Ever since American blogger Chris Messina first used it, hashtags have become an integral part of our social media experience. However, they aren’t simply words or phrases. Hashtags can sometimes be the key in marketing and advertising campaigns and help you reach your target audience easily.
This is why you must use relevant and trending hashtags in all the posts you create for your brand on social media sites like Twitter and Instagram.
Read on to find out how hashtags can help your brand grow on social media and increase your overall exposure.
Hashtags – A Brief Insight
A hashtag is a tag for metadata used to cross-reference different content types on social media sites. It has been 12 years since Chris first came up with it, and life on social media has never been the same again. These tiny words or phrases can send a compelling message to your audience. One that clicks in seconds! They have changed the way we perceive content on media-sharing platforms all over the internet.
Hashtags can be letters, numbers, or a combination of both. It is denoted by the hash symbol – #.
The way hashtags work is by categorizing content. For example, suppose you have a beauty salon and are offering nail treatments for your customers. Thus, if you want to reach your target audience, i.e., the people who will want to avail your nail treatment service, you can use hashtags in your ad post on social media like #nailtreatment. This essentially enables your post to be visible to anyone searching for a beauty salon on the internet.
Another example would be a student searching for essay writing help or homework assistance in the UK. If you provide such a service in the UK, you can use hashtags like #essaywritinghelpUK or #domyhomework so students can find your brand using a phrase like “Who can do my homework in the UK?”
Thus, you can use hashtags to mention important aspects of your business like its location, special services, offers, discounts, etc.
Importance of Hashtags
We have been using hashtags all the time on social media like Instagram and Twitter. And brands, in turn, are no different. We have all seen those phrases at the end of every Twitter or Instagram ad post out there, but do we know their significance?
When used correctly, hashtags can
- Help you categorize your posts on social media so that they fall into a specific group of contents.
- Increase your post visibility by enabling users to find your content when they search for relevant terms.
- Allows for better engagement with your content.,
- Increases your followers on platforms like Twitter and Instagram.
Thus, hashtags can help your brand reach your desired audience, solidify its social media presence and enable it to grow and move forward.
This is why major brands around the world always make apt use of hashtags in their posts on social media sites like Instagram and Twitter.
Top 4 Benefits of Using Trending Hashtags
Trending hashtags are the ones that are being searched for the most by online users. They may be particular phrases or words which are getting the maximum number of hits on social media. Usually, trending hashtags arise from viral content that has been posted online. However, it can also be related to a real-life issue or cause.
Brands should try to properly research hashtags to find out the trending ones. Using trending hashtags for your advertising campaigns on Twitter and Instagram can help your brand get immediate exposure and visibility. The benefits of using trending hashtags are highlighted down below.
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Helps figure out competition
As a business owner, you need to know who your competitors are. It would help look at who they are, what services they offer, and how they advertise it. You can use trending hashtags to research for your competitors and find out more about them.
You can also find out how well they use trending hashtags to reach out to their target audience. This way, you can improve your current social media marketing campaigns.
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Makes your brand feel active
Whenever any viral hashtags start trending on sites like Twitter or Instagram, brand owners are quick to jump on them and use them in their social media campaigns. This shows that the brand is active in the market and is up to date with current news and trending topics.
Customers want to feel like they have a connection with their brands. Thus, when they find that brands have been using trending topics in their ad campaigns, it will resound with them all the more. Therefore, trending hashtags can make your brand feel alive and in sync with popular culture and trending issues and topics.
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Promotion
On social media, a famous phrase prevails: Followers increase followers. Using trending hashtags can help you create targeted ad campaigns for your brand. Trending hashtags can work in a word-of-mouth method to help people get aware of your brand. When you post about a certain promotion using a hashtag, your followers will use the same in theirs, thus creating significant visibility for your brand.
Trending hashtags can create the buzz for your brand that you never had. It can help your brand get into the spotlight and make customers view it and other major brands’ likes in the market. Thus, using trending hashtags can be one of the best ways to promote your business online on sites like Instagram and Twitter, where trending hashtags are all the rage now and then.
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Activism
The need for 2022 is taking a stand for real-world issues. Customers are more aware now than ever of ongoing crises that need to be dealt with. This is why using hashtags related to such causes can be a great way to voice your stance on such issues and promote your brand.
An excellent example of this can be #BlackLivesMatter, where people voiced their concerns against police atrocities in the US. Brands were quick to use it in their marketing campaigns, with the likes of KFC, Nike, Apple, Costco, among others, taking a firm stand on the issue. Smaller brands also used the trending hashtags and benefited from the increased visibility and exposure they had.
Final thoughts
Trending hashtags can be the key to propelling your brand forward in the sea of content on social media platforms. It can help you reach your target audience easily and allow your brand to get the exposure it needs. This is why using trending hashtags on social media sites like Instagram and Twitter is essential for big and small brands.
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