Social media can be a great place to connect with your audiences, especially once you have found the best platforms for your business. However, with algorithm updates on certain platforms and the sheer volume of posts on others, it can sometimes be challenging to effectively and consistently reach that audience. Enter the hashtag. This symbol helps brands increase their reach on social, follow trends and create conversations. With such important roles in social media, hashtags should be used strategically and carefully. Here are five best practices: 1. Consider the platform. It’s important to treat platforms as the unique individuals they are, as hashtags function and are accepted differently by users on different platforms. For example, on Twitter, the birthplace of the hashtag, hashtags are a part of most posts from brands. By contrast, on LinkedIn, hashtags are not linked, making them ineffective and rarely used. 2. Quantity. File this under #annoying: social posts that have a seemingly endless list of hashtags tacked on to the end of the post. Research shows that the number of hashtags greatly impacts engagement. Most often, engagement decreases as the number of hashtags increases. One or two hashtags per post is the engagement sweet spot on Twitter and Facebook. On Twitter, using more than two hashtags causes a 17 percent drop in engagement with a post. The notable exception to this “less is more” approach to hashtags is Instagram. Interactions are highest with Instagram posts that have 11 or more hashtags. 3. Limit the length.…
Read More: #SocialMedia: 5 Hashtag Best Practices
