If you are somewhat new to the overwhelming world of social media marketing, or are simply trying to find answers about a little something called the hashtag, look no further. I am here to crack the hashtag code for you.
This post will help you understand social media marketing with hashtags by going over:
- the history of the hashtag
- the online communication power they hold
- different ways to use hashtags to increase your social media engagement
- tools you can use to help leverage the power of hashtags
What Are Hashtags?
The hashtag, more commonly known as the pound sign, may seem like nothing more than a tiny symbol that also resembles a game of tic-tac-toe. But they have become very significant to the way we communicate online. They have become so relevant in how we communicate on social media that you’ll often hear people use them during real life conversations.
I’ll admit, I have caught myself introducing a word with a hashtag while talking to friends just to be funny. But the truth is that these symbols are much more significant than we give them credit for. When I first found out about them, I was extremely curious about where they came from.
I knew what the symbol was, but how did they become so popular on social media?
The History Of Hashtags
Back in the days of Internet Relay Chat (IRC), hashtags were already used to categorize items such as messages, images, videos and other content into groups. Hashtags made it possible for IRC users to easily search for relevant and other similar content. When 2007 arrived, the same concept remained true with the use of them on social media.
The same principle was then exposed on Twitter by a developer named Chris Messina and people from around the world were able to find out what was going on in San Diego back in 2007 when Nate Ritter included the #sandiegofire hashtag in his tweets.
The actual term “hashtags” officially originated from a blog post futurist and researcher Stowe Boyd wrote. This led Twitter to formally adopt the use of hashtags into code which automatically hyperlinks terms including the # sign.
These certain people clearly had a huge impact on how the hashtag is used in today’s online communication culture. They go beyond just helping you find similar content to what you are searching for.
Different Ways To Use Hashtags
Thanks to the guys who helped spread the usage of hashtags on social media platforms, we can now use them in many different ways resulting in different outcomes and benefits. One way you can leverage them is by using them to increase your social media traffic.
A statistic I found about using hashtags to increase Twitter engagement is that tweets with hashtags generate 2x more engagement than tweets without them. According to Neil Patel, 1-2 hashtags are ideal for tweets. 40% of tweets including at least two hashtags will most likely get retweeted but tweets using more than two hashtags may actually drop engagement by 17%.
If you are a business owner, you know how crucial networking is if you want to get your product or service exposed. Hashtags can be a great way for you to expand your reach to any person interested in the hashtag phrase or keyword you use.
For example, if you are a jewelry designer trying to see what people are saying about jewelry on Twitter, try using the keywords jewelry design or accessories with a hashtag in front of them making them #jewelrydesign or #accessories. You will most likely find people that love jewelry and who wear it often as well as other jewelry designers. You can then see what hashtags other jewelry designers are using.
Twitter is where hashtags originated, but they can be used on other social media platforms to interact with people such as Facebook, Instagram, and Google +. If you use hashtags that are trending on social media, you will most likely notice that your following will dramatically increase.
Finding hashtags that are trending on Twitter show up right on your homepage and log in page. You can also search for hashtags that are trending by using tools, that are often used by social media agencies, to help seek out relevant hashtags to use while trying to reach your target audiences.
Hashtag Tools
Hashtagify
Hashtagify is a good tool to use when trying to find the best Twitter hashtags to use in order to reach your target audience. You can also find other hashtags related to the ones you search for and their influencers.
Rite Tag
You can find the perfect hashtag using RiteTag. You can see hashtags that are currently trending. What I find most beneficial about this tool is that when you search for a specific hashtag, the results are color coded showing you whether the hashtag you searched for is unused, overused, good, or great, which will help you choose the best ones to use in your posts.
Talkwalker
Talkwalker is an easy to use social media monitoring and analytics tool. It goes beyond just tracking trending hashtags but also gives you data for geographic distribution and gender distribution on your own hashtags as well as your competitors’.
#GoHashtagNow
Now that you know more about the hashtag, the history of where they came from, the online communication power they hold, different ways you can use them to increase your social media engagement, and a few tools you can use to help you choose trending hashtags that are sure to get people interacting with you, sign in to your Twitter, Instagram, Google + or whichever social media platform you choose and start engaging with people that share your similar interests and that enjoy using that extraordinary little symbol.
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