OK, so this is going to be (kind of) a rant about something that’s been bugging me lately. But one that will hopefully help you out in your social media endeavours. It’s about how to use hashtags properly.
I think it’s damn near impossible to go onto social media these days and not come across a hashtag. They have become such a prominent part of tech culture these days (even being added to the Oxford English Dictionary) that pretty much everybody uses them. Which is fine. But it seems like A LOT of people don’t understand how to properly use them, or what the function of them actually is. People use hashtags because… well… because everybody else does, without giving it proper thought. #StupidPeople
The hashtag is there to help you increase engagement with people with similar interests. It makes your, s and other people’s, content discoverable. It is basically a way of categoriszing content on social media.
You should choose your hashtags carefully. Be specific. Don’t go throwing them around willy-nilly or try to be clever with them. For example if you are tweeting about food, use #food or #health or #recipe. DO NOT use something like #omgsodelicious #youshouldalltrythis #iamsuchagoodcook. If people are interested in recipes for food they WILL search for #food and #recipe. So keep it simple and specific.
You should test a hashtag out before you use it. Simply search for it in the search bar and if it is widely used then great! If not, there probably isn’t much point in using it. Some people like to overuse hashtags which comes across as quite spammy and desperate. No post ever should have more hashtags than words.
That is a big no-no.
People seem to mainly do this on Instagram. It’s not uncommon to see people using up to 30 (30?!) most of which are unrelated and pointless. Spammy and desperate is not a good look. It also seems like people use the hashtags as a description of their picture and to be ironic and funny. #Butitsreallynotthatfunny … see. They aren’t there to make you look cool or funny to your followers, they’re there to help you.
Hashtags can be really useful on Social Media, allowing you to reach a wider audience and make a good impression. (Plus they really aren’t that hard of a concept to grasp!) So – I hope this helped!
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