Use Hashtags to Get More Exposure on Social Media
If you have ever been on Twitter, or existed in the Twitter age, you know about the hashtag. The hashtag used to be the pound sign on your phone, most likely for when you had to input a code or data. Now, it is arguably the most popular way to communicate and group communication into a stream amid millions of others. The hashtag is ubiquitous in social media now, with every platform tagging posts with hashtags. The hashtag has become a mainstay in social media conversation, so entrepreneurs have to master it.
Hashtags are universal. Anyone on a social media platform anywhere in the world can search a hashtag or click on one from a post and be connected with the conversation happening on that network. Being a part of the hashtag conversation means that someone who is interested in a topic that is relevant to your business is seeing your company’s profile, which means they can see you. This is a great way to make your posts seen by people outside of your group of followers and hopefully gain some more.
The numbers are behind it. Tweets that have hashtags are twice as likely to generate engagement like clicks, retweets, favorites, and replies than those without. It doesn’t seem like entrepreneurs are getting the message though. Less than a quarter of all tweets have hashtags.
Although all social media platforms accommodate hashtags, they work differently on different networks. On Facebook, hashtags haven’t become as popular as they did on Twitter, where this trend was born. Still, this is just as important of a place to cultivate your hashtag thread. However, keep it to one or two hashtags or engagement actually goes down. This is a great rule of thumb for all social networks, except Instagram. Instagram is the outlier in which you can go crazy with hashtags. The highest Instagram engagement is seen among posts that have at least 11 hashtags.
So which hashtags should you start using? As an entrepreneur, social media is a great way to connect with potential clients and customers, but also others in your niche world. Entrepreneurs should use hashtags like entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, mindset, startups, wontstop, and hustle. (Keep in mind that hashtags must be one word, or at least not contain any spaces between words). Look up your desired hashtag on the network and see how people are using it, if it’s trending, and if it’s a part of a positive conversation that you want to be associated with.
