Hashtag Habits

A hashtag, when used in social media posts, is a word of phrase that starts with the number symbol #, with no spaces or punctuation. It lets you categorise your posts so that they can be found by more people who are interested in your content.

Get them right and they can lead to greater engagement, higher reach, follower growth and more customers. They can be used to build brand awareness with branded hashtags, raise awareness on a particular issue and help your target audience find you.

One big takeaway from this blog: always include hashtags in social media posts.

They are added on to the end of social media posts, particularly on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter. People can go onto the different social media platforms and search for a hashtag and if your post has that hashtag included in it, your piece of content will appear in that search.

The first ever hashtag was used by Chris Messina from Twitter. Since then, hashtags have developed and been adopted by many social media platforms to group conversations, themes, topics and events.

Where to find the hashtag symbol?

Before I go into any more detail, here’s where you can find the hashtag symbol:

• Windows keyboard: Hold Shift and press 3 on the keyboard
• Mac keyboard: Hold Alt and press 3
• Mobile phone: when typing captions into a social media post, it will normally appear on the keyboard on the bottom right. Alternatively, tap the number key then the special character key and it should display in the top row.

Top 10 Hashtag Tips

When using hashtags, follow these 10 tips and you can’t go wrong:

1. Hashtags must start with the # symbol
2. Don’t include symbols, spaces, apostrophes
3. It’s best to make your social media accounts public, otherwise your content will not be seen by non-followers
4. Select hashtags that appropriately describe and categorise your content
5. Make sure they are relevant and are what your audience is searching for
6. Avoid obscure hashtags that are unlikely to be searched for by other users
7. Write your hashtags in the caption and not in the comments
8. Capitalise the first letter of each word in your hashtags, so they are accessible to blind and partially sighted people - #LikeThis. It makes it easier for screen readers to read aloud
9. Review and refresh your hashtags regularly and don’t use the same hashtags all the time. They need to change with subject, seasons, trends and location
10. When creating a new hashtag check what it is already being used for by searching for it. Make sure what is coming up is what you’d want to be associated with

How to choose hashtags?

The number one golden rule when it comes to hashtags is to put yourself in your audience’s shoes and think about what they are searching for. Then make sure you have a mix of these kinds of hashtags:

• Seasonal #AutumnVibes
• Weekly #MondayMorning
• Branded #YourBrandName
• Location #YourCity #IndustryLocation
• Popular or Trending
• Relevant
• Keywords, Subject, Topic or Event #BelfastHour #YourProduct #YourExpertise
• Industry or Niche #YourIndustry

Keep your hashtags quite short and easy to remember. Then it will be more likely that others will search for your hashtag and use it.

Look at what your competitors and influencers in your industry are using. Test them and see if they work for you.

Don’t use hashtags like #F4F #followforfollowback, #FollowMe or #Like4Like. They look spammy and you’re going to lose all credibility with everyone who sees that you are using these.

Want more hashtag ideas? Join my mailing list and you’ll receive my annual content planner, complete with daily and seasonal hashtags for you to use.

Hashtag Management

I recommend spending some time on a regular basis researching hashtags. Review ones you have used and identify which ones worked for you. Compile lists of hashtags categorised into different topics to use with different kinds of social media posts.

In my content calendar document, I have a tab called topic hashtags were I store hashtag lists for different types of posts. When I am scheduling my posts, I simply copy the hashtags and paste them into the post.

If I am out and about, say doing social media for an event, I copy pre prepared hashtag list(s) into the Notes App on my phone and paste them into social media posts on the go.

Hashtag Tools

Here are some online tools that can help you with hashtag research:

• RiteTag # suggestions
• Photerloo AI # suggestion tool based on content of a photo
• All hashtag # generator
• Hashtag Stack # generator
• Gravtag # generator based on a photo

Next, have a scan through best practices for using hashtags on different social media platforms.

Instagram Hashtags

Best number of hashtags to use = 30

Where to place them = at the end of the caption, not in the comments

• Try to use all 30 hashtags in your post and reels. Don't forget to add them in. It really does increase your reach
• Don’t use too many generic hashtags that tend to be overused like “#happy” It’s been used millions of times. Your content will not get seen amongst the noise. Instead use niche / descriptive hashtags which have been used less
• Have a mix of big and small hashtags
• Make sure the majority of the hashtags that you use have been used under 100K times. This will give you a greater chance of being seen. Anything over a million is too big and anything under a few thousand is too small
• Avoid putting hashtags in your bio as people will click on them, taking them away from your Instagram account

On Instagram you can find out how many times a hashtag has been used and you can also follow a hashtag. Once you follow this hashtag, Instagram posts that contain this hashtag will display in your feed.

• Tap the magnifying glass icon on the bottom navigation
• Type in your keyword in the search bar at the top of the screen
• Tap the “Tags” option at the top of the screen
• You’ll be presented with different permutations of your keyword and how many times it has been used
• Tap on any of the hashtags 
• Tap the blue Follow button to follow the hashtag

With an Instagram business or creator account you can access Instagram Insights to see how your posts have performed with hashtags:

• From your profile screen tap on Insights or Professional Dashboard. Some users might have to tap "See All" in the top right
• Tap on a post you have shared
• Scroll down until you get to the Impressions section. There will be an option that says From hashtags. This tells you how many people discovered your post from a hashtag.

Facebook Hashtags

Best number of hashtags to use = 2-3

Where to place them = At the end of your post

• Be selective in which hashtags you use. Ensure they are relevant so they appear in the correct searches. Don't hashtag random words like #everything. This is a good example of a pointless hashtag. 
• Use branded hashtags to make it easier for your audience to find your content. Make sure they are unique to you. Good for events
• Search for hashtags using the search bar
• Click on the hashtag in a post to see a list of public Facebook posts using the same hashtag

A good example of a branded hashtag is #OUFamily from the Open University.  They use it to engage with their students who use it to talk about their studies, connect with other students and talk about their graduation. 

Twitter Hashtags

Best number of hashtags to use = 1-2

Where to place them = Anywhere in your Tweet

• You can use as many hashtags as you like in Twitter, within the 280-character limit
• Use them at the start of a tweet to grab attention, in the middle to highlight a keyword and at the end for context
• If you click on a hashtag in a tweet it will take you to other tweets that have used the same hashtag
• Type a hashtag into Twitter’s search bar (magnifying glass) to find tweets that contain the hashtag
• Tap on the magnifying glass to see trending hashtags and trending topics

LinkedIn Hashtags 

Best number of hashtags to use = 1-5

Where to place them = At the end of your post

• LinkedIn is a professional platform. Keep the use of hashtags professional too
• Follow hashtags on LinkedIn to see recent posts incorporating that hashtag
• Popular hashtags on LinkedIn include #Innovation, #Management, #HumanResources, #DigitalMarketing, #Technology, #Creativity, #Future, #Entrepreneurship, #Economy 
• As you type a hashtag into your LInkedIn post, LinkedIn will suggest some popular options 

• Add hashtags to your LinkedIn company page. Adding hashtags to your page helps categorize you so the algorithm will show your content to LinkedIn users who follow and search for those hashtags

• Add hashtags to your personal LinkedIn profile

YouTube Hashtags

Best number of hashtags to use = 3-5

Where to place them = YouTube video title or in the video description

• Hashtags are hyperlinked in titles and descriptions, so followers can find other content with the same hashtags by clicking on either
• If you don’t include hashtags in the title, the first three hashtags in the description will show above the title of your video.
• Type in “#” into the YouTube search bar to find popular tags on YouTube.

TikTok Hashtags

Best number of hashtags to use = 3-5

Where to place them =  Video descriptions

• Use a combination of niche and trending hashtags
• Leave space in captions for your hashtags

Remember hashtags are just the icing on the cake and will not work if your content isn’t good.