5 tips to end the hashtag headache

Struggling to know which hashtags to pop in your posts? How many to use and where to find the best ones for your business?

Fear not... Follow my top 5 tips for ending the hashtag headache every time you post.

Tip 1: Get into the mind of your idea customer

Put yourself in their position. What are they searching for on social media? How will they find you? What are their pain points? What services or products do you have to resolve these problems? These words or short phrases are what you should be using for your hashtags. For example, if you are a PR agency or a business coach who is looking to help SME’s in your local area, hashtags with geographical location and the nature of what your ideal client does is a great starting point.

Tip 2: Do your research

If you choose hashtags that have been used 15k times rather than 15million times, then you’re more likely to be found by your customers - so be specific without being too niche.

Tip 3: One size does not fit all

So now you may have a good idea of what hashtags you want to use, how do you use them? Well the different social media platforms all have slightly different ways of how hashtags are used on their platforms. For example, Instagram actively encourages and rewards you for using up to 30 hashtags in your posts, where as that amount would definitely go against you on Facebook and Linkedin as the algorithm regards it as too spammy.

He’s a rough guide to how many hashtags you should use for each platform:

- Instagram: up to 30 on posts and 10 on stories

- Facebook: 2 or 3 max

- Pinterest: 4/5

- Twitter: 18

- Pintrest: 4

Tip 4: Experiment and be ruthless

Use your analytics tools (on the social media platform or scheduling tool) or even just make a mental note of which posts resulted in the most engagement and increased followers. Know which hashtags are working and ditch the ones that aren’t.

NB – The “Tags” function on Instagram to help you explore hashtags and give you a bit of inspiration.

Tip 5: Create one unique # for your brand

Creating your own unique hashtag that is unique to your business is really important. It establishes your credibility and helps set you up as an authority on a specific subject. If you are setting the hashtag trends, you will be retweeted more often, building a path to thousands of followers. You can drive and steer your own conversations. and encourage your clients and followers to use it. Mine is #hawthornhouseva

Bonus tip: If you’re still really stuck on which ones to use, have a look at similar businesses to yourself for a bit of inspo.

There’s no denying that social media is time consuming, but it can be extremely rewarding in growing your business and getting you noticed by your ideal clients.

Did you know we offer social media posting and scheduling as a service?

We’d be happy to discuss taking this off your hands so you can focus on your priorities. Get in touch to book a free discovery call to see how we can help you.