Hashtags Explained: What They Are And How To Use Them For Marketing

Although hashtags have been adopted by most social networks after Twitter first introduced them, most social media users remain unfamiliar with them and their effectiveness.

Hashtag definition
A hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by a # sign and they enable you to categorize your social media posts. For example, should you be publishing content relevant to “weightloss”, your post could include the hashtag “#weightloss”.

Hashtags explained
As a listening tool, hashtags are also very effective. You can easily listen in to online conversations around a specific topic by simply clicking on a hashtag. By doing so, all the posts published on the network which include that specific hashtag will be listed.

If wanting to create your own hashtags for your business, brand or event, make sure you keep it short and easy to spell to make it easier for your audience to join your conversation by adding your hashtag in their posts. A hashtag can include numbers but no punctuation marks and no special characters such as asterix.
If your hashtag includes more than a word, you can capitalize the first letter of each word such as #DoubleYourCashFlow.

Hashtags can be added anywhere, at the start, middle or end of your post or tweet.
The main mistake social media users make when using hashtags is including too many of them in each post. When using hashtags in posts, one or two are enough, and three hashtags per post is the absolute maximum.

A useful tool to use when looking for hashtags to use in posts is www.ritetag.com. By typing in its search box keywords associated to your post or tweet, ritetag.com will list all the relevant hashtags being used for that specific keyword, making it easier for you to feature your content in existing, popular conversations.

When using hashtags in your posts, you can promote your hashtag even further by adding it on your social media banners and headers, in your profile descriptions and in your marketing material such as online ads, offline ads, newsletter, business cards and brochures.

And because no social media efforts can lead to results without tracking, talkwalker.com is a tracking tool specifically designed to monitor hashtags.
Talkwalker measures the engagement rate of your hashtag (how many people shared, liked or commented on posts which included your hashtag), as well as monitor the sentiment around your hashtag (if conversations related to your hashtag were positive, negative or neutral), how many people actually saw your hashtag and how many of them were men or women, and their geographic location.
The detailed analysis provided by Talkwalker will allow you to have a better understanding of where to cut the cord and where to double your efforts when using hashtags.

The benefit of using hashtags and especially creating your own hashtag for your business or brand is the ability to attract more relevant users to join your conversations. And the more relevant users you attract, the easier it will be to turn these prospects into customers.

Remember, owning a hashtag will:

• Expand your content reach
• Grow your brand
• Target your market
• Get your content found more easily
• Improve your SEO

To find out more about social media marketing and discover more social media tips, make sure to watch the video above.

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About the Author

Corinna Essa

Corinna Essa is known internationally as the go-to person when it comes to social media marketing.

Corinna owns a social media marketing company helping businesses around the world leverage the power of social media without doing any of the legwork. Her company has been featured in many media outlets including Sky Business news, Working Women magazine, Ymagazine, Tasmanian Times, Channel 7 and 101fm.

Corinna is also the author of 2 bestselling books “Money On Demand – The 16 Fastest Ways to Becoming a Millionaire Online” and “Reach: The SECRETS to converting your social media audience into your network marketing downline fast”