3 Healthy Hashtag Habits

Image of a hashtag

By Mina Vu

Love them or hate them, hashtags are everywhere, and they’re here to stay. But some users don’t understand what they are, how they work or use them incorrectly.

How am I supposed to use them?

A hashtag is the symbol we once referred to as the pound sign (#).  When paired together with a phrase hashtags take readers to a feed that has been populated with posts from other users that contain the same hashtag. Think of it as a shortcut to see what everyone else in the world is saying about that same topic.

Where do I use them?

Hashtags first appeared on Twitter, now however, hashtags have branched out from Twitter and can be found on almost all social networks with the biggest being Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Tumblr. Pinterest previously allowed the use of hashtags but removed the feature earlier this year.

Why are hashtags important?

It’s all about trending and extending your reach. Hashtags allow your message to reach an audience outside of your own fan base or following. You can tell which hashtags are popular or “trending” by how extensive the results are for that particular hashtag.

3 Healthy Hashtag Habits

  1. Tone it down. Refrain from overzealous hashtagging syndrome. While this is not a real condition, it is a real problem where users fill their posts with an unnecessary amount of hashtags. Sometimes a long string of hashtags is used in an attempt to reach a larger audience but the post often ends up looking cluttered and annoys users who come across the post.

  2. Make it count. Because you have narrowed down your hashtags to a select few, be sure that the hashtag(s) you have (carefully) chosen are relevant to your post, audience and industry.

    For example, we made this post to Facebook last month:
    Image of hashtagging exampleThe hashtag #socialmedia turned up a strong list of posts made by other Facebook users. In this case, #health would not be appropriate because the article focused more on social media strategy rather than the direct effects of social media on one’s health.

  3. It’s about the bigger picture. Unless you are starting your own campaign driven by engaging users through hashtags, it is important that the ones you choose for your post are not so specific that results only turn up other posts you have made. You want your hashtag to be just narrow enough to stay relevant to the subject but broad enough to reach users outside the scope of your current audience. That way, you are both part of the conversation and creating conversation.

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