How to use hashtags on social networks

· 02/06/2017

You may use hashtags in your publications every day, but do you really know what they are and what their functions are? Stay tuned because today we are going to discover the intricacies of this element so present in our social networks.

Actually it is a word composed by "hash" that means pillow in Spanish and by "tag" that is label, this last one can give us a clue of its main function, that is no other than to classify and to create topics that connect similar publications. It serves to highlight any type of content on social networks, providing visibility for all people with similar or equal interests looking for the same hashtag.
Thus, its role in the social networks is to spread information faster, being a tool widely used in campaigns or events for online dissemination. It is also a resource widely used by companies to monitor the issues that are being addressed on the network and thus know the trending topic and establish strategies in social networks.

The ingenious use of hashtags has catapulted to successful advertising campaigns in social networks. A clear example is that of the automobile company Volkswagen in 2010, which took advantage of the fact of being the official sponsor of the "Planeta Terra Festival" to promote its new Fox model. The brand decided to hide several tickets in São Paulo, the city where the event was held, and geolocalize them in Google Maps. In order to zoom in and see their exact location, they had to write tweets using the hashtag #foxatplanetaterra. In just two hours it was a trending topic and the video of the event got more than 250.000 visits, a resounding success of the use of hashtags as a digital marketing tool.

Now that you know a little more about the different tasks of the hashtag, here are 5 tips for you to learn how to use it correctly.

Quantity

You must be careful with the number of hashtags that you use, do not spammy, have common sense because if you use more you can get the opposite effect to the desired, losing visibility. Each of them has to be short and simple, so it is easier to search for the desired topic and be used by other users because if it has many characters it becomes very confusing and loses interest.

Relevance

Use words that agree with the published content and are related to a specific topic. For example, posting a picture of a hamburger and placing a more generic hashtag as #food will lead to images of different dishes, instead, #hamburger will lead to much more specific content.

Marketing Tool

Create marketing campaigns with specially created hashtags. This not only publicizes the campaign but also spreads more quickly through the hashtag on social networks. Brands and companies also use hashtags to differentiate themselves from competitors.

What social networks use hashtags?

This trend began on Twitter but quickly reached all other social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest and Tumblr.
Each social network has its own characteristics and depending on it you have to use them in one way or another.

Twitter. The key in this platform is to use hashtags as part of your content, a word that you want to highlight or even several but you should never abuse, 2 or 3 is fine. You can also create your own hashtags by combining words or headlines from your advertising campaigns, but remember to look it up first in case someone else has used it before.
Instagram. The rule in this social network is the more the better. The aim of using it is to increase the visibility of our publications, the more hashtags the more chances you are found in a search. But beware, do not use terms that are not related to your content, it could get the opposite effect to desired.
Facebook y Google+. In both cases, the hashtags is not a natural element of these platforms so you should use it to highlight some important word in the content and always without exceeding two or three.
Pinterest y Tumblr. They are used as rating tags, so you must correctly choose the hashtags to be consistent with the content you show in the image. For example, if you have a brand of leather shoes and we use #leader #animal hashtags it may be that our shoes appear together with images that harm us as manifestations by the use of animal skins. Learn more about the use of hashtags on Pinterest in this article.

Also in Youtube you can find many videos explaining specifically their use in different platforms, here you have one.

Choose hashtags that increase your visibility

Those that are more fashionable, the trending topic, but always trying to be consistent with your content. This will increase your likes and followers because there are many users who are using them at the moment.

A simple word preceded by a # has its own rules of the game and must be followed in order to take advantage of all the opportunities it offers.

Remember to use hashtags but always with moderation and coherence!