The Importance Of Hashtags In Social Media

Ever since Chris Messina introduced hashtags as a way to group people and conversations on Twitter, it has caught on on every social media network out there. Hashtags are a great way to reach more people, but more than reaching a bigger audience, it helps brands reach out to the right kind of people, thereby enabling them to post relevant information.

Unfortunately when hashtags caught on, people had different concepts of it ad started using it other than what it was originally for. Hence, the barrage of hashtags in posts. Soon, it became a form of spamming too. However, hashtags continue to provide value, especially when brands use it correctly.

Use It Right

If there is one thing that is annoying, it’s a post with unnecessary hashtags! So

Be specific. To target through a specific audience, your hashtag should be specific. A specific hashtag has a higher chance of reaching your audience than using one that is too generic. Generic terms might turn out with a lot more audience, but will not help you zoom in on the people that you want. It just means you are reaching more people, but majority might not even be your audience.

2. Use it according to the social network you are using. While hastags have the same objectives across all platform, it has its own specific uses according to a social network. For example, Instagram hashtags use it to describe what is in the photo rather than what is associated with the photo, as how Twitter

For some reason or another, some brands misunderstand the objective of a hashtag. The following lists some of the glaring incorrect uses of hashtagging.

1. Use it to spam. Unscrupulous beings use irrelevant hashtags just so they can reach a wider audience. For example, using a #marketing hashtag to introduce a fitness video. When settling on words, choose only those that are relevant to your brand or cause. Otherwise, is simply spamming and turning off your followers or anybody else in that hashtag conversation.

2. Use hashtag to every word. Attaching the hashtag to every word does not add relevance to your post, instead, it loses the credibility of your brand and becomes too hard sell. In an era of customer-centricity, it sends a wrong message to your prospects and customers. Consumers do not want to listen to your brand’s features, rather, they want to get help on their needs. By pushing your brand through your overuse of hashtags, you come off as an inconsiderate vendor.

3. Overcrowd your posts with too many hashtagged words or phrases. Due to overzealousness or another reason, using too many hashtagged words in your posts will only lose its value. With too many, you lose you audience’s