How and where do we use hashtags?We have all seen these hashtags on social networks. But what is their purpose and how useful are they in online promotion?
This symbol – # – is used as a tag applied to posts on various social networks, to make them easier to identify and categorize. Although we see it more and more often, this hashtag is not equally useful or equally used on all social networks.
Let's take them one by one.
1. Twitter.
This symbol seems to have been created by Twitter. The symbol is used to mark certain keywords or topics in a tweet. Created organically by the network's users, # is placed before a word or phrase intended to be the keyword of the post or the subject of that post. No spaces or punctuation marks are allowed between # and the word or words.
Also, within a post, the hashtag can be placed at the beginning, in the text, or at the end. The position is not important. What matters is that this tag helps users both to find the information they need on Twitter (by searching for those keywords) and to identify other posts with the same hashtag as the one that sparked their interest.
When used properly, these hashtags have a great impact on the popularity of the respective Tweet. To avoid being considered spam, a Tweet should not have more than 2 hashtags.
Studies show that posts with # receive twice as much interaction compared to those without such a tag.
2. Facebook
Facebook also tried to introduce this system, but it did not have the same success as Twitter. Here too, the rule of keeping a limited number of hashtags applies, although their number can be 10 or more. Nevertheless, the differences in terms of interaction level are insignificant.
3. Instagram
The situation on this network is similar to Twitter. The notable difference is that the highest interaction is observed in posts that have 11 or more hashtags. In other cases, interaction is still higher than in posts without #, on average 35% above them.
4. Google+
In the case of Google+, the situation is even simpler. While on other social networks the user chooses and places the # tags themselves, on Google+ their task is eased. After a user posts a new update on Google+, they have the option to tag the content with hashtags. If they do not enter a tag, the network automatically places the appropriate tag based on the content. This can be modified and edited without any problem.
Google+ also introduced the possibility to place # in comments, thus increasing the chances of the content being found based on them.
5. Pinterest
Hashtags are used here as well, but the results are not as expected. While on Instagram it is advisable to put many such #, on Pinterest they tend to take the user out of that area and place them on a completely different page, which does not always represent what is being searched for. Moreover, on mobile devices, searching by these hashtags is not available, which is a big drawback.
In any case, hashtags must be chosen carefully to be as relevant and close as possible to what the respective content conveys. Also, the interests of the audience to whom it is addressed must be taken into account, because a hashtag like #littlefly will not attract a significant number of readers, as will, for example, #gardening or #apartmentflowers.
As I always say, every business, every post, every audience has particular characteristics, so there is no one-size-fits-all success recipe. The best approach is to try several variants, perform A/B tests, analyze the results, and test again.
