Learn to Use the Right Hashtags for Digital Marketing

Content is everywhere on the internet. Content marketers are working round the clock to create valuable, entertaining or informative content for the netizens. Today, information is the king. Right hashtags help find, track meaningful and relevant content for digital marketing purposes. These tags convert content into information for the audience.

So, learning about #digitalmarketing hashtags is crucial for any digital marketer or business owner or influencer. Hashtags are clickable tags that help you find grouped content within seconds. As a business owner or a digital marketer, you want to ensure that your content is part of that cohort of information passed onto the audience.

Importance of Using the Right Hashtags

Every platform has its own set of popular hashtags. However, using the right hashtags for digital marketing also means using the tags according to the goal you wish to achieve by using the hashtags. For example, you could use the hashtag #nofilter to share a picture of yourself on Instagram. You convey to people that you have taken a natural shot of yourself sans makeup.

Another example, you could use the hashtag #mybrandname (use your brand name) to build a branded hashtag as a digital asset. The goal would be to create a distinctive brand and separate yourself from the masses. Let us see what all goals you can achieve with a hashtag strategy for your digital marketing.

Goals You Can Achieve

Create a brand for your business/personal branding. For example, I use #pritszav on social media to tag authentic content on sales and marketing. 

To mark your participation and add to an ongoing conversation or a trend. It’s a way to inform people about your contribution or view to those who follow that tag. For example, we use #mondayblues to show our unhappiness with the first day of the workweek. Or, recently when, people had stronger sentiments and angst over the death of George Floyd. They used the tag #blacklivesmatter across social media platforms.  

As a business owner, you can leverage hashtags to launch and run a digital marketing campaign. For example, you could use the hashtag #myfunnyburgerexperience and tell people to share their most funny stories with you. The one with the most entertaining story would get a $100 voucher to try some lip-smacking burgers at your restaurant! 

Truth be Told

If you are not a celebrity, it takes hard work to create and maintain an engaging audience on Instagram, LinkedIn or even Twitter. In such cases, you want to use hashtags that will get your post a better reach to that audience that does not already follow you. 

To achieve this goal, you have to do some research on these platforms individually. Then, jot down a good few hashtags to use now and then. Of course, make sure that these hashtags are relevant to your online presence.

Advantages of Using the Right Hashtags for Digital Marketing

With high volume, low competition hashtags, your content reaches the maximum number of people within your target market. It helps you to scale your following faster, convert your Instagram account into a trusted advisor. 

You can track specific posts for specific products or services and do a trend analysis of what’s working and what’s not. 

When you reply to tweets and add the relevant hashtags, you can build a reputation for yourself as a thought leader. The same is true for LinkedIn. 

Disadvantages of Using Hashtags for Digital Marketing

Overdoing anything is unfruitful. If you use the same hashtags every day for every post, Instagram AI will detect this behaviour as spam. Automatically, your post will lose its reach and, you might find it ghosted on the platform altogether. Imagine if every time I added #digitalmarketing hashtags in every paragraph of this article. Wouldn’t that be annoying?

Also, if you think that using only high-volume hashtags, high-demand hashtags will help you succeed in social media, think again. Instagram allows you 30 hashtags for each post. Using all 30 of them with popular tags will lead to no results. 

Some hashtags are unethical and spammy, even though you might think they make sense for whatever reason. For example, many people use #likeforlike #followforfollow on Instagram. It can invite bots or fake accounts to your profile. Even if they follow you, it makes no sense as they won’t engage with you as they are not humans.

Use the Right Hashtag Strategy for Digital Marketing

I want to share some of the tried and tested methods to help you get the best results from your digital marketing strategy. Each platform has its tactic so, what may work on Instagram may not work on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Instagram

To grow a business account on the platform, you have to use the right hashtags for your digital marketing efforts. To scale your account organically and engage the audience better, research a set of hashtags. See which tags are relevant to you and what purpose they serve.

Also, note down the audience base of each hashtag. There are plenty of ways to find this information out. You can use tools like Inflact to find potential high-growth hashtags for your posts. They even suggest the best way to go about using hashtags. For example, use 3-4 frequent hashtags that have a user base in millions. Next, use 6-8 average hashtags. 

These have a base of anywhere between 100k to less than a million users. Lastly, 14-16 rare hashtags with up to less than 100k users. If you are an influencer, you can also throw in your brand hashtag like #pritszav.

Instagram – Do Note

Also, make sure you set at least 2-3 sets of 30 hashtags to use for your posts. Do not use the same ones all day, every day. But most importantly, do not use irrelevant hashtags. For example, do not post a picture of yourself working in the chemical lab with the hashtag #digitalmarketing.

While this may be a funny and intentionally absurd example, you get the point. Unfortunately, a lot of Instagrammers do it and end up losing the AI’s respect and attention.

LinkedIn

Unlike Instagram, LinkedIn does not rely heavily on hashtags. However, the good news is that hashtags are more relevant and help you reach the right businesses or profiles faster. Also, the same hashtags do not work the same way across social media. So, if you are used to the cringy #followforfollow on Instagram, it has no significance on LinkedIn.

The best way to use the right hashtags for digital marketing on your LinkedIn page is to start typing and let the platform help you (use the # sign and type). Only use the ones you see in the suggestion drop-down to make your posts or articles easy to find. Remember not to flood your post with 30 hashtags like Instagram. Use only 3-5 relevant hashtags with a mix of popular and rare ones.

Follow the hashtags that resonate with your profile or business. You will see them on the left-hand side of the panel. Doing this will also help you see what others post with the same hashtags and whether the audience is engaging with such content.

Twitter

Once you run an ad on top popular platforms, they add you to their marketing blogs and, the flow of information becomes efficient. That is just what has happened to me. I get the best advice for and from Twitter. Here is what they last told me.

Do’s & Don’ts

Like any top platform, using the explore tab is crucial to see trends. (If you are using social media tools that help you via their channel and AI, that is a different ball game) Also, make sure that you cap the first alphabet of the right hashtags you use for digital marketing purposes.

Consistently use the same hashtag but do not overdo it. Make sure you add value to your hashtag. Otherwise, why should a customer or your audience use your hashtag anyway? Do not force-fit your hashtag to make a point. For example, imagine I post this tweet on my handle – “#pritszav, it’s going to rain today”.

The best advantage of using 1-2 hashtags for each tweet is that your content will join the bandwagon of whatever is happening on the platform. If you wish to grow your followers and authority, what better way to do it than hashtag it?

One Last Thing

One of the common mistakes marketers make (I have been no good either until I realised it) is that they think the hashtags are keys to web traffic heist. They hoard the hashtags like what traders did to goods during the pandemic.

Understand that top hashtags today are dust tomorrow. They are dynamic like the price of a company share price. Not only do the hashtag potential volumes change, but entire hashtags too. For example, #weareinthistogether had a good volume as it was a trend during the early days of the pandemic. If you search for the same hashtag, the numbers have fallen.