Since their debut on Twitter (back when it was still called Twitter), they’ve been implemented on every major social media platform, and are now a staple of online discourse.
As a quick reminder: hashtags allow you to label your content with a specific word or phrase, so if you want to see what people are saying about a certain topic (and you want those people to see what you’re saying), every post with the same tag can be viewed in one place. If you want to see posts about a TV show you’re watching, or an upcoming event, or an ongoing news story, you can simply click on the hashtag and filter out everything but the relevant content.
But while hashtags are certainly still used in droves, do they remain an effective component of social media marketing? In today’s blog, we’ll be answering that very question.
Are hashtags still popular on social media?
Before we get into the marketing side of things, let’s consider the relevance of hashtags in general. There doesn’t seem to be much data on the popularity of hashtags in recent years, whether it’s increased or decreased, but their effect on impressions and engagement has certainly come into question. In the case of Instagram, the head of the platform Adam Mosseri stated in 2022 that hashtags were “not going to meaningfully change the amount of reach you get when you post.”
A quick search on X, Facebook, Instagram, and even LinkedIn will show you that plenty of users are still including hashtags in their content. But in order for them to have a positive impact on your social media strategy, there are a few tips you should keep in mind.
Tips for using hashtags effectively in social media marketing:
Ensure you’re using the appropriate, relevant hashtag
Regardless of the platform you’re posting on, no one wants to see dozens of irrelevant hashtags at the bottom of someone’s content. Even if all of the hashtags you’re using are technically appropriate, after a certain point it’ll just come across like spam.
Don’t use too many hashtags
For most platforms there’s either no limit to how many hashtags you can include in a post (on X, for example), or the limit is very high (the cutoff for Instagram seems to be 30). But typically, any more than five is pushing it. Generally you should keep it between one to four- but if there’s only one hashtag that’s entirely relevant, don’t force in any extras. As we’ve established, there’s simply no point.
Do some research to find the right hashtags
The key to ensuring your hashtags are relevant is simply doing some research. Find out which hashtags are most active within your industry, which hashtags your competitors are using, which hashtags your audience are using. This research doesn’t have to be remarkably in-depth, but if a hashtag you intend to use hasn’t featured in a single other post within the past year, it’s probably best to leave that one.
There are a number of social listening tools which can help you pick the right hashtags for your SME.
Keep track of performance
You should be keeping an eye on the performance of your social posts anyway, but if posts with particular hashtags are getting the most engagement (or getting the least engagement), tweak your content strategy accordingly.
Conclusion: are hashtags still effective in social media marketing?
When it comes to social media marketing, hashtags don’t have the pull they used to have. Maybe they never had much pull to begin with. But while they’re not exactly the key to optimal online engagement, they still have their place in the world of digital marketing, as long as you’re using them correctly.
