Social media networks are rapidly updating faster than you can imagine. They’re now more complex for social media marketers and perhaps to keep themselves updated with the latest trends. One of them is using hashtags to promote a brand or raise awareness which is now more difficult to do.
A lot of users and brands nowadays heavily rely on hashtags, especially the trendiest and most popular ones. This results in overcrowding with more users generating the same hashtags making it more difficult to categorize based on its niche and relevance. If you’re trying to promote your business or brand through hashtags without following a proper strategy, your efforts might end up ineffective. To prevent that from happening, you must follow a specific guide or strategy.
Despite being overused, hashtags remain a very important social media marketing tool. If used correctly, hashtags will help widen your reach and grow your audience, further strengthening your online presence.
Not to take this long, here are ways on how to use hashtags to promote your business.
Improve Your Posts’ Organic Reach
Social media platforms have changed their algorithms lately, and it has been hard for many users to grow their organic reach using hashtags. Aside from the changing algorithms, all three major social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have a growing number of users making it difficult to grow organic reach because of overcrowding or the excessive use of hashtags.
To improve your organic reach, make sure that your hashtags are relevant to your brand since your posts do not technically show up at the top of the search results unless the user typed in specific keywords that accurately match your hashtag. So, make sure to use hashtags that are relevant to your brand and always keep an eye on what everyone else is doing with their pages so that you can come up with not just a relevant hashtag, but a trendy one as well.
Come up With Your Branded Hashtags
Branded hashtags are the type of hashtags that contain the specific name of your business or brand. This is effective in introducing your brand to the social media community. An effectively branded hashtag should contain your brand’s name, slogan, along with your products or services together with other relevant keywords.
Using branded hashtags will give you the chance to monitor your campaign’s performance easily. This also helps your audience identify your brand easily, and, in return, they can incorporate them into their posts.
Keep up With the Trending Topics
Trending topics will help your brand create better engagement with your audience. Trending topics come with their specific hashtags, so make use of them by combining them with your posts. This will help you reach audiences that are not originally part of your niche.
To effectively use hashtags from trending topics, you have to search for it first either on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. There are different approaches that you can use in searching for these trending topics from these three social media platforms.
The most popular hashtags are always based on the most trending topic from the current events. Some examples are the #Oscars, #Covid19, #BlackLivesMatters, #WearAMask, #SupportSmallBusinesses and a lot more. If you’re having a hard time finding trending hashtags, there are third-party applications that you can alternatively use that will provide you refined search for the trending hashtag you are looking for.
If you already found one that you think best fits your post, you should always mind the audience when you make or write your post. Make sure the message of your post is suitable for your target audience.
Lastly, make sure that you always relate the timing or the moment to your products or service with the trending hashtag you are using. Maximizing the potential of the trending hashtag, you should always relate it to your products or service. One possible way is to direct the hashtags that will be based on the conversation or post to your products page. But, you have to make sure you relate the hashtags to your products in a specific moment so it won’t appear mediocre or random.
Organize Contests and Promos
Probably one of the best ways to use hashtags in promoting your brand effectively is through contests and giveaways. If you have noticed, people love to engage in posts that let them get something in return.
Keep your contest mechanics simple so that people are encouraged to join and engage with it. Just ask them to share your post on their wall along with the specific hashtag you made. Contests and giveaways increase the user-generated content that contains your brand, your product, and of course your hashtag making it easier for you to widen your reach and online presence. Also, be generous when you give out prizes so more people will look forward to participating in your next contest.
Participate in Awareness Campaigns Using Hashtags
Spreading awareness using hashtags has been popular ever since the birth of social media. In fact, it is a common tool to spread awareness about important matters and topics in our society. On the business side, this is an effective way to get noticed online. Participating in awareness campaigns through hashtags will make your brand relevant to the most important topics in our society.
For example, you can incorporate a relevant hashtag in one of your posts that promotes the importance of wearing a face mask in public especially during this time. You can also use a hashtag to show your support on a specific cause. Remember though, you have to be sincere with your intention and support of using the hashtag.
Final Words
Hashtags are lowkey, but they are a great booster to your brand’s awareness and promotion. As what many experts attest, you have to tweak your hashtags a little so that you can expand your reach and attract more audience easily. However, remember that this, too, takes time and effort, so be extra patient.
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