Even though some experts in digital marketing say that hashtag is dead, the success of many hashtag campaigns and influencers who use trendy hashtags in their social media posts suggest the opposite. The hashtag is still a great way to increase the reach of your marketing campaigns on social media channels and get a better engagement rate.

hashtag social media

The hashtag is a small sign that makes a big difference. That could be the shortest possible selling description of the famous hashtag sign. The hashtag is a keyword or key phrase people usually create with the added sign # so they can index their digital content or put it in a thematic category.

If you, for example, add hashtags like #BookLovers or #GoodReads to your Instagram post about the book you have just read, the book lovers will easily find your post and get to know what you have to say about it.

Hashtag indexes your social media post and makes it more visible to your target demographic. It is an organic way to increase the visibility of your status and a great addition to your social media marketing. As Clodagh O’Brien from Digital Marketing Institute states: “Used correctly, hashtags help people interested in your topic to find you and help expand your influence and followers.”

You only need to find the right hashtag that will correspond to your digital content and appeal to your followers on social media channels.

How to create a good hashtag?

Make it short, simple, and concrete. Follow the trendy themes and hashtags, and check what popular influencers do on social media. Copy the best practices but stay original and memorable. Then, you can create a hashtag campaign and make your social media posts even more popular. These are the simple rules you should follow when creating hashtags on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok.

Follow the simplicity rule, do not confuse your followers

The digital realm is overwhelmed with different hashtags. So don’t add one more confusing or complicated hashtag to the digital cacophony. Instead, be transparent, simple, and direct.

Create such hashtag that will communicate your theme. For example, if you are selling garden furniture, create simple hashtags like #GardenFurniture, #Sunbeds, and #GardenSets so people interested in garden sets can easily find your post. On the other hand, if you want to avoid being perceived as boring or just another similar garden furniture brand, add some spice to your post, make fun with words and add more creative hashtags like #YourPlaceInTheSun, #SummerFun, or #OutsideLiving.

Don’t confuse your followers so you would be forced to apologize for your posting or get negative responses from them. Here’s an example of the terrible mistake made by the American producer of baked goods, Entenmann’s.

On the day of the release of Casey Anthony, the mother notoriously accused of the murder of her daughter, Entenmanns’s social media specialists launched the hashtag #NotGuilty. They wanted to say that nobody should feel guilty if they enjoy small sweet pleasures provided by their baked goods. But, unfortunately, they were unaware of the blunder they made (or should we say the timing of the post). As soon as they realized what mistake they had made, they apologized to the public on their social media channels:

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Source: The 10 Worst Hashtag Fails on Twitter of All Times - Miappi

If their digital marketing specialists only followed the news of the day, the latest trending topics, or the list of trendy hashtags, they could avoid the catastrophe.

It brings us to the following advice.

Make use of trendy hashtags

Trendy hashtags are those people gladly follow on social media during a specific time period. They can be connected to particular brands or new products, social or cultural trends, and viral topics people talk about.

When lockdowns started during the COVID-19 pandemic and people began working from home, new popular hashtags emerged like #StayHome and #WorkFromHome. With continuously agile digital marketing departments, brands like IKEA hopped on the wagon and included these hashtags in their marketing activities.

Ikea created its new slogan Stay Home and transformed it into a hashtag #StayHome thus appropriating the famous phrase for its advantage.

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Source: https://youtu.be/zg0Hei0cjl0

Jimit Bagadiya from Social Pilot web page gives some helpful advice on using trendy hashtags effectively. He says to be the first to use a trendy hashtag while it’s still “fresh” and it’s not worn out yet. Try to find hashtags that target your niche and are relatable to a broader audience.

Follow what popular influencers do

While speaking of relatable hashtags, who is better suited for their creation than popular influencers? Just follow what popular influencers do, and you’ll find out what hashtags are currently in vogue and which hashtags motivate their fans to leave a comment or like.

The best way to do so is to look for influencers in your niche market. So, look for famous people on social media among your followers. Then, compare several good influencers and which hashtags they usually use. Next, analyze which social media posts of their creation get the most likes and comments and how many hashtags they use per post. Only this way, with the analysis of influencer marketing approaches, you’ll find out what sticks to your followers.

You will learn a lot from fashion influencers like Emma Hill if you have a fashion brand. She creates more generic hashtags like #SpringOutfits and #WinterFashion but also adds more excitement to her posts by publishing the original keyword phrases like #SweatherWeather or #SecondHandButGrand. A little dash of originality will intrigue your followers and get you a higher engagement rate.

Be original, avoid generic hashtags

While we are at originality, do not hesitate to be unique. Avoid placing too many generic hashtags if you want to attract some new fans. And suppose you are a digital marketing specialist in an agency, for example. In that case, hashtags like #DigitalMarketing and #ContentMarketing will finely index your content. Still, their generic nature and their widespread distribution will not attract too many new fans, so your social media posts might get lost in a sea of similar content.

So, along with the more generic hashtags, create your original hashtags, which will help you stick above the competition. Jimit Bagadiya mentions the excellent example of KitKat, a company that became recognizable with its hashtag #HaveABreak. KitKat smartly occupied the semantic territory of recreation and free time so their consumers could always connect the word “break” with their brand. As a result, we could say that the hashtag #HaveABreak became part of popular culture, spreading like a viral meme among fans on social media channels.

But People from Kitkat didn’t stay just on that. Two years ago, they launched a viral campaign on their social media channels dedicated to the 85th anniversary of their brand with the positioning hashtag #ABreakForHaveABreak.

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Source: Fab News

With their campaign, they invited fans to have a break from the existing brand’s slogan and hashtag and create a new one. The best new hashtags, they promised to their fans, will be awarded 85 hours of chilling with KitKat products.

Fans were encouraged to be creative with the viral videos and suggestions for new slogans/hashtags like #HaveAPause, #HaveAChitChat, #HaveARest, and #HaveAFingerSnap. The campaign was such a success that the fans got infected with the game of hashtag creation. It also brought thousands of new brand fans and great media publicity.

With this type of campaign, followers on social media become active creators of the brand’s digital content who gladly post their comments and posts, thus becoming the brand's content creators.

The great success of KitKat’s campaign brings us to the essential advice:

Create a hashtag campaign that will “infect” social media

Users of digital channels are the best promoters of brands. They are also the key ingredient for successful marketing on social media. One way your brand could achieve this goal is to launch a hashtag campaign. This type of campaign is the form of digital marketing, which uses the main hashtag as the main campaign slogan or central campaign theme.

When launching a hashtag campaign, you can dramatically increase the results of your digital marketing activities while getting many great benefits:

  • You will exponentially increase your digital campaign's reach and engagement rate – mainly if you include the influencers who share your hashtag on their digital channels and invite their followers to support your campaign.
  • You will better the SEO ranking of your digital channels.
  • You’ll get free organic engagement from fans who will voluntarily participate in creating your content (look upon KitKat’s example).

Are you looking for an example of a good hashtag campaign?

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Source: Swomagazine i Truly Deeply

The famous fashion brand Calvin Klein launched its #MyCalvins campaign in 2014. They invited all followers to take photos of themselves in their calvins and post them on their social media profiles with the hashtag #MyCalvins. The campaign started with the participation of Justin Bieber and Lara Store, who were depicted in CK underwear garments in a viral video, and later in their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram posts tagged with the campaign’s hashtag.

The response among the fans was immense. People photographed themselves in their calvins, proudly proclaiming that they could shine, dream and fight while wearing the iconic garments.

Thanks to the campaign, Calvin Klein increased its following on Facebook by 2 million new fans, 2 million on Instagram, and million new fans on Twitter.  

After that, it’s hard to agree with the skeptics who say that the good old hashtag is dead for digital marketing.

We have one more recommendation in the conclusion of this article. You might wonder how many hashtags are good to have per post on each social media channel. It’s good to accept the unwritten rules of digital marketing here, but it is also essential not to overcook with the use of hashtags.

Do not exaggerate with the use of hashtags

As Jimit Bagadiya warns, using more than 10 hashtags per post on specific social media channels could decrease the engagement rate of your followers up to 68,2%!

In general, digital marketing experts agree on these numbers:

  • Twitter – since there’s a limit on the number of characters you can use per post on this platform, be very moderate regarding hashtags, and don’t use more than two!
  • Instagram – this digital platform encourages the creation of hashtags; it allows up to 30 hashtags, but we recommend that you stick to 9-11, not more than that.
  • Facebook - 2 hashtags per post, one for the content of your post and the other connected to your brand.
  • LinkedIn – it is recommended not more than five hashtags per post; if you overdo it, there’s a danger that this platform will mark your content as spam!
  • TikTok – around 4 or 5 hashtags; refresh your hashtag base regularly because it is subject to frequent changes in trends!

So, follow this advice and become the #HashtagMaster in your next campaign on social media channels.

If you don’t get the desired reach of your posts or engagement rate, feel free to contact LOGIC MARKETING experts in digital marketing.

Resources for additional reading:

https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/how-to-use-hashtags-in-social-media
https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/infographic-the-5-steps-of-keyword-research
https://www.socialpilot.co/blog/how-to-use-hashtags-effectively-in-social-media-marketing
https://blog.miappi.com/10-worst-twitter-hashtag-fails-time
https://displaypurposes.com/blog/are-instagram-hashtags-dead-why-hashtags-arent-working/
https://marketsplash.com/hashtag-campaigns/

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