might beat your content. Pick the top ones and make room for them on your content.
Fourthly,
See what leading brands and/or companies are doing with Hashtags. You can try their most used Hashtags if goes with your content.
Finally,
Check for popular but related Hashtags. Note down some and choose the ones that seem to be a match.
By this, you will have more than enough Hashtags sorted for your content. You need nothing but time to get them properly. Hope you can now find your Hashtags without any hassles.
How to Organize Hashtags?
To organize your Hashtags, you need to use some and eliminate a few that you’ve sorted according to the previous step.
Put the best Three to Four Hashtags that will represent your content or give a gist of it. Obviously, Select those which seem popular and easy to type.
Now you need to look at your other posts and try to find out which Hashtags worked perfectly and gave you better responses in the past. Select the top Hashtags from your previous posts if matched with your sorted list. Otherwise, try to put them somewhere relevant in your content.
Include your Brand name as a Hashtag so that people can reach you directly for a variety of content. Try to be straightforward and not lengthy. If you have a tagline put that in a Hashtag as well. Self-branding is a must.
If you are highlighting a person, company, and/or product try to add Hashtags representing them as well. If they are running any campaign or hosting an event, add their Hashtags too.
And you are done with Sorting, Selecting, and Organizing Hashtags for your content. It’s okay if people see your Hashtags at the end, you can also add them in the comment section of the post. However, don’t spam Hashtags all over everywhere.
Wrapping Up
The hashtag is a great feature that social platforms offer these days. People have been benefited ever since Hashtag rolled out, even new members of the community as well. This has been a total guide on Hashtag. Here’s everything to know so far about Hashtag. Even if you are facing difficulties, you can directly communicate with us.
Comment below if you notice something that we might have missed about Hashtag. Share your thoughts with us. Tell us what you want us to cover next. We will be happy to hear from our Friends!
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