Tutorial
Hashtags are such a fun, easy tool to use, and there’s no reason not to start using them today. When you use a hashtag, your post will also appear on a social media page dedicated to that hashtag, introducing you to lots of new potential followers.
For example, Small Biz Brands could use the hashtag, #smallbizowner, hoping to find new business owners that could benefit from using our software.
How to Find
Like content, it is important to save good hashtag ideas when you find them. Your hashtag library in the app makes keeping up with your hashtags easy.
Watch for good ones when you’re looking at Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. They may be in a competitor post, an industry trade group post, a vendor’s post, etc.
You can also think back to what your business does and start brainstorming. You literally can imagine what good hashtags might be, and there is probably already one that exists. For example, we are really into marketing plans. So if I start brainstorming, #marketingplanning or #contentplanning, and put that in my platform search bar, I can see if that hashtag exists or what similar hashtags are available. The Instagram Explore page will also help with this research.
Always check out a particular hashtag before you use it. Occasionally, it will not be about what is sounded like it would be.
A note on size: we recommend using hashtags between 25,000 posts and 100,000 posts for maximum benefit. You can learn the number of posts for a specific hashtag by placing the hashtag name in the search bar. If the hashtag post count is too small, your post won’t be seen. If it is too large, it will get lost.
For example, put #socialmedia in the Instagram search bar. Turns out it already has over 18 million posts, so this will not be a good one for Small Biz Brands to use when posting. It is way too big! #socialmediamarketingstrategy, on the other hand, has almost 29,000 posts, so this will be a much better choice in terms of getting our post noticed.
How to Collect for Efficiency
Typing in hashtags every time you create a post gets very time consuming. That’s why it’s a good idea to come up with hashtag groups that you can access while in your app Hashtag Library.
Look at the dropdown under Category in the library to get ideas for Hashtag groups.
For example, a retail business might have a Winter Holiday hashtag group that they use often in December. In addition to their unique hashtag (#abcretailstore) with their business name, and a special hashtag or two related to the post (#winterwardrobetips), they all can be saved under the title of “Winter Holiday” for easy access.
Winter Holiday looks something like this:
#winterholiday #holidaycountdown #christmasinthecity #shoplateonWednesdays #letitsnow #babyitscoldout #winterdeals #12daysofChristmas
You can keep adding to your list every time you see a suitable new one.
How Many to Use
Best practices for using hashtags change often. Check back here to learn about changes.
Recently, Instagram announced 3-5 hashtags is “becoming” optimal. For now, we believe something in between the maximum 30 and 3-5 is a good number. Facebook and LinkedIn are also receptive to hashtags. Still, approximately three hashtags looks about right on these platforms currently.
A note of caution: Instagram is the most hashtag friendly, but they penalize users that use the exact same group of hashtags over and over again. This stands to reason with their emphasis on authenticity. When creating a post, access your hashtag library. Then cut and paste a new group from the various groups you have already saved there. For example, Small Biz Brands might pull from our social media hashtag group and from our small business owner hashtag group to assemble the hashtags that work best for a specific post.
Be sure to always include your business’ unique or branded hashtag, in our case #smallbizbrands, and occasionally create other unique ones for your business for things like a slogan or special event. For example, Small Biz Brands uses #postandlearn to express one of our main product benefits. Also use a location hashtag when applicable.
Take a Moment to Find One or Two Perfect Hashtags
There is usually something unique about your post topic. If so, take an extra moment to see if there is the perfect descriptive hashtag to go with it. If Small Biz Brands is posting about “what’s new with hashtags”, we could add #hashtaglove to the post, even though we might not save it to our hashtag library to use on a regular basis. Our social media hashtag list works fine, and we will use part of it, but #hashtaglove might be even better for this particular post. A quick Google search or two will usually give you a hashtag idea. Instagram’s Explore page will also help.
How to Format
When in Facebook or LinkedIn, it is easy to include three hashtags at the end of your post description. If you are using a link or photo credit, put those first, then your hashtags last.
When in Instagram, many like to add the most important three hashtags after the description and photo credit, then hit return twice, then add the rest of your hashtags. This keeps your post from looking too crowded, since with Instagram, you can use up to 30 hashtags in one post.
Next Steps
If you want to talk more about this topic, join us in The Small Biz Builders, our private Facebook Group. Let us know where you find your best hashtags.