Hashtag: what it is for and its importance in digital marketing

[najmulseo2020]

Anyone who has used social media at least a few times will have noticed that many posts from pages they follow usually have words preceded by “#”. In addition, they will have probably seen or heard the term “Hashtag” at least once. This means that you have some knowledge about one of the most important tools to improve your reach on social media.

If you only know about the topic from hearsay, continue reading this article, where you will learn the importance of using hashtags and how they can make a difference in the success of your business on social media.

What is hashtag: definition
To begin with, let's understand that there is a definition of the symbol, which is often called a hashtag, but which is actually called a “hash” (or the tic-tac-toe game, for those who used the phone more to make calls).

Now, what matters to us is the meaning of the term hashtag, which according to the Oxford dictionary (yes, since 2014 it has become an entry in one of the most important dictionaries of the English language) is:

“A word or phrase preceded by a hash symbol singapore phone number list used on social media sites and applications, especially Twitter, to identify messages about a specific topic.”

To be a little more objective, the idea behind hashtags is that you can include certain terms related to topics or discussions on social media and they can be seen by an audience that goes beyond your followers.

The explanation for this is that when you place the word or term preceded by the hash (or tic-tac-toe), it becomes a hyperlink. This means that when you click on it, you will see all the publications on that social network that also used that same hashtag.

For example: if you are talking about music and you put “#music”, anyone who clicks on the term in your post will see all the posts that used the same term. Likewise, anyone who clicks on the same hashtag or searches for it will also be able to see your post.

Hashtag: what to do and what not to do?
Now that we’ve gone deeper into the concept and functioning of hashtags, let’s get to the point: how to use them in practice. As we explained above, their main function is to ensure that your posts are seen by people other than your current followers.

This is a fundamental role in any digital marketing strategy, because without using them, the only way for someone to find your page or posts would be if you advertised and posted them (which would obviously be much more expensive and you wouldn't be taking advantage of a valuable social media tool).

That said, to use any hashtag, we have some rules of good and bad practices, which must be followed strictly so that they become truly efficient.

Let's go to them:

Use hashtags related to the topic
This is fundamental and the most basic rule of using the tool. It is common to see people seeking engagement using any popular term among hashtags to increase their reach. However, by doing this, you will leave the visitor who arrived because of that term in question feeling cheated and probably not returning to your page.

On the other hand, by always using hashtags related to the topic, anyone interested in the subject will be able to find your page and, if they like your content, they may become another follower. In other words, the effect is highly positive when used intelligently.

Use hashtags assertively
There is no limit to the terms you can use, but it is advisable to avoid exaggeration. The ideal is to find a middle ground between niche tags (more specific to the topic) and general tags (also related to the topic, but in a broader way).

To make this easier to understand, let's think about two examples: if we are talking about marketing in sports, we can use either the term #marketing or #MarketingInSports. Taking the case of music again, if the post is related to rock, we can use either the tag #rock or the tag #music.

The person may think that the topic doesn't meet what they're looking for, but they can look at your page and find what they want there because of this more generic tag.

Now, using an exaggerated number to try to encompass all the terms related to the topic will not be effective and the network itself may reduce its reach because of this.