Hashtags have been around since 2007, and everyone at this point is likely familiar with them. But it’s rarer that we know how to use them properly, especially for marketing our personal brands. I sometimes feel like I rarely see them these days, and began wondering if they’re still relevant. It turns out, they are.
Hashtags, What’s Their Purpose?
Do you ever see those posts where someone uses about a thousand hashtags? Or what about #when #every #word #has #one? Or when a popular hashtag is used incorrectly? For instance, I like to use the hashtag, #motivationmonday on my Instagram posts. But I’ve seen a lot of the equivalent to this: #motivation #monday. It kinda defeats the purpose when we make these types of mistakes because the purpose of a hashtag is to make content and topics searchable. So they have to be relevant and used correctly.
Another reason we use hashtags in marketing is for tracking purposes, but I won’t go too much into that in this post. What I will say is that posts with hashtags do get up to 12% more engagement, according to the social media marketing company, Sprout Social. This is true simply because it may catch the viewer’s eye more, or because it’s a relevant hashtag and your post was found in a search. And I realize 12% doesn’t seem like much, but in the world of the internet, that’s significant. Gaining engagement is one of those things we do little by little. The growth will show over time.
Which brings me to another reason to use them—like I mentioned above, it’s a good way to stay aware of what works and what doesn’t when you’re analyzing and tracking your engagement. They’re just one more little tool to make your personal branding and digital marketing strategy that much more cohesive.
When and Why Should You Still Be Using Hashtags
Well, because they’re still relevant! Your potential audience will use hashtags to search topics and find content and products (like books!). People also use them to follow the conversation around trending topics, and for keeping up on the subjects they care about.
This means that you have a unique opportunity. If your area of expertise, or your book’s topic relates to a trending hashtag, you can jump into the conversation. Anyone scrolling through the topic can potentially land on your post! And if it’s good, that post may draw them in to take a deeper look at what you have to offer.
You can also use genre based hashtags, such as #scifi, #romance, #adventure, #selfhelp, or #memoir when promoting yourself or your book. These types of hashtags can work well at drawing in your target audience.
There are also those perennial sorts of hashtags, such as the above mentioned #motivationmonday, or #amwriting, or #bookstagram. You can take advantage of these types of hashtags to give your content a much larger reach. Finding out which ones work is part experiment (when you track your results) and part research. Like everything else on your personal branding journey, it will take some work.
When It’s Best To Not Bother Using Them
There’s been some talk recently about the significance and use of the hashtag on Facebook. Because Instagram and Twitter dominate the hashtag game, you just don’t see them on Facebook often anymore. And Facebook’s ever-shifting algorithms and best practices make it hard to know what works best. But this doesn’t mean you can’t still use them. I’ll talk a bit more about this in the next section.
The important thing to remember is that if you’re not going to bother searching relevant hashtags, or you don’t find any of those perennial hashtags that fit your brand, or simply your post that day, don’t worry about using them. They probably won’t service you much.
Another important thing to remember is to never use a trending hashtag just to jump into a conversation that’s not relevant. This is especially true if it’s a sensitive topic, a current event, or it’s controversial. It will only make you look bad. A worse case scenario example: A celebrity has just died and their name is trending. Don’t go and throw in a post about your book release and try to clumsily tie it to the event with just a hashtag.
A Hashtag for Your #PersonalBrand?
Using your branded hashtag is one of those few great ways to still use them on Facebook. This will cement your brand, build consistency, and draw further attention to your message. They can also be super helpful for Facebook Groups to keep track of a specific topic! It’s especially useful, of course, if your other social media accounts consistently use the same hashtag.
Here’s the thing. Choosing and creating a hashtag for your personal brand is a fabulous way to create consistency and endurance, but it can also be hard to come up with the right one.
To get one that sticks, you may have to do quite a bit of experimenting. You’ll also have to do your research. You don’t want to compete with anyone else already using that hashtag. But you also want it to be memorable, easy to read, and of course, relevant.
The good news is, it’s okay to experiment! When I started the process of rebranding I came up with, and gave up on, quite a number of hashtags. I’ve yet to really settle on one. Because it should be right, and once it’s right you want it to be consistent.
But having a branded hashtag is one of those things that can work wonders! Even if a potential follower, or target audience can’t remember your name, or the name of your book, it’s likely they’ll remember a clever, significant hashtag.
You can also choose to create a hashtag for a specific campaign or event, and use it whenever you post content related to that event. This way, if your audience wants to view your previous content on the topic, it’s easy for them to do so.
Hashtag Tips to Make Your Life Easier
To make this all a bit easier for you, I’ve listed the optimal hashtag numbers for each social platform.
- Facebook: One or two only
- Twitter: Ditto with one or two
- YouTube: two to three
- Instagram: You can go hog wild on Instagram! Five is optimal and you can use up to ten
This can be important. Because, like I mentioned before, using too many hashtags defeats the purpose by drowning out your most impactful messages. It can also look too spammy. And no one wants that!
One More Tip!: There are some great tools you can use to help you out with your hashtag game. One of which is Hashtagify.me. This tool lets you check into the popularity of your planned hashtag, lists weekly and monthly trends and more.
So yes, hashtags are still relevant and you should definitely consider using them. Especially on Instagram and Twitter. I recommend starting out by doing some hashtag searching of your own. Search by topic or search perennial hashtags. See what you come up with. If one fits, use it! Pay attention to those trending topics and jump in when it’s relevant. As for your branded hashtag, that will likely come after you’ve done a bit of the above first—it will give you a sense for what’s appropriate. And like I said, you can always experiment, so don’t be afraid to!
