#Hashtag
In my previous post I had shared about my decision to bring to you a new face of my work profile. I will now express my views more as a Facilitator and not a direct consultant. A subtle change but I am sure it will make a big difference. I will be sharing quality content on various topics of Business, Marketing, Quality, Service for my valued readers. These articles will collate the information of my over 4 decades of experience as well as the content that is available on the internet to form a content of information that will make it easier for the layman as well as the professional to relate to easily. Without much ado lets start with this first post about #Hastags!
In this post I will lay out very simply, what we mean by hastags and how they are used especially on Social Media Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram and elsewhere; and what is their impact on the quality and quantity of the exposure that post or article received if when shared without a hashtag; as against being posted with a hashtag. I have kept this post short, but also given you some amazing links of the topics related to hashtags which I personally liked and thought of sharing them with you too. Do read those articles and I am sure your view about hashtags will be completely transformed.
A hashtag is a metadata tag that is prefaced by the hash (or pound) sign, #. Hashtags are used on microblogging and photo-sharing services such as Twitter or Instagram as a form of user-generated tagging that enables cross-referencing of content by topic or theme. For example, a search within Instagram for the hashtag #bluesky returns all posts that have been tagged with that term. After the initial hash symbol, a hashtag may include letters, numerals, or underscores.
The best source for all information about Hashtags is here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashtag
#Hashtags and their Benefits:
Hashtags are words, titles or phrases that help send a powerful message. Hashtags can help categorize posts, increase engagement, attract followers to a certain niche, strengthen a brand image and help reach a target audience (and vice versa). A wonderful article that I suggest you read -
How to Use #Hashtags Effectively in Social Media Marketing?
Hashtags are an essential part of social media strategy. They give your brand more exposure so you can spread the word about your product to a massive audience. Besides, when you use it multiple times on different channels, people will easily remember your hashtag. The use of hashtags on each social media platform may differ from the other. So you need to make a personal study of the same even though you may find innumerable articles that will help you with this. A personal analysis of the applications of the hastags in each media will definitely help you a lot. Check out this article for a start.
Are Hashtags really necessary?
The first question that sometimes comes into a persons mind is; "Are hastags really necessary?".
Hashtags are an important way to expand your Instagram audience and get more reach. When you use a hashtag, your post will appear on the page for that hashtag. If you use a hashtag on your Story, it could be included in the relevant hashtag Story, which also appears on the hashtag page. An example of what difference it makes when you use one against when you don't is explained below which may answer that question. Get to know more about Instagram hastags here:
Hashtags Explained: The Complete Guide to Hashtags in Social Media - Everything you ever wanted to know about hashtags but were afraid to ask your teenager?
Do you just need to know how to best use hashtags for a specific social media platform? Or how you can use them effectively for your small business, or how to avoid becoming the next social media horror story?
Read on!
Classic example of the effectiveness of using a hashtag!
In my personal experience in which I was offering consultancy for a NGO and they wanted the maximum information about CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility. I put to use the hashtag use even in search and was shocked at the effectiveness.
An example of how effective # are is seen by putting #csr in Google search and it has listed out for me About 57,40,00,000 results (0.70 seconds)
The same result when I put only csr in Google search is About 35,70,00,000 results (0.51 seconds).
This means just two small keywords used properly can get you such a vast collection of details. These results could be articles, posts, names of companies, or information about CSR. The same effect takes place when you place the # symbol followed by a specific keyword that are highlights of you content or article at the end of the post on your social media post.
When you put the same key word with the hashtag in Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or Instagram it shows you all the posts related to that topic directly. So the same effect comes after you have shared the post with the relevant hashtags. When any person is searching for a particular topic on that platform they normally put in a # followed by that keyword and the search ends up with all articles that may be linked to that subject. So the chances of someone reading your article is much higher.
Including hashtags in your posts means taking part in a conversation happening on that social media platform. And most importantly, it makes your posts visible in that conversation. This can lead to greater engagement, boosting your brand's social media engagement through likes, shares, comments, and new followers.
Simply speaking Hashtags make all your content easily discoverable. Hashtags allow social media users to find and engage with content related to common themes or interests. Hashtags also propel content to reach more people and be discovered by users all across the world.
In case of YouTube also according to the YouTube Creator Academy, hashtags can improve your SEO. Hashtags can help you get more views in three ways. First, hashtags can lead people to your video from other videos that use the same hashtag.
So as I said at the begining of my post, this is only a simple post about the term hashtag and how it is used. I would suggest the reader actually applies them to some of your posts and check it out in your searches and you will see the effectiveness for yourselves. Using the right keyword also is very important.
As a personal experience I noticed especially on Linkedin, when you share a post it automatically indicates some of the keywords with the hashtags at the bottom which makes it easier to select the right hashtags. Which one to select is a matter of experience as well as trial and error to be applied.
Keep reading more articles about Hastags and how they can be used and I can assure you there will be a marked difference in the way your article or post gets a better engagement and better audience.
Thank you, and do keep a watch for more posts on some fantastic topics, coming up for you soon. Happy reading!
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