Tag: hashtag

Hashtags first came into prominence 15 years ago with businesses finding them a great way to organise content and reach more people.

However, in the last few years, spam and bot accounts have hijacked hashtags, adding them to their posts that have no relevance to the subject, meaning anyone searching for that hashtag has numerous posts displayed in front of them that don’t make any sense.

A number of marketers believe that hashtags just don’t have the power they once had. Recently, even the Head of Instagram said they are pretty much a waste of time.

This begs the question, is the hashtag dead?

Many marketers still advocate the use of hashtags, as they have proof directly from the analytics showing they result in engagement.

Here at Function28, we don’t believe the hashtag is dead, you just need to use them wisely. Let’s get into this…

How many is too many?

Instagram has a 30 hashtag limit. You can by all means use all 30, but after 10 or so, they get diluted and too far away from the actual content.  Our advice is to use 7-10, this way you stay on subject.

Do your research

Before you post, find out what hashtags are used commonly within your industry. There are fancy-pants paid for sites (such as this one) that can help you with this, but all it takes is a little bit of your time. Search within Instagram keywords for your industry, e.g. #SocialMediaMarketing, and see how many posts there are with that hashtag. The rule is, if the hashtag has over 1m posts, stay away from using that one. Your post will only get lost in that feed and bring you very little in the way of followers or engagement.

Monitor what the competition is doing. What hashtags do they use? What posts worked best for them?

 

Keep it relevant

Whatever hashtags you do use, keep them relevant to the content you’re posting. There are some rules that you should always have in mind when you’re using hashtags:-

Description – for example, for a post advertising web design, use the hashtag, #webdesign

Location – if you’re posting about an event, maybe where you’re based, put in the location

Keep it short – too many words make it harder for people to read, and the likelihood of it being a popular one in the first place is very low.

 

Show your support

You’ll see many companies using hashtags as a way of promoting/supporting social issues, for example #IWD2022 was widely used amongst a variety of companies back in March for International Women’s Day. If there is a way of linking a trending social issue’s hashtag for your company and you want to show support, then this is a good way of getting you in front of a wider audience.

Is the hashtag dead? Nope! Keep using them but wisely, and you’ll see your engagement grow!

Want to keep up to date with all the latest marketing and social media advice? Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Read our other blogs here.