The Hustler's Digest StaffThe changing algorithms of social media are pretty tricky to grasp and act as a hindrance to gaining organic followers. In recent years, hashtags have grown in popularity across social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to boost organic followers. But precisely what is a hashtag? Go through this article to learn about hashtags and how to increase organic reach by hashtag.
Social media aims to establish a genuine connection with prospective clients by sharing interesting and helpful material on websites like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and TikTok. Your followers will connect with your brand more when you concentrate your organic development efforts on social media because you build genuine relationships with them.
There was a time when the hashtag was used as a plain pound sign or hash mark. But with the arrival of Twitter, this unremarkable sign became an instant hit online. You can’t avoid the hashtag’s pervasive presence on social media nowadays, whether on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or any other platform, especially when you’re looking for some organic followers.
However, what precisely is a hashtag, and how to increase organic reach by hashtag? We’ve come up with a clear and comprehensive explanation of all you need to know about this internet phenomenon in case you’ve always been curious but were afraid to inquire.
If you are new to using hashtags on social media, then hashtags could appear perplexing at first. But as you get to know them better, you’ll find that they’re a potent social media marketing tool that can expand your social influence and engage your audience, and that too for free. For a detailed explanation of hashtags and how to use them effectively to boost your social media presence, follow this article and gain insight into the world of hashtags.
What is organic reach?
Organic Reach is a social media marketing indicator that indicates the number of unique accounts that have viewed a post or piece of content on a social media network. In other words, the number of people who have seen the post at least once. Organic Reach does not include the use of any paid promotional methods to increase the exposure of the content.
Reach is a fundamental measure in social media and one of the essential criteria in determining a post’s potential interaction rate. The more organic reach you have, the more engagement you may acquire. More eyes on the content imply more chances of engagement with likes and comments, which is why marketers are always looking for strategies to increase Organic Reach.
Of course, the number of followers you have is a massive component in deciding your potential organic reach. Still, you can do a few things to distribute your material to maximize organic reach, such as using hashtags and sharing the post on your stories and other social media channels.
Organic following on social media has its perks and benefits as opposed to bought followers, which is illegal and won’t help in your promotion. If you have organic followers, you’ll receive genuine comments, and if you run a brand, you’ll generate genuine buyers.
With organic followers, you’ll receive actual shares and recommendations that’ll further boost your growth. Hashtags are one of the most efficient, free of cost, and the trendiest option for obtaining an organic following. You just need to optimize your content accordingly with appropriate hashtags for your social media to be recognized.
What is a hashtag?
Using hashtags is essentially a method of organizing conversations or content around a specific topic, making it easier for people to find content that interests them. Hashtags can be used on almost any social media platform, but Twitter and Instagram are the most popular for using them. Using hashtags is an effective way to boost your profile on social media.
On social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, hashtags rose to prominence over the previous few years. The “#” symbol is used to denote hashtags, which are frequently used in social media to emphasize, group, and even find keywords. Using a hashtag helps people find tweets (or posts) about a particular subject. These hashtags can be included anywhere in your social media posts, whether it is at the start, the end, or somewhere in the middle.
When a hashtag is used in a publication, it turns into a link that leads to a page containing other works that are linked to the same subject while excluding unrelated material. By searching for a hashtag, clicking on one, or utilizing a third-party monitoring tool, you can find the public conversations that these hashtags link together from all various users into a single stream. Keep in mind that a post must be public for the hashtag to appear in anyone’s search.
Hashtags help you attract organic followers to your social media profile or your business. You can use hashtags to find new social media audiences for your posts as well as new potential clients for your business. Hashtags can also be used to increase brand interaction with user-generated content. If you learn how to use them effectively, you’ll naturally attract a regular supply of new followers.
Why should someone be using hashtags?
When it comes to marketing your company, hashtags may be a strong tool, even though they may seem worthless to a newbie. They can broaden your audience, strengthen your brand, and help you gain organic followers by attracting people who are interested in your social media profile and what you market.
As previously stated, hashtags might be helpful if you want to find posts regarding a particular topic quickly and don’t want to waste a lot of time searching for them. For instance, you might want to try searching for #beautysalon and filtering it to your region if you want to look up salons in Houston. This will make the salons in your area appear on the search results page. For people to find your company or profile quickly, use hashtags!
Hashtags assist your business in being introduced to a larger audience by directing your posts to the “hashtag page.” For example, if you own a nail salon and frequently use the hashtag #houstannails, and someone looking for a nail salon in the area searches for the same hashtag, they will be able to find you. Hashtags are a free way to reach out to new customers and increase your organic reach!
How can you find the best hashtags to use?
Using hashtags is a quick and simple way to share your content with a new audience. People can more easily access content on social media platforms concerning specific topics, places, or events thanks to the tiny catchphrases, among other things.
When used effectively, they can help your business build its brand, expand its organic reach, and get customers to see the meticulously crafted information you’ve presented. But for that, you’ll need to first find the best hashtags to incorporate in your posts to increase organic reach. Following are some of the ways you can find the best hashtag for organic reach.
Monitor competitors and social media influencers
Perform a competitive analysis on social media to start. learn as much as you can about your competitors and any significant influencers in the market where your brand operates. Make a note of how many hashtags they use in each post and which ones they use the most. You’ll learn the vocabulary your competitors regularly use as well as how they communicate with the same target market as you.
Discover which hashtags are popular
The first priority is to identify the best hashtags to use in your social media content. It’s not just a guessing game, though some strategic “A/B testing” is always beneficial. A/B testing refers to the scientific approach to your marketing plan. In it, you experiment with little changes to your social media posts to determine which ones best connect with your audience.
But it is quite a lengthy and extensive research-prone method based on personal observations only. Each social media network offers a search box where you can seek prospective hashtags for your content in addition to running A/B tests, but these search functions don’t necessarily indicate how popular the hashtag is.
Some extensions and tools can help discover popular hashtags across social media platforms to discover popular hashtags like RiteTag lets you type your social media caption into the text bar and upload the photo you’ll pair with your caption.
RiteTag generates trending hashtag suggestions based on your content. You’ll see the best hashtags to get your post seen immediately, as well as hashtags to get your post seen over time. After you can click “Get Report” for a detailed analysis of the hashtags it displays.
In addition to RiteTag, there are many other tools too like TagsFinder, Keyword Tool, Bigbangram, Tucktools, Task Ant, Meta Hashtags, and Toolzu. You can pick and choose any hashtag search tool according to your ease and get a better analysis of which hashtag is the most appropriate for your post to get the maximum reach of organic followers.
Get a social media listening tool
A social media listening tool is software that tracks and analyses online conversations about your brand, a specific topic, your competitors, or anything else relevant to your business. It collects mentions of specific keywords and assists marketers in analyzing these mentions.
It is able to include posts and comments made on blogs, forums, and other publicly accessible websites, so it doesn’t solely track social media. Social listening enables you to monitor the performance of your business and customer perception of your brand through a vast number of mentions and insights.
Your company can use search streams with a social listening service like Hootsuite, Buffer, BuzzSumo, and Sprout Social to learn which hashtags work best for each social network you’re active on. Simply put, search streams make it simple to identify the hashtags that are the most successful and popular.
Consider looking at the hashtags that worked well for past posts
Keep a list of the hashtags you’ve previously used in postings. Check to see if there is a trend with the hashtags you used after analyzing which posts have received the most engagement. Make it a point to incorporate those in your upcoming posts if you notice that some of your most well-liked ones consistently use a few of the same hashtags.
The ideal usage of hashtags for organic reach
Make sure to select relevant hashtags
Consider using relevant hashtags if you already have a solid understanding of which ones are effective for your business. These could be a little more focused than the trending hashtags you’re already using, which could help you reach your target audience effectively.
Use relevant hashtags that potential customers are likely to search for or hashtags that add value to your content. Many brands choose hashtags based solely on their popularity. Using a trending hashtag can be an excellent strategy if it aids in the discovery of followers who are interested in your content. However, it only works if the hashtag is relevant to your target audience. If it isn’t relative, using it can be harmful rather than beneficial.
Use a third-party hashtag tool or hashtag tools built into social media sites to assist you to choose the right keyword. Another important factor is choosing the appropriate level of specificity; avoid choosing a hashtag that is too general, like #photography, and instead choose something more specialized, like #photooftheday. Local companies or posts advertising events may wish to utilize location hashtags because users frequently search by location like #boraboraisland etc.
Make a branded hashtag and use it all the time
You can utilize hashtags as a part of your branding strategies, such as by including your brand’s catchphrase or a hashtag for a particular campaign or ownable conversation. Branded hashtags are also excellent for boosting interaction, creating a sense of community, and inspiring followers to post new material.
The prestigious underwear manufacturers had considerable success with their #MyCalvins campaign. Instagram users were encouraged to upload pictures of themselves wearing Calvin Klein underwear by using the hashtag. However, nothing was given in return! The kind of social media user who was targeted in this case is rather obvious. As a result, Calvin Klein gained 1.8 million fans.
Don’t forget to complete the circle with your ownable conversation hashtags or brand hashtags. Use them like a call to action (CTA) at appropriate points in your content. For example, at the beginning and end of any associated whitepapers, invite readers to join the conversation by using the hashtag.
Similarly, you can have speakers or influencers in any videos or podcasts mention the hashtag at appropriate times during each episode. Ask people to talk about your brand using your specified branded hashtag.
Limit the number of times each hashtag can be used
If you like, you can post a tweet that is entirely made up of hashtags. Instagram allows you to add around 30 hashtags for each post that you do. Both, though, are bad choices. The recommended range for hashtags is two to five for each post, while each site has a unique recommendation for the most productive quantity. The tendency of using fewer hashtags now has evolved from the days when posts with more hashtags were more common.
Ideally, you should be using between 2-5 hashtags for YouTube and Pinterest. On Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, you should be using between 1-2 hashtags. For Instagram, you should be using between 5-10 hashtags.
Consider brainstorming with no restrictions in your mind at first, then going over the list you came up with when coming up with hashtags. Most of the time, one hashtag concept may inspire an even better usable hashtag. After that, go back and carefully go over each hashtag once more. Consider whether each hashtag enhances your overall brand image and aids in attracting new followers to your posts. Make sure each hashtag you use has some use.
What are the types of hashtags used to increase organic reach?
As mentioned above hashtags are a very important means of boosting your organic reach. You need to carefully research and learn about the type of hashtag you are going to be using at a specific time for a specific post to ensure maximum reach to your targeted audience as this can be very effective to boost organic reach. Some of the types of hashtags you can choose from are.
- Content-specific hashtags
- Location-based hashtags
- Audience based hashtags
- Post specific hashtags
- Industry based hashtags
Content-specific hashtags
To increase your general organic reach, use hashtags that are specifically connected to the type of content you are going to put out on your social media profile. They are referred to as “content hashtags” since they are relevant to the material that would ordinarily be linked with your content.
As you can expect, they will significantly increase your organic reach by exposing your brand or your generic social media profile to those people on the social media platforms who have never heard of it before For instance, the hashtags used for the brand’s rare beauty by Selena Gomez, the brand primarily uses content hashtags related to beauty, makeup, and individuality – such as #rarebeauty, #makeupessentials, #bareskin, or #blush, etc.
Location-based hashtags
You can target people that live in your area as well as the places where your potential target audience might lie in by using location-specific hashtags. Location-specific hashtags are an extremely helpful tool for organic reach as people that would be based in that area would typically reach out more. Ask yourself these questions while you search for location-specific hashtags
- Where does my target audience reside?
- What other labels/nicknames are given to the area where I am or where my audience is?
- Which places/locations do I want my audience to come from?
Audience-based hashtags
A clever method to guarantee that the correct people see your material is by including hashtags that your audience is using in their posts. You’ll need to conduct some research to assist you in compiling a list of hashtags that the audience has approved. Ask yourself these questions before you begin
- Which hashtags are used by my audience?
- What hashtags are being used by the accounts my audience follows?
- What hashtags do the members of my audience use?
Post-specific hashtags
This is one of the most intriguing of the categories. Using hashtags specific to each post makes your content more relevant. These hashtags will change from post to post, so make sure to round out your hashtag collection with a few hashtags from this category for each post. Not sure what falls into this category? Here are some starter questions for you
- What trending hashtags are appropriate for this post?
- What topics does my content cover?
Industry-based hashtags
Consider the keywords your ideal audience uses to find content about the products or services you offer when creating a list of industry-specific hashtags. Also, try merging location-based hashtags with industry-based hashtags to reach out to the right people. Here are a few things to keep in mind while making industry-based hashtags
- What search terms or keywords are relevant to my industry?
- Get specific about what you are offering through social media.
- Keep a keen eye on what hashtags your competitors are using.
- What hashtags do similar businesses in my industry use?
When you’ve done your research and gathered a few hashtags from each area, put them in a spreadsheet or a notepad app on your phone for quick access. In this manner, adding hashtags to a post or Reel will only take a few seconds of cutting and pasting. Before posting, don’t forget to include those post-specific hashtags.
Last but not least, set aside some time once in a while to check your analytics and determine which hashtags are effective for you and which ones you can replace them with. Regularly updating your hashtag bank aids in keeping your content relevant in search results, and thus it can help you in increasing organic reach by hashtag.
How to increase organic reach by hashtag across the different social media platforms?
Over the last decade, the fast rise of social media and digital marketing has seen businesses of all sizes turn to platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram in an attempt to reach new audiences. While there are numerous advantages to adopting social media as it is accessible, affordable, and scalable but the elephant in the room remains is how to effectively market your brand or yourself on the platforms of social media
Organic reach for corporate social media accounts has steadily declined over the years. With more social media users than ever before and millions of posts generated every day, it’s becoming increasingly challenging for businesses to reach even a small percentage of their followers. Any company that wants to use social media to raise visibility, engage customers, and make money must be willing to “pay to play” and spend in those efforts to get traction.
Organic follower growth takes time and consistent cultivation. Your first goal should be to entice individuals with valuable, helpful, and informative material. You can progressively establish a community around your business and cultivate relationships with consumers at all phases of the buyer’s journey by incorporating educational pieces about your product or industry into your monthly social media content plan.
Once you’ve got content up you’ll need that content to be noticed for that you need to imply certain strategies. One of the most prominent and helpful strategies include the usage of hashtags.
We have mentioned above the basics of hashtags and their usage but now to help you build your social media audience, we’ve put together hashtag usage strategies, and do’s, and don’t to incorporate for organic reach which is specified to the different social media platforms for your better understanding. We will cover Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
Marketing professionals should stay current on the most recent dos and don’ts because each social network has its own best practices for hashtags. For the more intricate mechanics of hashtag use, these important hashtag guidelines for each social media network are a valuable resource.
Meta (Facebook)
Using hashtags may be beneficial when trying to increase the visibility of your Facebook posts because they can increase organic reach. It’s crucial to avoid using too many hashtags on Facebook. It’s typically advised to utilize no more than one or two. Any more than that could come across as unprofessional and irritate individuals who are reading your posts.
Simply putting a keyword into the search window will bring up appropriate hashtags for you to utilize. You can also click on a hashtag to see a feed of Facebook posts using that same hashtag. Other than that you can search hashtags used in private Facebook groups using the “search this group” bar under the group’s menu.
It may also be worthwhile to go back and repost your top-performing Facebook posts with relevant hashtags. This not only repurposes past material that was popular with your followers, but it may also attract new ones who are interested in your product or service.
Do’s
- Use your imagination while creating hashtags on Facebook and less on relevance. You can use a hashtag to broaden the post’s message
- Think about the words that Facebook users who could become your clients could use. Like on Twitter, users don’t frequently search for hashtags on Facebook, yet a lot of users do search for keywords.
Don’t
- Generating hashtags for Facebook postings takes too much time. On Facebook, many firms utilize the same hashtags they do on Instagram.
- Include hashtags in each Facebook post. Because it deviates from the platform’s norm, it can turn off followers. Use them sparingly instead.
Using relevant hashtags on Twitter can boost your interaction, as long as you don’t go crazy. One or two hashtags per tweet should suffice. When you utilize a handful of hashtags and expressly ask your followers to retweet, you might get even more engagement.
When you use hashtags on Twitter, your post will be found when people search for your tag. It can also assist you in finding conversations in which to participate. Do some research for trendy hashtags to make an even bigger impression on this social media site. If you are creating a new hashtag do thorough research to make sure it wasn’t used before.
Do’s
- Think about using Twitter holiday hashtags to get more visibility
- Twitter topics should be closely monitored because new hashtag trends appear frequently
- By selecting Explore on the left side of your dashboard, followed by Trending, you may access native Twitter Search. You can use these hashtags specifically for your area
- Make a hashtag that is repeated to engage your followers
Don’t
- If trendy hashtags aren’t relevant to your content or readership, avoid using them
- As an afterthought, add hashtags. On Twitter, hashtags are the primary method people locate messages and can have a huge impact on their success
- Make hashtags that are prone to spelling errors. You will lose engagement if your followers misspell your hashtag when creating their posts
- Make use of all-caps hashtags
On Instagram, hashtag use can broaden audience reach and boost interaction. To reach the largest audience possible, feel free to use up to 10 or eleven famous and relevant hashtags for Instagram Stories. But Instagram stories are no longer featured in the hashtag search so using hashtags on stories won’t make much of an impact.
On a typical Instagram post, you can use up to 30 hashtags. Although you usually don’t need to use that many, it’s important to know that you can explore by using more if you choose. Use the search bar to find out what hashtags influencers and competitors use on Instagram. Because this is the finest platform for various hashtags, experiment with a wide range and use them in posts, photographs, and comments.
Do’s
- Include three to five hashtags, which is the number recommended by Instagram.
- To find suitable hashtags, use the ‘Follow’ hashtag tool. This lets you see which precise hashtags are being used by other accounts and brands targeting comparable themes or consumers.
- To search related hashtags, go to the Instagram Explore page.
- Look for strategies to stimulate the creation of user-generated content. Instagram is a tool for creating custom hashtags, such as Nike Los Angeles using #PlayInside during the early days of the pandemic.
Don’t
- When using hashtags on Instagram, don’t try to be humorous or ironic, just like you would on Facebook.
- As your post is likely to get lost in the swarm of posts, concentrate on highly popular or trending hashtags. Using Instagram’s search function, you can determine how popular a hashtag is.
Although hashtags have not always been utilized on LinkedIn, they function here just like they do elsewhere. You must use hashtags in the body of your post to draw attention to your article since LinkedIn still needs to permit clickable hashtags in the content. For LinkedIn, one to three hashtags are typically advised.
These can be added by selecting “Add” from the “Hashtags” menu. Using hashtags on LinkedIn might help individuals outside of your network see your postings. If you post without a hashtag and you have 700 LinkedIn friends, your content is only visible on that network. However, if you use a hashtag like #DigitalMarketing, you may triple the number of people who view it, increasing the engagement and authority of your message.
Do’s
- Use hashtags relating to the industry or topic of your post to help find new readers for your material
- Use the Discover More Hashtag button to help you find other suggested hashtags to use
Don’t
- Use excessive hashtags in your posts. Aim for one to three hashtags, with a maximum of five
- Use hashtags to be funny or adorable on LinkedIn, just like you would on Facebook or Twitter. Maintain professionalism when using hashtags on Linkedin
TikTok
To categorize their videos, TikTokers utilize hashtags. These hashtags are also clickable, so your material will appear next to other pertinent videos. Similar to other social media sites, adding hashtags on TikTok increases reach and aids the platform’s algorithm in determining which individuals see your content on the crucial “For You” tab.
Be mindful of the 100-character cap for TikTok captions when using any hashtags. This does give you lots of room to experiment and find what works. To maximize reach, try mixing it up by utilizing both common and specialized hashtags. It would help if you kept an eye on the “Discover” page to see what’s hot because hashtags on TikTok change regularly. You can also use the search bar to find hashtags that interest you.
Do’s
- Keep an eye out for hashtags TikTok has developed for certain occasions, such as the recent #MentalHealthAwareness, #SelfCare, and #LetsTalkMentalHealth created during Mental Health awareness month.
- Take note of TikTok trends and join the movement with relevant content and hashtags (if it makes sense for your brand). On the platform, trends change frequently, so arriving late will make your business appear stale and out of touch.
- For user-generated material, utilize unique hashtags. TikTok is a fantastic place to inspire followers to generate content connected to brands because of the nature of the platform. TikTok is an excellent platform for a challenge or contest.
Don’t
- Use only well-known and current hashtags. Your material can get buried in the other videos on TikTok due to the abundance of content there.
- Use #ForYou, #ForYouPage, or #FYP excessively. Many people believe that these hashtags enhance views. However, in these overpopulated places, your material may simply get buried.
When it comes to choosing the hashtags to use for your social media profile or how you want to approach your plan, there are no hard and fast rules. Knowing your audience and spending the time to become familiar with what works on each platform are the first steps in developing an effective hashtag strategy and increasing organic followers. Beyond that, by including hashtags in your social media strategy and tracking your outcomes, you can continue to learn what works for you.
Conclusion
It’s time to start including hashtags in your social media posts if you haven’t already. Although they originally became well-known in 2007, they are now even more helpful for your brand. Hashtags are a fantastic tool for connecting with your followers, increasing organic reach, boosting engagement, and bringing in new clients.
But it would help if you remembered that it’s simple to forget to link hashtags back to your content when adding them as an afterthought to your social media posts. However, you pass up a chance to increase interaction and your fan base every time. Because hashtags and the best ways to use them can change rapidly, it’s essential to stay current in this social media area and make sure that every word you use to increase organic reach is doing its part.
