Using Hashtags to Promote Your Business
Using Social Media Hashtags to Promote
Your Business
Using Social Media Hashtags to Promote Your Business
Hashtags are a component of many social media platforms that, when used correctly, can help your social media posts receive more engagement, and become more effective. Below, we look at the three most popular forms of social media and provide advice for how you should (or should not) use social media hashtags in your posts.
Twitter is a great social media platform businesses can use for sharing news, information, and products or services. Data shows using one or two hashtags helps Twitter posts improve audience engagement by an average of 21%. Location specific hashtags, like #neworleans or #nola, typically yield the best results. They improve the number of views and the amount of engagement by local individuals who are more likely to be interested in your business’ products or services. It’s also beneficial to monitor trending topics and use relevant hashtags to capitalize on recent events, news, or industry narratives.
Businesses with highly visual products or services, like restaurants and hotels, can greatly benefit from Instagram’s reliance on sharing images and videos. Unlike Twitter, using more hashtags in posts yields better engagement, likes, and impressions. Instagram posts with an average of 11 hashtags receive an impressive 79.5% more engagement. While you should use more hashtags on Instagram posts than Twitter posts, relevant hashtags should still be used. Using location and industry-related hashtags, like #nolafood or #visitneworleans, make your posts available to those who search these specific hashtags. Therefore, include a variety of city-specific, regional, and common industry hashtags that are likely to be searched and used by the audiences you are targeting. Tagging other popular Instagram accounts is another great way to further promote your business, since this allows other people to share and engage with your posts.
Interestingly, using hashtags in Facebook posts seems to have an adverse effect on audience engagement. On average, Facebook posts with hashtags have lower engagement than posts without hashtags. This may be due to the algorithm Facebook uses to show users content they may be interested. It could also simply be due to the way people use Facebook. Clicking on Facebook hashtags does not provide the same easy transition to other content that Twitter and Instagram provide and often sends users to a list of text-heavy posts that lack engaging content. Therefore, it is important to include engaging images, video, text, and links that will encourage your audience to like, comment on, share, or follow a link within the post.
Helpful Types of Hashtags
- Trending Topics: Things that are popular in the moment, like #Oscars2017. Use the Trending Topics page on Twitter to see what hashtags you can join in on
- Content: The focus topic in the post that users may look for, like #crawsh. Especially useful for tagging pictures on Instagram.
- Brand: A phrase connected to the brand that’s small, catchy, and unique, like #ShareACoke. It doesn’t always need to contain the brand’s name, like #YesWeCan.
If your business needs help generating a brand hashtag or improving its overall social media engagement, give us a call at 504-324-0073 or send us an email using our contact page! Our social media marketing experts are happy to help elevate your social media’s reach and maximize its potential.
