Your Ultimate Hashtag Guide

What are hashtags? Why should I use them and when and where should I use them? These are some of the questions we are going to discuss in this blog post. People use hashtags all the time but there are some tips and tricks that you should know about. Let’s start with the basics.

What are hashtags?

A hashtag is a symbol (#) used for social media purposes which allows people to easily follow topics they are interested in. They are used across all major social media platforms.

Why should I use hashtags?

The above kind of explains it already. People are interested in a certain topic and by following a hashtag they can easily stay on top of the latest trends and news. If you start using the right hashtags your target audience will see your content constantly even if they are not following your page yet. Often, they start following you because they saw your content through a hashtag.

How to find the right hashtags?

Knowing which hashtags to use is crucial for a successful social media strategy. Luckily there are some tools out there that take the load off you.

I.e. Hashtag Searcher allows you to enter a keyword and then spits out relevant Instagram hashtags. I like using this tool, but you have to filter through them as some of the hashtags are very American and may not be used by your target audience.

Facebook and Instagram also show how many followers a hashtag has when you enter it in a post or via Meta Business Suite. Linkedin also does the same but when you schedule posts for LinkedIn (via a Third-Party Platform) you won’t see hashtag suggestions nor how many followers a hashtag has. To find the right hashtags for LinkedIn you actually have to go to the search bar and search for your hashtags. I.e. #LinkedIn and then you can see how many followers the hashtag has.

Should I use high-performing hashtags?

Yes, you should use hashtags with heaps of followers but to a certain extent. I like to mix it up with hashtags that have only 40 followers up to hashtags with thousands and even millions of followers. The reason why you shouldn’t only use high-performing hashtags is that your content then often gets lost because the hashtag is overused.

Should I start using my own hashtag?

This practice usually works best for medium-large-sized businesses that are creating content very frequently.
However, if you wish to create your own hashtag, there is no one telling you not to do so.

How many hashtags should I use?

Each platform is different here.

LinkedIn recommends using between 3-5 per post. They are usually inserted below the post or incorporated in the text if possible.

Facebook recommends using around 3 hashtags which I personally prefer to put at the top of the post, so people know what the post is about straight away.

Instagram allows up to 30 hashtags per post and they are inserted at the bottom of the post.