Hashtags can be an important tool for ensuring your content reaches the correct target audience and maximises your business’s potential.
Why we use hashtags
The primary reason for using hashtags is to increase your brand’s visibility.
Including hashtags to add context to a post can increase visibility and ensure your posts target the correct audience.
Relevant hashtags allow your content to appear in related searches, improving its discoverability and resulting in increased engagement.
The benefits
By implementing hashtags correctly into your social media channels there is a multitude of benefits that this can result in, including:
- Increased reach
- Improved brand awareness
- Reinforces the brand identity
- Promotes user-generated content
Hashtags can be a key player in promoting your business’s messaging to the correct audience!
The limitations
However, using hashtags can also result in multiple limitations to your business that you should be aware of before introducing them into your social posts.
These limitations include:
- Overused hashtags can result in reduced engagement
- Using irrelevant hashtags can confuse consumers about the messaging
- Hashtags can be interpreted in different ways, so different meanings must be considered
- Constant changes in consumer behaviours and trends
Ensure careful consideration of how hashtags are used is key to ensuring your brand image is not at risk of being damaged, and your key messaging is being communicated correctly!
How to implement them correctly
Implementing hashtags correctly ensures your content is effective and relevant to enhance discoverability. However, implementing them correctly can be the determining factor as to the effectiveness of hashtags in your content.
Here is how to use them correctly:
- Research relevant hashtags
The hashtags used should be relevant to your content’s main idea and theme. Overused hashtags should be avoided; hashtags targeting a specific audience are better for representing your content.
- Mix popular and niche hashtags
Broad hashtags have a large number of posts, making them highly competitive. Using these hashtags can make it difficult for your content to become discoverable.
Niche hashtags are more specific and can help you reach a more targeted audience.
Brand-specific hashtags can be created and can encourage the use of user generated content.
- Limit the number
Hashtags are used primarily to improve the discoverability of your content. However, if hashtags are overused, user engagement can decrease. This is because they can come across as unappealing and overwhelming.
- Analyse performance
Hashtags can fluctuate in popularity, and trending hashtags can be the key to success when aiming to improve the visibility of your posts. By analysing the performance of hashtags, you can stay up to date with the latest trends to ensure the inclusion of popular hashtags and the avoidance of irrelevant hashtags.
Performance analysis will also mean you can discover what competitors and influencers, for example, are using and the benefits of doing so.
In Summary
Hashtags can be an influential tool for improving brand awareness and increasing engagement. However, the effectiveness of hashtags in your marketing strategies depends on how you implement them. Carefully select hashtags to reach your target audience and drive engagement with your content to gain the most from their ability.
ExtraDigital can help you achieve your business goals through hashtag applications. Contact us today for more information!
