How to Use Hashtags Effectively on Social Media Platforms

The hashtag symbol (#) has become very popular on social media for turning a word used in a post into a searchable keyword on the platform that it is used on. No spaces are used between words in hashtags. An example is: #WineLover. Using hashtags can make your social media posts more visible to your audience. Here are some tips for getting the most out of your hashtag usage.

1. Contests
Hashtags are great to use for contests because you can ask people who want to enter the contest to use a hashtag with a certain message. In this way, you can help spread the word about the contest. Here is an example: I just entered to win @drkchoc’s $1k contest with my #DarkChocolate cookie tip!

2.  Events
If your organization is holding an event, you can create a hashtag for the event. An example is #WomansVirtualConference2017.

3.  Brand Hashtags
You can create a hashtag relevant to your brand and build a following for the hashtag. For example, if your business is about helping people with taking a vacation, you might use a hashtag such as #MyAmazingTimeOff

4.  Hashtags and Competition
There are tools such as Twitonomy which will help you to find hashtags that are used by your competition. The tool displays the top hashtags that any  Twitter profile uses. All you need to do is enter the Twitter handle of the person in your industry.

By knowing the hashtags that your competition uses, you can see what is working well for them. You can also avoid using the same hashtag that your competition may be using constantly or a hashtag that they are using to represent their brand.

Hashtags.org is another great tool. When you search for a hashtag using this tool, you will find a lot of information such as a graph that shows trends for 24 hours and common users of a specific hashtag.

5.  Trending Hashtags
To find the hashtags that are trending in your industry, or hashtags related to a certain hashtag, you can use a tool such as Hashtagify.com, which displays the top hashtags for a certain keyword.

6.  Specific Hashtags
Some hashtags in your niche may be overused. These are usually generic hashtags that are too broad, such as #Exercise. So, you may need to drill down to find more specific long tail hashtags, as you would when doing Google keyword research. Tweet Binder is a tool that can help you with this.