You may think a hashtag is just some annoying social media buzzword for influencers. In reality, when used correctly hashtags can be an incredibly powerful tool for expanding your reach. However, when implemented poorly, hashtags can damage your brand reputation and turn potential customers away.
This article will explore how to identify keywords to use when promoting your blogs as well as best practices for using keywords on different platforms to reach a larger audience.
How to Research Hashtags
First, make a list of the general themes you plan to discuss. For example, the Missinglettr blog is divided into 5 main themes:
- Blogging
- Social Media Marketing
- Content Marketing
- Graphic Design
- SEO
Once you have identified your main themes, you can then head to the platform of your choice. You’ll need to do research on each of the platforms you use because hashtags are not the same across every platform. Search for tags in those platforms using your main themes and related terms.
As you find hashtags, look at the content that gets posted. Are the results relevant to the content you’ll be sharing? Do the accounts posting in this hashtag seem relevant to your industry? How frequently are posts made?
You want to ensure that the hashtags you choose to use are relevant to your brand. Outside of that, it’s also important the hashtag gets good visibility. If there are no users searching for that tag on your platforms, you won’t benefit by using the hashtag.
Finally, you also need to make sure that the hashtags aren’t too saturated. General hashtags or ones for very popular topics will likely see hundreds of posts every second. This means you’ll get lost in the noise, so it’s important to strike a balance. Consider coming up with a hashtag that people can associate with your brand so people can have an easier time finding your content in the future.
Hashtag Etiquette
Hashtags can be a great way to get your post seen widely, but if you don’t follow best practices, you can also diminish your audience’s trust and demean your brand online. Just like your posting frequency and post content are impacted by the platform you’re using, implementing hashtags is as well.
On Facebook, stick to just 1-3 hashtags. Typically, the fewer, the better. Use hashtags at the end of your post after a line return so they’re out of sight.
Twitter suggests sticking to 2 hashtags per Tweet. You can use more, but this often harms engagement. If you’re short for space, you can use hashtagged words as part of your sentence promoting the blog. However, if you can afford the room, place your hashtags at the end.
You can really pile the hashtags up on Instagram. In fact, Instagram lets you use up to 30 hashtags per post! However, your time is probably better spent focusing on a few high-opportunity hashtags instead of trying to hunt down tons of relevant hashtags.
Try to stick to 5-10 hashtags per post and always put them at the end of your caption, under a line return. You can also add hashtags later via comment, but remember that your post will get the most attention under a hashtag when it’s new.
On LinkedIn, the best way to reach connections outside of your network and your network’s network is with hashtags. LinkedIn doesn’t have a limit for the number of hashtags used, but it’s best to stay between 2-4. Like other platforms, it’s best to place your hashtags at the end of the post, so they’re out of sight for readers.
Reciprocal Engagement
One of the most effective ways to ensure you get engagement on your hashtagged posts is by interacting with other posts in the hashtag before and after you publish. It’s a good idea to spend about 10 minutes on either side of publishing interacting with and commenting on related content in the tags.
You might not have time for this every time you post on social media, but putting the effort in early with your first few posts can help you build up an audience quickly and establish a reputation in your niche.
If you feel like social media is taking up too much of your time as a blogger, Missinglettr can help. It’s as easy as linking your RSS feed, then our platform automatically develops a year’s worth of social media posts promoting your blog each time you publish. From there, it’s as easy as hitting approve and your campaign will be scheduled.
Sign up for free today to save time on social media as a blogger, while expanding your reach!
