This article highlights why incorporating hashtags into social media posts is important to help maximize content reach.
What are hashtags?
A hashtag is a word or phrase spelled without spacing preceded by a hashtag (#) symbol. This is used online, most commonly on social media platforms to help users tag and find relevant content.
Why are hashtags important?
Hashtags are an important way for users to find and interact with specific posts that they would otherwise not be able to discover. Social media posts are given the potential to reach an increased volume of traffic/viewers and the opportunity to become viral. Creators constantly use hashtags to their advantage to increase the impact and the reach of their posts that may otherwise become lost in the sea of content.
Hashtags have become an integral part of social behaviour online and have even been leveraged in large social movements, brand campaigns, memes, and so forth. It has become a form of SEO on social media as posts heavily rely on platform algorithms to perform better.
Engaging with trending hashtags
Trends are taking front and center stage on social media platforms, especially the likes of TikTok and Instagram. Due to the rapid fast-paced nature of online trends, now more than ever is the time to start boosting your content's reach by focusing on participating in relevant trending hashtags. We recommend checking in frequently with new trends and sounds/music to find viral hashtags to use as a foundation for planning content creation.
How many hashtags should I include on a post?
Instagram posts: Later mentions that creators are recommended to use between 3-5 hashtags per post. For more in-depth reading on hashtag strategy and the 5 main types of hashtags to consider, visit Later's article on Instagram Hashtags: Everything You Need To Know in 2022.
TikTok videos: Compared to Instagram, TikTok seems more forgiving when it comes to hashtag usage. Later's How to Find the Best TikTok Hashtags For Your Videos states that most users have between 1-3 or even 5-8 hashtags on their video posts. The only downside to using more hashtags may be that your video becomes slightly obstructed by the text.
Don't overuse or misuse hashtags
As a general rule of thumb, less is in fact more when it comes to including hashtags in posts. Especially when it comes to Instagram, according to Hootsuite's Instagram Hashtags 2022: The Ultimate Guide, Instagram's algorithm penalizes posts that include repetitive comments or content.
Instagram also has hashtags that are either completely or temporarily banned, where the penalty for their usage will result in the post not appearing in other people's feeds. We recommend avoiding using inappropriate or spammy hashtags and ensuring that any hashtags you do decide to use do not have a negative double meaning or offensive connotation.
For more information on how to promote using different social media platforms, please see the below Help Centre guides:
How to promote using Instagram