Hash tagging – Do’s & Don’ts - michaelthomson1/Hash-tagging-Do-s-Don-ts GitHub Wiki

Hash tags; a very prominent part of the social media culture of today. Most of us here know what hash tags are but in to let some newbie what hash tags are, they are a word or a group of words, written without spaces with a Hash (pound) symbol before them. Hash tags are used to highlight your content in the related search terms. All the famous social media networks like Twitter, Face Book, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest etc recognize hash tags. Not only that hash tags allow your content to be searched easily but also it helps you in relating to a trend following along with networking with like minded people as well.

Knowing how to use hashtags on social media is fundamental to your success related to content sharing and marketing. Here is what you should follow for your hash tag marketing:

The Do’s of Hash tagging:

Be specific when using hash tags:

And by being specific I mean that you need to find a community of similar interests and use one hash tags on all your posts. If you are using hash tags for your business and yet you do not have one specific one to go with every post you do, try finding one or two of them and use them with every post. This will not only give your posts a gain in search results but also earn you followers due to the hash tag consistency that your posts reflect.

Use tags according to the network:

All the popular social media networks support hash tags and have the same fundamental purpose of content discovery and tagging, the use of hash tag on each network still varies greatly. For e.g. Hash tags used on Instagram are more focused towards the description of the photo while hash tags on Twitter are more focused on the topic itself or maybe a group of people that are being talked about. Before using Hash tags don’t forget to research on the proper way of posting with them on any specific social media. Also take time out to discover the trending topics and share a related content to that. This will aid your content to penetrate deeper and provide you better results in terms of content sharing and marketing.

Use relevant & Unbranded hash tags:

If you are a brand and using the power of hashtags for marketing on social media, it should not use the name of your brand in it. It should stand for the promise that your brand has made with the customers and not by the name itself. For example, recently a well known company Herschel Supply Co. Ran an online social media campaign for their bags. By posting attractive pictures of their bags with users and their employees with the hash tag #welltravelled they not only created a buzz about their product, but also induced other users to use the same hashtag along with their pictures as well, thus created a successful, track able social media campaign for their brand.

Don’t of hash tagging:

Don’t use un-natural hash tags:

Whenever you try and create a hash tag, be sure not to use too long or too complicated tags because people generally don’t like typing hash tags that are too long (more than 4 words) and want to search things more on natural tags. If you have created using complicated words, which might relate to your business, but will do less good to it as searches are common on words that are usual. So try using natural hash tags instead. Don’t use too many hash tags:

Social media users often use too many hash tags even when making a joke. You don’t really have to overload your content with hash tags. The gain that you acquire by stuffing hash tags in your posts is just temporary which generally dilutes your messages and comes off as desperate. Focus on being specific instead! You also don’t have to hash tag every other word written in your post or for that matter each and every post that you make.

About the author:

The author works at Amaxza Digital which is a mobile app development company in New York region USA. Amaxza Digital also provides social media marketing services and it is also an iphone application development company that specialize in creating mobile applications for clients worldwide.