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Table of Contents

1. Key Takeaways
2. Introduction: Social Media Hashtags
3. Guidelines For Hashtag Use
4. Five Main Types of Hashtags
5. Choosing The Correct Hashtags
6. Conclusion

Key Takeaways

• How hashtags should be incorporated into social media communications;
• How many #s are best for each post: 1, 5, 10, or an unlimited number?;
• The 5 main types of hashtags used in digital marketing;
• How to format #s for maximum effectiveness;

Introduction: Social Media Hashtags

Have you ever wondered what would be considered “best practices” for the optimal use of hashtags on social media? How do you avoid the perception by your audience that your brand is being too spammy, annoying or unhelpful?

I will address these concepts in this post and provide professional usage guidelines from a leading marketing SaaS company for each of the major social media platforms.

Welcome to the 1st Edition in the Digital Marketing Snapshot Series where we will zoom in for a one (1) to two (2) minute read on the best ways to use #MarketingHashtags on social media.

Guidelines For Hashtag Use

Are hashtags still relevant in 2024?

Absolutely! They are one of the best methods for being discovered by a new audience.

Why even use hashtags in digital marketing?

Hashtags are a searchable link which will make your content more easily identified, increase engagement, help build your brand, and improve your overall SEO.

How many hashtags should be used to avoid coming across as being too spammy?

Here are recommended numbers to target on the following platforms from an article by Hootsuite on how to use hashtags in 2023:

Facebook – 2 to 3 per post

LinkedIn – up to 5 per post

Twitter – 1 to 2 per post

YouTube – 3 to 5 per post

Pinterest – 2 to 5 per post

Instagram – 3 to 5 per caption

TikTok – 3 to 5 per post

Note: When commenting or replying to another person’s social media post, limiting your hashtags to no more than 1 to 2 per comment would be appropriate.

What is the best format or style for hashtags?

Hashtags should use what’s known as CamelCase, where initial letters of words are capitalized. For example, #SocialMedia. This is especially helpful for sight-impaired people who rely upon screen readers for accessibility and proper pronunciation.

1 to 3 short words are ideal for hashtags.

Do not put a space or punctuation between two or more words in a hashtag (hashtags only track characters which immediately follow the # symbol).

Where should you place hashtags in your social media posts?

Generally speaking, hashtags should be placed at the bottom of your communication, but can be strategically placed at the beginning or middle of a post to highlight or emphasize a point.

Focus on popular, trending, relevant or targeted hashtags to include in your posts.

Five Main Types of Hashtags

Location Based (e.g., #MountainView)

Audience Based (e.g., #SoftwareEngineers)

Industry Based (e.g., #SEO)

Topical Based (e.g., #ArtificialIntelligence)

Branded Based (e.g., #CocaCola and #TasteTheFeeling)

Note: Hashtags using your company name or slogan can be very effective at increasing overall brand awareness.

Choosing The Correct Hashtags

Conduct searches on social media using topical hashtags to discover the type of information it reveals (images, posts, etc.) before deciding which ones to use in your digital marketing campaigns.

Using a free hashtag generator such as the one offered by Hootsuite, can help save time and effort by short-cutting the process.

#Accessibility #CamelCase #DigitalMarketing #Hashtags #SocialMedia 🙂

Conclusion

That wraps our look at how to optimize hashtags on social media and concludes Edition No. 1 of our snapshot series. Stay tuned for the next snapshot article as we continue to bring another valuable digital marketing topic into focus.

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See you in the next regular blog post or the next edition of the Digital Marketing Snapshot Series…