Tips on How to Use Hashtags to Drive More Traffic

Hashtags organize social media according to conversations and topics, making it easier for you to find your target market for your brand. 

To like, retweet, and reply to posts under several hashtags, use a social media monitoring tool such as Hootsuite. Hashtagify can also help you find other hashtags that are related to the one you’re targeting. 

Now here’s the tricky part: Not all hashtags are to be treated the same on every channel. For example: 

On Twitter, tweets with a single hashtag typically generate more engagements than tweets with three or more hashtags. 

Conversely, Instagram posts receive the most engagement when using multiple hashtags, even as many as ten or more in a single post. 

Then there’s Facebook, which tends to do better without any hashtags. 

Have you heard that hijacking hashtags to promote your products is a good idea? Don’t fall for that mistake. Hijacking a hashtag is essentially spamming, and the vast majority of people will ignore it (if you are lucky) or take you to task for it.  

Instead, contribute to the conversation in a meaningful, helpful way that is natural and non-pushy. 

Create posts that align with trending topics to reach new people. Watch what’s happening in your niche and look for opportunities to add your voice to the conversation. 

Or you might even parody what’s happening in the world. For example, brands might run their own ‘candidate’ during political elections or feature their own ‘movie star’ during Hollywood awards shows.  

One last thought about joining in on conversations on social media: When possible, use humor. Funny Posts and tweets can sometimes gain enormous traction, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be related to your product. Brands like Oreos do this all the time. Just make sure it is always in good taste.