Hashtag on Social Media: Nowadays, Hashtag is being used a lot on social media platforms and you can easily see hashtags on social media platforms like Facebook , Pinterest , Instagram , Twitter, YouTube etc.
If you are new to social media platforms and have joined for promoting your products or getting traffic to your blog then you must know about Hashtag and its importance.
Hashtag is used by most of the people who are promoting their brand and want to reach as many people as possible. Because using Hashtag on social media platforms helps in improving SEO.
In this article we are going to tell you what is Hashtag and how to use Hashtags on social media platforms to get more and more advantages.
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What is Hashtag on Social Media
You must have seen the symbol ‘ # ‘. Often people know this symbol as Hash and sometimes it is also known as Pound. But this pound is different from the currency sterling pound.
This icon will be easily find on the keyboard of your computer or mobile phone.
This symbol was first used in social media on 23 August 2007 by web expert Chris Messina on Twitter and gave its technical term – “Octothorp” .
His first tweet using Hashtag
Now it is used on other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Linkdin etc.
Hashtag in simple language means to add Hash symbol before important words like name, brand, event, action, opinion, mission, movement etc. for example – #FriendshipDay, #Tokyo2020 etc.
If a person wants to give his opinion on any relevant topic, then he can add Hashtag Label related to that topic before his message.
Other people can easily find the message related to that topic on the same social media platform with the help of Hashtag Label.
To find the topic, they have to click on the relevant Hashtag on the same social media platform and then all the posts related to that Hashtag can be seen.
How to write Hashtag on social media-
Any hashtag begins with a Hash (#) sign.
To make a keyword a Hashtag, put the hash symbol just before the keyword. For example #FriendshipDay, #Tokyo2020 etc.
Note that there should be no space between the Hash symbol and the word that follows it. If you use a space between the Hash symbol and that word, your Hashtag will not be created.
If there is more than one word in your Hashtag, then make a group of them, like – #FriendshipDay has two words, first Friendship and second Day.
If you want to use multiple hashtags for one message, then use a space between each hashtag. Like- #FriendshipDay #Tokyo2020
Most people usually keep Hashtag in lowercase i.e. small letter. While some people keep the first letter of each word in uppercase i.e. capital letter. Like- #FriendshipDay. It is also called Camelcase. With this, the words used in Hashtag can be easily identified.
If a person searches for a Hashtag by uppercase, lowercase or camelCase in any way, then all the results will be the same.
For example, if a person searches for #friendshipday or #FRIENDSHIPDAY by typing #FriendshipDay, then all the results will be same.
Numbers can also be written in hashtags. Like- #Tokyo2020
Do not use any type of punctuation marks like comma (,), full stop(.), exclamation marks(!), question marks(?) and apostrophe (‘) in hashtag.
Do not use any special character like (*) or (&).
Benefits of using Hashtag on social media –
Most of the people who use social media platforms for some kind of marketing, they definitely use Hashtag.
The use of hashtags is considered good for marketing strategy. Using Hashtag to promote your brand has the following benefits.
Connecting with Customers
It is very important to use Hashtag to increase the reach of your brand in social network.
When you use Hashtag, you also join the conversations happening on social media platforms.
Your brand becomes part of that conversation and your brand becomes visible to social media users.
In this way, the more you engage with a conversation using Hashtags, the more and more your brand becomes more and more recognizable on social media platforms.
Your followers can easily reach your brand through the hashtag you use.
In this way, by using Hashtag, you can connect more and more with your customers.
Building your brand
You can get your brand recognized on various social media platforms by using a Branded Hashtag.
With Hashtag, you can start conversations related to your brand and eventually be successful in bringing customers to your website.
In this way, Hashtag is a great way to build your brand and you can promote your business through a Branded Hashtag.
Show social connection
Hashtag is not only used to promote a brand but it is also used to show support for social issues.
So when you use a hashtag that deals with a problem other than your brand, you show your followers that you really think about social issues ahead of business.
When you use your important hashtag in posts related to social issues, you get an opportunity so that others can find your brand through this post.
How many hashtags should be used in a post-
For a post to be effective, it is not necessary that the Hashtag should be overused unnecessarily.
You should use the same number of hashtags per post so that your post does not look spammy. That is, use Hashtag in the post only when it is needed and its use in the post is understandable.
The number of hashtags per post is recommended differently on all social media platforms.
You can use up to 30 Hashtags per post in Instagram while in Instagram Story you can use 1 Clickable Hashtag Stick and 10 Hashtags in Text.
Using Hashtags on Pinterest doesn’t make much sense anymore. Because Pinterest Hashtags are no longer clickable.
According to Twitter, you can use as many Hashtags as you want in a Twit. But Twitter recommends that it is best to use a maximum of 2 hashtags per tweet.
There is no maximum limit for putting Hashtags on Facebook like you do on Twitter. But Hashtags should not be used in Facebook posts unnecessarily. According to experts, it is good to use 2 to 3 hashtags in a Facebook post.
In this way, it is advisable to use Hashtags as per the need on most of the social media platforms.
Do not use unnecessary and vague Hashtags / Hashtag on social media should be clear and relevant-
There is no maximum limit on the use of Hashtag on most of the social media platforms.
This does not mean that it is right to use as many hashtags as possible in each post. If you use Hashtag unnecessarily, then your post starts looking spammy.
This is such that even if the Hashtag is not related to that post or is unclear, then your post is considered spammy.
You must have seen many such people who use hashtags on a post or photo, they have nothing to do with the related post. You should avoid using Hashtag in this way.
Hashtags unrelated to the content you have posted are completely useless and the value of the post also drops.
If a reader goes to your website by clicking on your Hashtag and sees unrelated posts, then they do not want to click on your profile again. And in this way the number of visitors to your website decreases instead of increasing.
How to use Hashtags on Instagram Images
Instagram has given many facilities in terms of using Hashtag.
By the way, there is no use of using Hashtag on any photo or graphic because they are not searchable.
Any hashtags are searchable only when they are clickable, but hashtags used in photos or graphics are not clickable.
But using Hashtags in Instagram Stories has the advantage because they are searchable.
You can add 10 Hashtags to Instagram Story using Text option and add one clickable Hashtag via Story Sticker.
Conclusion:
Using hashtags has become a very important strategy to promote your brand on almost all social media platforms.
When you use Hashtag in your post, it builds your brand and you can connect with more and more customers.
But while using Hashtag on any social media platform, some important things should be kept in mind. like-
- Hashtag should always start with # sign.
- There should not be any kind of space between the letters in the hashtag. But, space must be given between two hashtags.
- Numbers can be used in hashtags.
- Excessive and vague hashtags should not be used. It is better to use two to three hashtags in a post on most social media platforms.
If you keep the above things in mind then the value of your post increases and users can get more information about your brand through your post.