How to Create Relevant Hashtags

1
Sep 2019

Hashtags are an important tool across many social media channels. If you get them right, you will increase your reach and engage more followers. They seem pretty easy to use, right? Not necessarily. We get questions all the time asking how can we create the right hashtag for a given brand. It’s a simple answer: don’t follow the crowd with broad hashtags. It’s easy to state the obvious, but it’s more of an art form to stand out from the crowd. 

For example, let’s assume you’re a sneaker company and you post a picture of sneakers. You use #sneakers on your post, but Instagram has millions of posts with that specific hashtag. You can only imagine how difficult it would be to stand out from the crowd. So, how can you create relevant hashtags for your brand?

 

Now, broad hashtags aren’t an absolute no-no. You still want to be in those groups and attract the audience who’s actually interested in what you’re talking about. After all, Instagram does allow users to follow a hashtag on their timeline. We suggest being as creative with your hashtags as you are with your posts. Use more hashtags on Instagram, fewer on Twitter and LinkedIn, and none on Facebook. Hashtags on Facebook aren’t as successful. You’re more than welcome to experiment with hashtags to see what feels best for your brand.

 

To be unique with your hashtag creation, think creative, company-specific slang, and event-specific/seasonal hashtags. Let’s use the #sneaker example again. You have a post of a sneaker and your company’s name is Sneaker Addicts. A good use of hashtags would be #sneaker #sneakeraddict #fallstreetwear, #sneakerhead #peachtreefallroadrace, #marathontraining, #marathon, #fall, #backtoschool. Some of these hashtags don’t scream sneakers, but the people interested in buying sneakers may be following or tagging these hashtags. Think about the time of year and what specific activities are happening in your surrounding area and piggyback off that traffic. 

 

Now, just don’t set it and forget it. Dive into the more unique hashtags and engage. Like and comment on as many posts as you can, but comments garner more engagement than likes. Target accounts with fewer likes too. This will increase your chances of engagement and follows. Remember, we are trying to get away from all the noise to build our audience. The reason event-specific/seasonal hashtags are a good idea is due to the high volume of eyes on this particular hashtag at the time of the post. If it’s fall, users are searching for everything fall-inspired for the newest trends and events. It’s a brilliant idea to be where the action is on any channel.

 

There are tools to help find searchable buzzwords and hashtags, but we believe creating relevant hashtags is more effective. Sometimes those buzzwords can be overkill to your audience, and they’re craving something fresh and unique. It’s easy to get lost within all of the application tools, but try to use a more organic approach of creating hashtags. It’s an excellent practice for a better understanding of your brand and your target audience. It’s unique in a way where you have your audience right at your fingertips and can get instant feedback. Try out a few on a post and interchange and test the hashtags throughout the year. It’s a fun project, and you will wonder why you never tried creating hashtags before!

 

As of 2019 using at least 1 hashtag on Instagram content will get you 12.6% more engagement.

 

Do you need to start marketing your company on social media, but aren’t sure how to get started? Or maybe you’ve been posting content, but can’t seem to get the results you want.

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