Outspoken Intel – The hashtag hoedown.

Yeehah! Let’s talk about hashtags, y’all! Nah, I haven’t gone all ‘country’ on you, however it’s high time we discussed hashtags. There’s so much confusion out there, I thought I’d break it down, so you know when you should be hashtagging, when you shouldn’t be, and how the lil’ ol’ hashtag works.

Heel and toe, and away we go!

Facebook & hashtags

I’m starting you off easy here. Best practice is, don’t use hashtags on Facebook. If you’re a clever little peanut that pushes their Insta posts through to Facebook, then just make sure you jump onto Facebook and remove the hashtags after you’ve posted.

Instagram & hashtags

You MUST hashtag on Instagram. Okay, it’s not enforced (I’m not going to pop around to your place, hold your hand and type those hashtags in for you….) BUT, it’s how you get REACH. And with reach comes followers. The more people you reach, the more people have the chance to view your profile and hit that ‘Follow’ button. If you don’t hashtag, you’re never going to get anywhere fast.

Hashtag selection

This is important! You need to be strategic with your hashtags. If you jump into Instagram and type in a hashtag, you can see how many people have posted with that hashtag. You want to get a selection of hashtags that include hashtags that have large number of posts and those that have a smaller number of posts. And they need to be specific to your industry/what you do.

Specific hashtags to the post

When posting, make sure you use a set of ‘core’ hashtags that are relevant to your business – maybe say 10 or so. Then, ensure you post another 3 – 5 that are SPECIFIC to that post. For example, if I posted a picture of a dog, we’d post the following hashtags along with our core hashtags: #dog #italiangreyhound #dogsofinstagram #doggoneday. Ya get the gist?

So in summary…

If you’re at the Hashtag Hoedown, you’d see Facebook decline any Hashtag’s offer to dance, Instagram would be dancing with lots of Hashtags, but being quite selective with WHICH Hashtags, and Facebook would probably be sitting in a corner, thinking about spiking the punch and wondering why they bothered to turn up.

Want to get more hands-on guidance? Check out Nicola’s Weekly Column on Coastbeat, Outspoken Intel, or join her at one of their upcoming Workshops. See our What’s On Events page for more information.

About the author:

Nicola is co-owner at Outspoken Entourage. Bringing disruptive design to the Coffs Coast, Outspoken Entourage offers a range of services including graphic design, logo and branding, website design, digital marketing packages and social media workshops for business.  Marketing and business strategy services are also available through their affiliate, One Fine Day Consulting. Find out more at outspokenentourage.com.au