The science behind using hashtags

Hashtags were first used on Twitter, however its use has gradually spread to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and other social media platforms. Anyone wanting to share/make known content on a relevant topic can add the sign of the hashtag to their message, making the hashtag a very useful tool in social media marketing. The correct usage of hashtags increases viewers and engages your audience, but the question is how does one know which words/phrases to use and how many? Is there a science behind it?

Effective hashtag recipe

While there’s not perfect recipe for hashtags, we have found that businesses using hashtags have the most success over those who don’t. If we were to suggest the ideal number of hashtags used in a post, we would say 2-4 popular hashtags, 4-6 hashtags in the mid-range of popularity, 1-3 niche hashtags and of course your branded hashtag.

The reasoning behind this recipe is the algorithms used by the platforms. The niche specific  hashtags will keep your audience active for a long time and the other hashtags will keep your content full of activity, so this may help bring your post in the top searches. So keep in mind that posts with an average 10 hashtags have the best reach these days.

Relevant, targeted hashtags

Social media marketing, including the use of hashtags, cannot be left to intuition. It might be easy to build an audience by using hashtags, but you need to do carry out research to check what your competitors and audience are using. To increase engagement, you have to give the audience what they are looking for, that is quality content relevant to their interests. Wouldn’t it be better to receive followers that are interested in your content and your brand, than just receive some likes?

Hashtag research tools

Checking out which hashtags your audience and competitors are using most often is just the start. If you want to excel in this social media game, you can use tools like RiteTag, Tagboard and Trendsmap, which allow you to see at a glance the popularity of each hashtag, existing discussion around them, how each hashtag is used in every social media platform and even the most common hashtags used in your geographic area.

If it’s a matter of ‘to use’ or ‘not to use’ hashtags, the answer is definitely ‘to use’ hashtags. Tweets, Instagram posts and stories, as well as Facebook posts with hashtags get double the viewings and engagement than the ones without hashtags. However, to win the social media marketing game, you have to first learn how to play strategically. With the help of the above tips and the guidance Clickhouse Media can give you regarding hashtag research and usage, you can rest assured that the time spend adding those words to your posts is worth the effort.