How Do I Use Hashtags for my Business Marketing?

by Debbie Burgin - 

As someone who works in the marketing space (digital and otherwise), I've managed to get used to the fact that things change on a near hourly basis. What worked even six months ago, has succumbed to a quick and painless death, to be replaced by some other thing/fad/trick that'll be completely outdated six months from now. It's a never ending battle. 

In the social media space, platforms come and go; the demise of vehicles like Myspace and ICQ (for messaging) have made room for what we now know as Twitter, Instagram, Snap Chat, Pinterest, and the Granddaddy of social media, Facebook. 

Each of the aforementioned platforms has it's own specific purpose, whether that purpose is to share photos of your great backyard garden, or to share information about your company's newest product or service. 

Regardless of which social media vehicle you choose to use, the whole point of use is to get as many 'followers' as you can. Because the more followers you have, the more people who will see what you share through those accounts. 

But how do you get more followers? 

When I'm doing an 'audit' of a potential client's website and/or digital marketing/social media capabilities, one of the first things I look at is whether or not their social media accounts are utilizing the simplest of 'tools'. I look for tools that facilitate growth of an account, and one of the best growth tools for social media is the hashtag. 

What is a hashtag, you ask? 

Simply put, a "hashtag" is a way of grouping together similar topics for the purpose of search on a particular platform.The hashtag is the "#" placed immediately before any word or short phrase. Clicking on the word or phrase that is preceded by the "#" should pull up every other post that contains that word or phrase, even if that post is a photo (or includes a photo). 

When I'm doing a social media audit for a potential client, it's always obvious whether or not they actually grasp the purpose of the hashtag, if they're even aware of its existence at all. Sometimes they'll throw one into a post almost as an afterthought, and in those cases, the tag is usually something that's one of two things; almost completely irrelevant, or it's alone, meaning that even if it's relevant to the post itself, potential followers would have an incredibly tough time finding it without another (more universal) tag to 'anchor' it. For instance, creating a hashtag of your company name is useless without including an 'anchor' tag, such as what it is that your company actually does, ie: a tag like #ABCInteriors is almost useless without something like #interiordesign, or #interiordesigner etc. to back it up.

Does that make sense? 

A hashtag should be something that not only people who're already familiar with your products or services will search for. Including hashtags in your posts, whether for Twitter or Instagram, etc., can much more quickly grow your follower count with those who're actually interested in what you have to share. 

Questions? Don't be shy! Feel free to ask! 

Peace :)

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*Feel free to repost this article to your blog or website, but in doing so, you must also include this portion: 

Debbie Burgin is a marketing specialist to small and not-so-small businesses alike. For Rock Star business marketing tips, hop over to her blog at venturedigitalmarketing.net.