How hashtags work on social media: Twitter, IG, FB?

The difference between how hashtags are used on social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook WILL affect your (business) social media strategy. // Next video: "What is Social Listening?"    • What is Social Listening?  

Whether you want to find opportunities to engage with your customers, help more users discover your branded content, or make it easier for your new followers to find more of the content they love… hashtags play an important role in social media marketing and business. Here’s a quick look at how hashtags work on social media & how to use them on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!
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How hashtags work on social media: Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

00:00 Intro
00:28 How hashtags work on Twitter
01:11 How to USE hashtags on Twitter for business
01:23 Hashtag TIP for Twitter (avoid making this mistake)
01:37 How hashtags work on Instagram
02:09 How to use hashtags on Insta
02:22 Hashtag TIP for IG (use trending hashtags!)
02:34 How hashtags work on Facebook
03:08 How to USE hashtags on FB
03:33 Good example of how to use Facebook hashtags from beauty brand Ipsy
04:07 Hashtag TIP for Facebook
04:45 TIP for using hashtags on ALL social media platforms!

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Hashtags are used just about everywhere - they make regular appearances in our social media posts, travel across platforms, and they can even carry the message of an entire marketing campaign for really savvy brands... But how do hashtags work on different social media platforms - and how does this affect the way that we use them for business? These are some really interesting questions that I’ll try to answer inside this video.

Let’s start with hashtags on Twitter:

Twitter is essentially the birthplace of hashtags, and it all started with this Tweet: “How do you feel about using the pound sign for groups? As in (hashtag)BarCamp?” This was the first time that a hashtag was used on Twitter, and the message sums up how Twitter hashtags are still being used today - to GROUP together individual tweets that talk about a common topic. Basically, hashtags on Twitter let us find conversations about stuff that we’re interested in, so we can join in and voice our opinions or share an experience.

Brands can easily use Twitter hashtags to engage in conversations about a certain topic or create a new hashtag to promote an event - like #SMMW19 (social media marketing world). If you use a pre-existing hashtag, make sure you take 5 minutes to see what it’s about, so you don’t find yourself in hot water like DiGiorno Pizza did when they turned the #WhyIStayed hashtag (featuring stories from domestic abuse survivors) into a joke about staying for pizza.

Now, what about hashtags on Instagram?

Instagram is all about images, and each hashtag contains a visual feed of all the posts that share the same tag, whether it’s displayed in the image caption or down below in the “Comments” section. People tend to go crazy with Instagram hashtags, which is what prompted Insta to put a limit of 30 hashtags on any post. What this liberal use of hashtags on Instagram tells us, is that they play a key role on that platform.

Actually, Instagram is almost POWERED by hashtags, making their role in business kind of multipurpose here. But, no matter what you’re doing - whether you’re holding a contest or giveaway, or working on a digital campaign, you want to maximize the social media reach for your posts, and make sure that as many people as possible see it. The best way to do that is by using trending hashtags. Since these are the hashtags that people are actively using, it guarantees that the IG post you spent so much time creating, won’t go unnoticed.

Now, how about hashtags on Facebook?

Facebook hashtags work in a different way than they do on Instagram and Twitter. This is because Facebook itself is much more focused on people - including those with private profiles.

Most people don’t really use hashtags on Facebook unless it’s to express some kind of emotion, like “I’ve been trying to open this jar for the past 20 minutes. No luck. (Hashtag)Frustrated”. And they don’t really SEARCH for hashtags there either. Facebook is where you go to look for people or friends - and sometimes groups or brands that you like. But that doesn’t mean that hashtags don’t have a place on Facebook. On the contrary, this means that hashtags on Facebook have a much more specific use, especially in business.

So, a lot of brands...

(See vid for details)