How to use hashtags for promoting your business?

Hashtags are the label of content. It helps others who are interested in a certain topic, quickly find content on that same topic.

Hashtags are commonly used on social media sites. They rocketed to fame on Twitter. But now you use hashtags on other social media platforms like — Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.

Anyone sharing content on a relevant topic can add a hashtag label to their message. Others searching for that topic can search for that label to find other messages on that same social media platform.

For example — during this coronavirus pandemic, several hashtags like — #coronavirus #covid19 #coronaviruspandemic, and many more. They provide invaluable for providing and following up the minute news on coronavirus. In fact, several big news stories in recent years have been amplified and added to with citizen reports and videos, and photographs.

Hashtags for such situations also provide a way for the public to express their views — something many of us is compelled to do in case of disaster. When it comes to a natural disaster, a hashtag is an information line.

Hashtags are just not limited to big news stories. Small business marketers also have cracked the code and figured out inventive ways to use hashtags.

REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD USE HASHTAGS

1. Promotion

Hashtags are a great way of getting audiences to participate in your audiences. For eg- establishing a hashtag for an event and promoting it to your followers will help you create real-time coverage of your content and a record of the experience.

You should use hashtags sparingly, there is no need to use them in every update — it can become highly annoying for your followers if you are unnecessarily using hashtags in your posts.

Ex — Audi’s #WantANR8 campaign is still looked like one of the most successful Twitter campaigns in history. It all started when a car company saw that somebody had sent out a tweet with the hashtag #WantAnR8 to explain why they wanted an Audi R8. Audi quickly created a contest that suddenly boosted the use of the hashtag. All users had to was create and post a Tweet using the hashtag and they get a chance to win an Audi R8 for a day.

2. Searching

Hashtagging group posts in categories can make it easy to search for specific posts. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter allow searches for real-time results.

Popular hashtags produce constantly updated results and this is more popular on Twitter than on other social media platforms. If you were to search for the same topic on Twitter and Facebook, you’ll get better results on Twitter.

3. Engagement

When commuting with hashtags. Twitter users have to create their own posts in order to reply to be part of a conversation. This is great for engagement purposes giving followers the ability to start conversations with multiple users.

Facebook on the other hand only gives users the opportunity to comment on posts due to privacy issues within the network. This makes it difficult to communicate with users that aren’t in your friend list, by this you can engage with large groups limited to fans, unlike Twitter where anyone gets involved.

4. Gain Followers

Using hashtags can enable you to gain more followers — Instagram users for example- are more likely to get more likes and followers by hashtagging images and videos than those who do not. A popular hashtag on Instagram is #wiwt (abbreviation ‘What I am wearing today).

Unlike Pinterest, using hashtags on Instagram can do a lot for boosting your popularity. On Pinterest, hashtags are mainly used to represent the topic of the post so that people can easily find related content.

5. Exposure

Once a hashtag has been created it’s out there for all to see, which means you can pretty much create your own keyword and tap into active discussions — giving you more exposure.

6. Easier to Follow

Using hashtags will not only make it easier for you to search for certain topics, but it will also make it easy for people to search for you. Hashtags enable your audience to search for you and experience all your brand has to offer overall platforms.

WAYS TO USE HASHTAGS FOR PROMOTING YOUR BUSINESS

1. Branded Hashtags

You can create your own brand’s hashtag. Make it your company name, or a tagline that people know about your business. Use it as your central business tag, that you and your customers can use.

Create a brand hashtag that is unique to your company. Do a search for the hashtags you’re thinking of, and use tools like Hootsuite, TINT, Hashtagify, keyhole, Twitter, and Ritetag before you use that hashtag.

For example- Kitkats #MyBreak Campaign

Kitkat uses the brand hashtag. They use their tagline #HaveABreak #MyBreak #RickBreak. They consistently use it on all of their social media platforms — Twitter. Their consumer knows their hashtag, which they use for engaging with their audience in the Kitkat community.

2. Community hashtags

Community hashtags are those which connect like-minded users around a particular subject. They are a great way to connect with others, they will improve the searchability of your posts, gain followers, and will even help you in growing your community.

Different types of community hashtags you can use for your business-like -

• hashtags indicating your products and services
• hashtags indicating your niche
• hashtags for Instagram communities in your industries
• hashtags using location
• hashtags with the acronym
• hashtags with emojis.

The best way to find these community-oriented hashtags is by seeing which hashtags or favorite accounts your audience is following.

If you wish to create your own community hashtag, remember that the narrower the scope of hashtags, the more engaged the users tend to be.

3. Campaign hashtags

For a hashtag campaign, use the name of your current marketing campaign.

For a campaign tag, again, make it a word or phrase that is unique to your short-term contest or promotion. Do your research. If they are already popular on social media platforms then use a different hashtag.

Promote your campaign hashtags in such a way that your customers engage with you and your customers throughout the duration of your campaign.

Example — Coco Cola’s #ShareACoke Campaign

When Coca-Cola brought out its range of name-stomped bottles the world went crazy. It was something new, seeing their names on the bottle one of the most famous brands in the world, and people clamored to find their bottle namesake to share with their friends and family.

The idea behind Coca-Cola’s named bottle was a successful campaign as it drove a huge number of sales and generated millions of social media posts from fans and buyers eager to share. On Instagram, people shared photos of bottles tagged with their friends’ names and even new parents used the bottles ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’ as props to shout about their pregnancies.

4. Event Hashtags

Event-based hashtags can be cool to include in a content update. An event could be anything from a local community fair, to a well-known global celebration, to a live product launch, or a live webinar you’re hosting online.

If your business is taking part in a local event for example — tell your social connections about it — and spread the word — by including the event hashtag in your post.

Example — #Team Visa: Visa

At the beginning of 2018, Visa jumped on the Olympic fever bandwagon for the winter games. Since 2000, Visa has earned a reputation for accepting athletes around the globe into its “Team Visa” program. The program provides people with the resources they need to achieve their sporting ambitions. Ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics, Visa launched a special campaign to demonstrate how can athletes can get involved with #TeamVisa.

6. Trending hashtags

A trending hashtag is a hashtag topic that has become very popular. You’ve already heard people talking about “what’s trending now”. They are often referring to the hashtags that are trending.

Trending hashtags keeps on changing in real time. A top 10 trend can come and go within minutes.

For example — When you see a trend that relates to your business, engage in it by using a hashtag. By using a trending hashtag in your content, you can potentially get your message seen by a massive audience. Your content can be seen by more than just fans and followers.