How to use hashtags in 2023

Sahail Ashraf posted on 12 April 2023

Hashtags continue to be a great way to build engagement in social media marketing. But how can you ensure you get the most out of the process in 2023?

Hashtags have been consistent in delivering value to marketers for years. They are easy to understand, and easy to implement. Once you know the value, you can include them in your strategy quickly and effectively. But like most aspects of social media marketing, they have undergone some changes recently. This post will look at how you can best use hashtags in 2023 and get the most out of the activity.

Remember the basic value

Hashtags are best at doing one key thing. They generate impressions for your content. When people are looking for interesting content and they see and use a hashtag connected to that content, it’s a natural part of the social media experience. 

That’s because that behaviour is about interest and impressions. Social media users go where interest lies. If you can provide content around a hashtag that interests someone, they will gravitate towards it. 

You can use hashtags to get a seat at the table on important and relevant topics too. Having a hashtag around money and finance topics helps to ensure you get in front of people who are interested in those topics. And by being there, your brand’s voice is heard.

This is why hashtags are such an important part of your social media strategy. If you haven’t yet embedded hashtags into your work, now is the time.

The ability to stay in that conversation, to be able to like and comment on posts that contain those hashtags, makes sure that your voice and your value is always front and centre. 

Action point: Find and use hashtags that fit your offering and your industry and get involved. Pick fresh and exciting tags that are part of a trend. But whatever you do, get involved.

Remember the volume

Consistent posting is key. The same goes for hashtags. 

Ensuring that you use a consistent strategy around your tags will give you real traction. Think about that time you saw someone who realised that LinkedIn literally allows you to use hundreds of hashtags. It was a mess, right?

Don’t do that. Instead, focus on using 3-5 hashtags maximum on your platforms. This keeps things clutter-free and it also shows that you have an audience. You wouldn’t be that selective in the hashtags you use unless you had an audience you were trying to serve. Minimal hashtag use means maximum value.

Action point: Use 3-5 hashtags every post, consistently.

Get savvy on choosing hashtags

It is vital that you know which hashtags to use. And this only requires that you follow a few key principles.

First up, you must get to know your competition. It’s always been true that your competition is doing what you should be doing. Check out their social media feeds to see which hashtags mean a lot to them and what you should be involved in.

Then, take a look at your most popular posts. This is simple enough to do, and it’s a goldmine when it comes to understanding hashtags. Find the biggest posts you have and see which hashtags were used on those posts. These are the tags you need to have in your posts again and again. They work.

Finally, spread your net wider. Find related hashtags that have a niche focus. Whatever your industry, there will always be hashtags that are not being used as much as others. They will be related to what you do, and because they are a little more niche, they will help to gain more impressions through discovery.

Caveats

It is vital that you don’t abuse the amazing opportunities outlined in this post. While it is possible to get involved in hashtags in a very powerful and intense way, you shoudn’t be using tags all the time. Instead, focus on those few hashtags on each platform, and make sure that you watch your competitors, comment and post on relevant tags, and stay in that conversation. With an informed approach like this, you should be able to get the most out of hashtags in 2023.

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