What are hashtags? How to use hashtags and their uses?

Walking around social networks, surely you are no stranger to phrases written immediately after the # sign. Those phrases are collectively called hashtags. However, not everyone knows what a hashtag is. In this article, we invite you to learn what hashtags are, how to use hashtags and their tools.

What are hashtags?

In terms of display, hashtags are phrases written immediately after the # sign, such as #love, #live, #friends. In essence, hashtags are a form of metadata, used to group similar content together. together. For example, when accessing #love, you will receive content related to love.

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Hashtags are a way to connect social media content to a specific topic, event, topic or conversation. They are effective on many different social networking platforms.

There are some things to keep in mind when using hashtags

1. They always start with # but they won't work if you use spaces, punctuation or symbols.
2. Make sure your account is public. Otherwise, the hashtagged content you write won't be seen by anyone who doesn't follow you.
3. Don't string too many words together. The best hashtags should be short and easy to remember.
4. Use relevant and specific hashtags. If a hashtag is too obscure, it will be difficult to find and unlikely to be used by other social media users.
5. Limit the number of hashtags you use. More is not always better. It really looks like spam.

Hashtags are a great way to connect with like-minded people, and they can be used for almost anything. For example, if you are a small business owner, you can use hashtags to promote your products or services.

You can also use hashtags to raise awareness about a cause or to start a conversation. Hashtags are also a great way to keep up with trends and breaking news.

If you haven't already, it's time to start trying adding hashtags in your social media posts. Although they first became popular in 2007, today they have become even more useful for your brand!

How to use hashtags

Using hashtags is not complicated. You just need to add phrases starting with the # sign below photos, statuses, and videos posted on social networking platforms that support hashtags. For example, when posting a photo of a cute cat, you can add hashtags like #cats, #cat, #pets or #meoxinh.

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Some notes when using hashtags:

1. Hashtags always start with #, without spaces, punctuation or special characters
2. For content to show up in public hashtags, you need to set your account to public
3. Don't use too long hashtags, the most effective hashtags are short and easy to remember
4. Use hashtags that are specific and relevant to the content. Obscure hashtags are difficult to find and are rarely used by social media users.
5. Limit the number of hashtags you use in each social media post, the most optimal is usually 3 to 5 hashtags.

Why should you use hashtags?

Hashtags are a great way to connect with like-minded people, and they can be used for anything.

For example, if you are a small business owner, you can use hashtags to promote your products or services.

You can also use hashtags to raise awareness about a cause or to start a conversation. Hashtags are also a great way to stay up to date with trends and breaking news.

Here are some other reasons you should use hashtags in your social media strategy.

Increase engagement with your followers

Including a hashtag in a post means participating in a conversation taking place on that social media platform. And most importantly, it makes your posts visible in that conversation.

This can lead to greater engagement, boosting your brand's social media engagement through likes, shares, comments and new followers.

Build brand awareness with branded hashtags

Creating branded hashtags can be an effective way to promote your business and drive conversations.

Branded hashtags can be as simple as using your company name or incorporating a tagline into the hashtag.

Show support for social issues

Using a hashtag related to an issue outside of your brand is one way to show support for an important issue.

Add context to social media posts

On Twitter, you don't have much space to write captions. Only 280 characters to be exact. On Instagram, long captions aren't always the most effective. The same goes for Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn or any other platform.

Using hashtags can be a simple way to contextualize what you're saying without using up the allotted character count or writing repetitive captions.

Help your target audience find you

On LinkedIn and Instagram, users can follow hashtags as well as other users. Using a few popular hashtags can be another way to help new users find your brand.

Sponsored partnership disclosure

This section is for influencers and brands that work with them.

When working with brands, influencers must let their audience know that a piece of content is sponsored. It's the law - the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) issued detailed advertising disclosure guidelines for online influencers in 2019. Non-compliance can result in high fines for both influencers and merchants. signal.

Uses of hashtags

Using a hashtag in your posts, videos, and photos means your content will show up in that hashtag. Hashtags will help people see your content increase engagement and attract new followers for individuals or brands.

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Hashtags also help users easily follow a certain topic on social networks. Helps people find content easily by specific topics.

Finally, hashtags help brands easily deploy advertising and communication campaigns. Non-profit organizations or mass media agencies can also use hashtags to deploy propaganda and raise awareness about a social issue.

The most popular hashtags in 2022

The most popular hashtags out there aren't necessarily the best hashtags.

For example, the hashtag #followme has more than 575 million posts on Instagram. Hashtags that attract likes don't attract followers and don't add any meaning to your social media posts. They also look really spammy and you definitely don't want that.

But don't ignore popular hashtags either. For example, #throwbackthursday or #flashbackfriday or other daily hashtags can be fun ways for your brand to participate in a broader social media conversation.

As of April 14, 2022, these are the top 10 hashtags on Instagram:

1. #love (1.835 billion)
2. #instagood (1,150 billion)
3. #fashion (812.7 million)
4. #photooftheday (797.3 million)
5. #beautiful (661 million)
6. #art (649.9 million)
7. #photography (583.1 million)
8. #happy (578.8 million)
9. #picoftheday (570.8 million)
10. #cute (569.1 million)

Of course, popular hashtags will vary depending on the social media platform you're using. On LinkedIn, popular hashtags include #personaldevelopment and #investing.

Although there are millions - even billions - of posts using popular hashtags, they are relatively generic. They aren't specific to an industry or topic, and they don't say much about your brand. So, try to identify appropriate hashtags that are related to your brand and what you stand for.

Jessica Tanner

Update 18 July 2024