Hashtags are #Important
With the ever-evolving world of social media, things are constantly changing. However, some pieces of the OG social media we knew and loved still remain relevant and important to how we post content today. Most importantly, the hashtag. While the hashtag has gone through its phases of overuse and produced trends like #selfie, they now act as a search engine for many platforms. Using them on your social media posts has many benefits for user engagement, making your content discoverable, and increasing your brand awareness.
Why Should You Still be Using the Hashtag?
By using hashtags on your posts, you are doing a few things:
Making your content discoverable by new and returning audiences
Driving brand awareness
Increasing engagement
Provides context to your posts
A few simple words preceded by the pound (#) symbol can make a world of a difference to the way your post and engage on social media. Who knew?
Are All Hashtags Created Equal?
The simple answer to this is: no! Each platform interacts with hashtags differently, and you must figure out how to best integrate them into the content you put out on each platform to produce the best outcome. But fear not, your hashtag guide awaits...
Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags on your post, and while you can use that number, the true sweet spot is between 3-5 hashtags per post for the highest amount of success. You can also use hashtags on Instagram stories, and while they do disappear after 24 hours, they will still show up in searches while they are up, allowing audiences to discover you that way too.
Facebook users tend to favor less hashtags on a post. Once they start to distract from the post, people lose interest. This is not to say you shouldn’t use them, but to keep it short and sweet by sticking with 1-3 hashtags per post.
X (formerly Twitter)
When used right, hashtags can increase engagement, retweets, and overall impressions on X but just like Facebook, the ideal number of hashtags is between 1-3. Anything more can potentially have the opposite effect on your content; a direction we don’t want to go in!
In a similar vein, keeping it concise is the way to go on LinkedIn. Hashtags haven’t always been used on the platform so including 2-3 will do the trick for this platform while keeping it professional.
TikTok
Hashtags are essential in making your content visible on TikTok, while the algorithm remains a mystery, using hashtags in caption is a strong way to up your chances. By combining both trending and relevant hashtags to your posts, you are setting yourself up for success. With TikTok, there isn’t a set number of hashtags that seems to do the trick, the best way to settle on a number is to see what works well for your brand as well as for your competitors.
Hashtags are so #important! So, what are you waiting for? Use the hashtag to your advantage to increase your engagement and make your content discoverable!