By frequently using hashtags in your social media posts, you are improving your content, increasing your visibility, boosting your engagement, and attract more of the right customers.
So how precisely can hashtags do this for a business?
Or
How do hashtags even work?
This article will cover everything you need to start using hashtags to market your business.
HASHTAG BASICS
Understanding how hashtags work in the social media ecosystem is the first step towards realizing how hashtags can be successfully used for a business.
What is a Hashtag?
A hashtag is a word or phrase, preceded by the hash (#) or pound sign without any spaces. The tag, including the # (eg. #digitalera) is denoted as the hashtag.
What is the Purpose of a Hashtag?
Hashtags are used on social media post to classify content, making it easier for users to search the right content. Hashtags are also used to increases awareness of your business.
Where are Hashtags Used?
Hashtags are most commonly used on Twitter and Instagram though one can also use them on Facebook, Google+ and Pinterest. Snapchat has banned the use on the hashtag on their platform.
How Do Hashtags Work?
Hashtag are clickable links made by adding a hash sign before a word in a social media post. When users explore a particular hashtag by clicking on the hashtags or searching in the search bar, they will be shown all posts from public accounts using that hashtag, regardless of whether the user who posted them is following or followed by you.
HASHTAG MARKETING
How Do Businesses Use Hashtags?
Hashtags are the free, easy and powerful marketing tool that can multifold your visibility on social media, growth your engagement with followers, and strengthen your association with your audience. Hashtags help in
- Increase Visibility
Use of hashtags in your social media posts will put your post in front of users searching for that particular hashtags. Social media users do a hashtag search to find relevant information on topics of their interest, so including hashtags into your posts allows your post to show up in more search results and improve your visibility.
- Increase Engagement
Adding hashtags increases the visibility of social media posts. The more frequently you use a hashtag, the more visibility of your posts increases, resulting in more followers, engagements, comments and likes. By using hashtags, you’re increasing the chance of your post to be visible and attract users who are looking to engage with specific content.
- Connect With Your Audience
Since hashtags increase your engagements and visibility, it also helps you in connecting with the right audience. Responding to comments may lead to a connection between your business and your target audiences as you’re actually responding to the potential customers.
When you use hashtags that are relevant to your target audience, you also demonstrate that you know them well, stay on top of trends, and have their best interests in mind. Not only does this earn trust from your target audience, but connecting with them in a relevant context also deepens your connection to them.
Looking for a Good Business Hashtag?
Below are the attributes of an effective hashtag for small business marketing.
Popular
It becomes important to find hashtags that are popular among your target audience but avoid many popular hashtags otherwise, your posts may get buried under hundreds of others.
For example, #Digital will get buried under tons of posts on twitter, but a hashtag more specific to your business such #DigitalSamarth will expose your post.
Relevant
By using relevant hashtags, one can attract the right potential customers to follow and generate relevant leads for the business. Ensure the hashtags you are using are relevant and make sense to your business. Hashtags related to business name, service, product or location make more relevance to the target audience.
For example, relevant hashtags for a Bakery Shop in Delhi would be #DelhiBakers or #DelhiBakeryShop
TYPES OF HASHTAGS
Many questions are answered in this section. Below are the 5 types of hashtags that can be used for marketing a small business.
- Industry Hashtags
These are terms and topics significant to an industry. Industry hashtags are being used by many businesses and potential customers in the industry. Incorporating industry hashtags in your social media posts may expose your content to the right people and may result in more relevant followers for you.
Examples of industry hashtags include #Edu #teaching #Digital
- Location Hashtags
Location hashtags give a business more exposure to the communities in a geographic area. Location hashtags help the business to attract more local customers.
Examples include #Noidaflyingcakes #PuneOEM or #bestbakesdelhi
- Custom Hashtags
Custom hashtags are exclusive to your business. They may be your brand name, a contest on your business name, a tagline, a word or two related to your business, or a phrase that sync with your mission statement.
Custom hashtags authenticate a business on social media platforms and help in building a community around your brand. Customers and followers who use your custom hashtag help you in customer-generated content which further helps you in your own marketing.
Examples include: #RahulDrummer (for a drummer named Rahul); or #Indorelittlechamps (for toddler school in Indore)
- Event Hashtags
Event hashtags are commonly used triggers to build excitement around the events. It helps in getting more participants and to share content before, during and after the event. These can be used in all social media communication and it allows people to search for posts from the event using the hashtag.
A hashtag can also be used for events like social media contests, where people participate by using the labeled hashtag in their own social media posts or in a comment on one of contest related posts.
- Small Business Hashtags
To take leverage of hashtag marketing, small businesses can also use them irrespective of their Industry. These types of hashtags appeal to those, who prefer local shops and support small businesses. Embrace and highlight your own small shop, local shop business ownership with hashtags such as:
#localshop #smallshop #smallbusiness #bizowner #smallbizowner
[…] Read: How to take leverage of Hashtag Marketing […]