If you ask five people what a hashtag is, chances are you will get five different answers. This is because hashtags serve a different purpose for different users. Since hashtags are used in so many different ways, there are no certain ways that you MUST use a hashtag. This allows marketers to get creative in how they use hashtags on different social platforms. In this article I will show you several ways you can use hashtags to spice up your social media posts and increase engagement.

What Is a Hashtag?

Hashtags are unbroken strings of text that links a post to all other posts using that same hashtag. Fundamentally, they help categorize posts by a certain word, phrase, or topic. Hashtags are delineated by a “#” symbol and have blue text on most social platforms. They can be clicked on to view other posts that use the same hashtag.

Why Are Hashtags Important?

To marketers, the key benefit of hashtags is that they are a way to group posts together. Hashtags provide a way for your potential audience to find you to by using hashtags in your posts that are relevant to them. Using them effectively is key to gaining followers on twitter and creating relevance with your target audience. Hashtags have evolved significantly since their inception and are used in many different ways today. With the rapid increasing in volume of social media posts over recent years it is more important than ever to learn how to use hashtags in different ways to ensure your posts resonate with your followers.

7 Creative Ways to Use Hashtags

1. Provide context to a post

It can be quite difficult to pack your message into a short and concise social post without losing details. Instead of using several words to provide context to a situation you can use a hashtag or two to “set the stage” for what you are talking about. Using too many descriptive words can make a post seem inauthentic and less conversational. Using hashtags in this way keeps your character count low and clarity high.

2. Insert yourself into a conversation

Commenting on recent events or new developments in your industry is a great way to engage with followers, but not everyone who reads your posts may be “in the know” or aware of what you’re talking about. Use hashtags to communicate which event or subject you are commenting on to avoid confusion and help build an authoritative voice on the subject.

3. Add emotion or tone to your message

One of the primary drawbacks of text as a communication medium is that it is difficult to convey emotion. The exact same message could evoke sorrow, anger or sarcasm to different people. Putting a tasteful hashtag at the end of a message helps eliminate any misinterpretation or uncertainty about the tone of a message. This is especially helpful for new followers or people who don’t follow you at all that may not be familiar with your brand’s personality and tone.

4. Get the attention of your target audience

In an online environment where everyone is constantly trying to get your attention, you can’t expect your customers to come to you; you have to go to them. To accomplish this on social media, find out your target market’s interests are and what they’re talking about and make yourself relevant to them. Next time you make a social media post, try including a hashtag that your target market currently uses or is likely to use in the future.

RiteTag is a great tool for doing research on hashtags and related hashtags. It allows you to view valuable hashtag analytics including hashtag exposure and number of tweets that include a hashtag in the last hour.

Pro Tip: To find the most relevant hashtags, find an influencer in your industry that closely matches your buyer persona and use the hashtags that they’re using.

5. Highlight the key takeaway in your post

How many social media posts can one person read in 10 minutes? We’re not sure either, but it’s probably a lot. However, the number of posts they actually remember is likely very small. A study on media's impact on memory states how media decreases our dependency on remembering things. So, how can we get around this? One tactic is to use hashtags to “highlight” the key words or ideas that you want the reader to remember. Hashtags are a different color from regular text and stick out in your posts, making them a perfect tool to get around the limited formatting on most social platforms.

6. Hold a contest or sweepstakes

Holding effective contests or sweepstakes on social media can be tricky to execute, but hashtags can help! Prompting followers to use a branded hashtag to enter a contest is a great way to get followers talking about your brand. It is also a great way to track entrants without having them ever leave the social platform. Note that this approach is useful for simple giveaways, and more complex contests may benefit from a different and more fool-proof structure.

7. Spark a new conversation

As we all know, conversations on social media can get out of hand really quick. By using hashtags, you can attempt to facilitate responses by giving the message a central idea or theme upon which to comment. You can also use them to provoke responses from followers who otherwise would’ve kept scrolling.

Now You Try!

As social media grows and changes so will the use of hashtags, so it is important to be alert and aware of how your followers are using hashtags. It is also important to recognize that the manner of usage for hashtags can vary significantly across audiences, so what works for one account may not work for yours. No matter how you choose to use hashtags, always keep in mind that the purpose of using them should be to connect with your audience. If you keep this rule in mind when crafting your messages on social media, you will be a social pro in no time!

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