Whether you’re a social media expert or a novice chances are you’ve probably heard of the humble hashtag. While this simple symbol is widely recognised, its benefits and how to use it effectively are still a little unclear to some. So why should businesses add a hashtag or two to their next social media post?
Hashtags help to boost the number of people who will see your post. According to Buffer Social, tweets with hashtags can receive twice as much engagement than those without. When you use a hashtag, it’s important to keep them simple and highlight keywords within your post. Hashtagging industry specific keywords such as #cloudcomputing or #vets is a great way of your tweet being seen by your target audience.
Another useful way to use a hashtag is to add popular or trending hashtags such as #FriYAY or #MondayMotivation to give your brand personality. And it’s not just trending or popular hashtags that businesses should be adding to their posts. If you’re running a media campaign or looking to target a specific industry you should consider creating your own hashtag to accompany it. By including your own hashtags in updates, individuals will start to associate that topic and keyword with your business.
It’s important to understand that the rules regarding hashtags can differ depending on your platform of choice. While there’s no limit to how many hashtags you can include in a post, Twitter recommends using no more than two per post. Using more than two hashtags per post on Twitter can lower engagement by 17%, whereas Instagram users are able to use up to 30 hashtags per post in a bid to optimise the level of engagement and increase the amount of people who can see it.
The increased popularity of social media has resulted in more and more people using hashtags and there’s clearly lots of reasons why the B2B sector should be hashtagging too! However, if the thought of picking a hashtag or creating your own seems a little daunting, have no fear. Each platform offers a wealth of helpful information to get started. Alternatively, speak to us here at Skout about how you can optimise your social media strategy and get the hashtag working for you. #hastagsareforB2Btoo
Kat Wilding is a regular contributor to the Skout blog
