Hashtags are everywhere and they’ve become part of our everyday lingo. A hashtag is a “#” followed by a phrase or keyword, which makes your content publicly available to those who search for that keyword/phrase. What’s great about hashtags, is they expand your reach beyond solely those who follow your social accounts and they can increase awareness and interaction with your brand.
Here are the basics and some tips to help you become a hashtag Jedi master:
What happens to your hashtags when you include them in social posts.
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Now that we know what happens when we use hashtags, what are good keywords/phrases to use as hashtags?
1. Use Brand Appropriate Hashtags
Use hashtags that are consistent with your brand image and the services you provide.
At HERO Sports, whenever we post about different sports and schools, we will change up the hashtags so they relate to the sport and school we are discussing. We are a sports media company, so our hashtags are consistent with the content we provide.
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2. What's Trending?
Other hashtags to consider are those that relate to what's trending right now in social media and current sports/life events.
Keeping an eye on social media and where the traffic is flowing, will help you get your content in front of the most people and increase brand awareness.
You can find out what's trending on social media by searching on Google Trends and by simply monitoring the "Trends" section on the left side of your Twitter home page.
During the NCAA VB Tournament, we hashtagged, #NCAAVB and the #FinalFour. These are high traffic hashtags during the final four and the NCAA volleyball tournament. We also like to use hashtags for calendar events so we can be included in the conversation of what a large majority of people are talking about on certain days/times of the year.
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3. Create Your Own Hashtag
Often times when people or businesses use popular hashtags, their content gets crowded out by other posts with the same hashtag, which is why it is can be beneficial to create your own hashtag.
Most collegiate sports accounts have their own hashtag so fans can follow along with all the action coming from that school/sports program.
Stanford has created the hashtags #GoStanford and #NerdNation, which are low competition channels specific to their brand.
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4. Keep 'Em Short and Sweet!
#AnythingLongerThanOneOrTwoWordsIsWaaaaaaayTooLong!
We've all seen the hashtags that are a million characters long. We recommend using hashtags no longer than two words in length, three if the words are short. Shorter hashtags that are brand specific will be easier for fans to remember for their own search and posting capabilities, and thus are more beneficial than excessively-long hashtags.
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5. If All Else Fails…Ask A Millennial
Because they know stuff.
