Why Using Too Many Hashtags Is Annoying And Doesn’t Help You
When properly used, hashtags help users to find related content quickly. Hashtags help raise visibility as well as boost one’s social shares. However, when inappropriately used, they can impact one’s credibility on social media negatively. This directly decreases your social activity.
When the sign is used in front of a post, it categorises it and essentially creating a hyperlink to the word. The good and bad thing about this is that one can place the sign to any single word or a group of words consequently becoming a handy tool for joining heated conversations, collecting pictures at events and even marketing. It has become clear that most people are using this feature regardless of age, but the unfortunate thing is there are people out there who don’t know how many is enough and as a result, they are committing a social media crime; over hashtagging!
Over-hashtagging implies you are using too many hashtags in a single post. Usually, one is supposed to use 2 to 3 short hashtags or one long hashtag, any number above this means you are overdoing it. The principal purpose of a hashtag is to tag the post so as they can be put together around a certain event or subject and be searched. Therefore just because you can use them doesn’t mean that you should. Too many hashtags increase the chances of getting hashtag hijacked. Someone might use your hashtag regardless of the fact that their content may not have anything to do with your post’s subject. Thus it is important to use them if they are relevant to your post and remember to keep them minimal.
Why Over-Hashtagging Is Bad
• It distracts from the key message or post
• They make a post look like spam
• Makes a post look sloppy
• They use up your character considering there is character limit
• It makes one look like an amateur at it shows that you just don’t understand the hashtag concept
Using too many hashtags on your post make your content senseless. Breaking up words at every step makes it hard for people to follow what you are passing on. A lot of hashtags overpowers a post’s content. As soon as your follows see too many hashtags, they tend to lose interest. You do not want readers to get lost in the sea of number signs and words, so be smart when it comes to hashtagging. In case you are worried that you are almost reaching a point of overkill, consider using none at all.
How to Use Popular and Current Event Hashtags in Your Favour
To the internet, hashtags are without a doubt what red blood cells are to the human body. They have their origins on Twitter, and they have found their way to almost all aspects of digital marketing and lead generation. Social media marketing cannot do without hashtags; there is still, however, a sizeable number of Internet users who do not understand how to use them effectively.
Hashtags keep evolving calling for individuals to know the current and trending hashtags. Digital marketing experts advise that you use hashtags sparingly and only when they will add value to your posts. Using them too often can be annoying, confusing, and irritating to your target audience
Here are tips on how to use popular and current event hashtags in your favour.
Be Specific
To make hashtags work in your favour, you need to know your ideal audience, and then doing all you can to rouse a specific interest. Targeted audiences translate to better engagement for your posts, and using specific and popular niche hashtags earns you more site visits than general hashtags ever will.
Do not make the mistake of getting too sophisticated with your hashtags, make them easy to remember and memorable.
Use Restraint
There is the overwhelming need for using the current and popular hashtags to drive traffic to your posts. It may come off as a waste by using a few, but less is more with hashtags. Do not have more hashtags than words on your post to avoid diluting engagements from actual humans.
With popular hashtags, there is the possibility of attracting spam-bots, which might lead you to think you have a bigger following than you might do.
Be Quick
With popular and current hashtags, it is easy for a post to get fewer engagements than they deserve. Use hashtags monitoring sites often to see the trending hashtags that relate to your niche in business, and ensure you are quick and among the first to use them.
This way, you will be more discoverable, and your posts will help you to connect, build, and cement relationships with your audience.
Use on Multiple Networks
The average social media user is on at least three networks, and they look at the same topics that interest them. Make a habit of using hashtags on multiple social media networks to allow your brand more exposure to a wider audience. This makes your brand more memorable, especially when using a popular hashtag before a keyword.
For effective engagement of your posts, do not use more than two hashtags on Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook, 11 on Instagram. Search the hashtag before using it to ensure it resonates with your content and audience to ensure they work in your favour.
How to use brand specific hashtags to target followers.
You probably noticed the # sign aka hashtag on social media used by many celebrities, business owners and regular people. They use it in daily communication on their social media posts, but have you ever asked yourself how to use it properly? What is a good hashtag? How much is too much? Hashtag is not just a thing that “looks fancy” but an inevitable “tool” in communication on social media. People use it to attract followers and to make their brand more popular.
#UsersOftenDoNotKnowHowToUseHashtags. Hashtag is a powerful tool, but keep in mind that it only has power when used correctly and logically. What do you think is the right way people search keywords: #TheTV or #TV? Does it make sense to use the hashtag #like4like on Instagram or Pinterest if you sell TVs? Yes, you will get more followers, but does your target group search such words? Here are some tips on how to effectively use the hashtag:
1. Less is more
For Twitter you already that you are limited to 140 characters. The optimum is to tweet using 1-2 hashtags associated with the topic. Although they might not have great popularity, hashtags are used on Facebook too, but not more than 4. Do not “use more than 10 hashtags on Instagram and Pinterest. You do not want to be one of those who #UseHastagsOnEverything.
2. Use the sign # properly
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, G +, all of these networks support hashtags. But do not try to play and put hashtags on LinkedIn because this social network does not support that option. Note that hashtags do not support spaces, so you will need to connect words. For better visibility, it is recommended to write the initial letter of each word capitalized in order to facilitate reading the text, for example, #FridayFun.
3. Create a unique hashtag and follow it
Create a hashtag of your brand name and use it on your posts. You can easily see what others write about you just by using the hashtag. Make sure you come up with a unique hashtag that can have more than one word, and use it with your posts. Encourage your fans and followers to use the hashtag in communication or in reference to your brand. Not only will increase the visibility of your brand, but you can connect with fans and keep track of everything related to it.
Creating hashtags #testyourhashtags
By creating your own hashtags you can drive organic traffic to your website and target your audience. It’s important to make the most of this marketing strategy and get with the times, as they carry a lot of weight in social media marketing now.
#hashtagresearch
Do some research. There are many sites that will search across many social media sites and show you posts with the hashtag in. The aim for you is to create relevant hashtags that aren’t in use as well as using ones that are.
Take #testyourhashtags as an example. I used a site called Hashatit.com and searched for this hashtag, surprisingly there were no results. That’s not a bad thing though. Consider that if there are no current posts attached to the tag, this blog will be the only one and you will have the readers full attention. Take another example #createhashtags , this will be widely used as people will be researching on how to create hashtags and the originator of the articles will use that tag when talking about how to create them. Sort of like a supply and demand.
Tips for #creatinghashtags
1. Keep them short. Period.
2. Use them in the content of your social media posts instead of at the bottom.
3. Keep your links close to your hashtags, this will help increase the engagement you receive.
4. Make sure they are interesting, #furniture is not as interesting as #shabbychicfurniture
5. They must be relevant. How many times do you see people randomly putting tags in a post just to get clicks? Sure they will come up in a search but if their post isn’t about the topic, they won’t get the engagement. I wouldn’t write a blog about dogs and then use #motorbikes #classiccars as chances are I will just make myself unpopular.
Once you have made your hashtags – do you test them?
Sitting on a social media post and randomly putting in tags that spring to mind is one thing but if you don’t know their impact or if anyone else is using them, how do you know if they are going to work for you? Or worse, you could use a hashtag thinking it means one thing but actually it means something completely different #awkward. You don’t want to be paying respects to someones funeral and then add a hashtag that is linked to mass amounts of party gear.
Take #walkitoff – it could mean things to do with dieting, exercise. sports, charity walks or even in regards to someone getting fired from a job. Just #walkitoff
It is really important to test your hashtags and while you are at it, make sure you look into software that can track the analytics of them so you know what gets the clicks and what drives the consumers to your website. If you find a hashtag relevant to your site that isn’t widely used, it is possible to start a trend and be the centre of it, that’s why testing and tracking are so important.
Try it now!
#alliedtechnologies #instagrammarketing #socialmediamarketing #digitalmarketing #marketing #marketingtips #socialmedia #onlinemarketing #marketingonline #contentmarketing #entrepreneur #marketingstrategy #internetmarketing #bspokemarketing #marketingagency #marketingdigital #branding #facebookmarketing #socialmediatips #socialmediastrategy #business #entrepreneurship #entrepreneurs #socialmarketing #startup #businesstips #smm #marketingplanwebsite