Introduction

Almost everyone has encountered the simple-looking special character ‘#’ in our daily social media interactions. Trending social posts come with keywords prefaced with hashtags; influencers use them while interacting online, and companies even advertise hashtagged marketing copies in print ads. But what are social media hashtags? What purposes do they serve? How have they become the most powerful marketing tool (potentially) available in the digital landscape?

These are some of the most pertinent questions for people interested in learning social media marketing strategy. Are you a marketing and sales professional or wish to self-promote on social media? This article covers everything you need to know about using hashtags, from the importance of hashtags and what they are to the most trending hashtags on Instagram and Twitter.

For more in-depth knowledge, you can pursue a social media marketing course and learn more about social media marketing strategy.

How to create your hashtag?

Before getting into the detailed discussion, let us first understand the basics.

Hashtag Meaning in Social Media

A hashtag is a word, or a phrase of unbroken (without a space in between) words proceeded with a hash sign (#). We use hashtags in micro-blogging social networks (like Twitter) and image-sharing networks (like Instagram) to create or define a keyword. It is a technique for declaring a social post’s metadata. You can use them to easily organize and search for content related to a specific topic or keyword.

How to Use Hashtags?

Hashtags are meant to be used as keywords in the title and description of your social media posts, profile, or bio. For example, as an owner of a local grocery chain, you want to create a campaign related to their recently launched doorstep delivery service. Consider sharing social media posts with #DoorstepDelivery or #HomeDelivery tags. Anyone searching with similar titles can discover your Insta, FB, and Twitter posts, even when they do not know or have heard about your brand earlier. However, the successful use of social media hashtags for marketing and sales depend on many factors and requires a thorough marketing strategy.

Creating own hashtag

You don’t have to use trending or popular hashtags to get your personal or business content discovered online. Like hundreds of other brands, as a marketer, you can create your own hashtag, establish your originality and increase outreach. Besides, topic-specific hashtags help creators and marketing managers to organize better, and monitor and manage the performance of social media engagements.

Why is hashtag important for business?

First, hashtags allow for organizing and categorizing content around a specific campaign, brand or topic. It makes tracking performance and management reporting easier.

Second, you can integrate hashtags in visual content, enriching their engagement value and going beyond a specific medium’s scope. Consumers prefer visual content like photos, graphics, and videos to written words. Rightly typographed hashtags are a great way to increase your content’s visual appeal; at the same time, the audience can use hashtag text to discover your content.

Third, it helps save space and fit more meaning within a given visual field for a social media post. So, you get a chance to grab more attention per pixel. It can be critical while planning to engage customers on smart devices with limited screen sizes.

Fourth, hashtags are metadata. They are keywords or key phrases written without a break and prefaced with a hash sign. It means hashtags promote relevancy. People checking social media posts relate hashtags with content’s topic relevance. It is vital to remember this while crafting your hashtags.

Finally, choosing the most trending hashtags on Instagram can help you stay on top of the current. However, you need to know what your target audience fancies.

Ways to Effectively Use Hashtags in Business

Effective use of hashtags demands that you follow a few critical steps. They are essential while crafting your hashtags or using whatever trends in your industry.

Research

It is one of the most critical steps for crafting effective hashtags for your social media interactions. Check competitors in your industry. Follow the most trending hashtags on Instagram and Twitter; try to understand their patterns and find inspiration.

Brainstorm

Do not forget to brainstorm while analyzing, conceptualizing, and crafting your own hashtags. Include stakeholders and people from diverse backgrounds and perspectives. It offers a creative edge.

Promote

Hashtags are an excellent social media strategy for marketing and sales. There are many instances of hashtags becoming organically popular without active interventions from their original creators. However, if you plan to create and popularise your brand or campaign-specific hashtags, it is advisable to promote them initially. Otherwise, it may cause too much uncertainty. And it can also become challenging to manage the campaign effectively.

Track

Monitor the performance of your crafted social media hashtags and be flexible to make necessary changes in the strategy. Sometimes, even a perfectly conceived plan struggles to yield.

Trending business hashtags on Instagram

Here are some of the best hashtags for Instagram story views. You can check, follow and research them for a better understanding of the strategies followed by successful brands. However, using them blindly does not guarantee engagement.

#business #motivation #success #entrepreneur #smallbusiness #businessowner #entrepreneurship  #holiday #food #travel #health #fashion #finance #motivationalquotes #work

Conclusion

Social media platforms can help you increase your brand’s online presence and reach a wider audience. However, with so many social media platforms available, it can be difficult to know where and how to start with hashtags. Some platforms are better for reaching a particular demography. Carefully choose hashtags relevant to your content, market, and audience for the best possible engagement, conversion, and business values.