Hashtag How-to

For the month of March, WEISE is offering tips revolving around facets of digital marketing that can easily be overlooked because of how minute and insignificant they seem to be in the grand scheme of things. The truth is, fully understanding and mastering these simple aspects can go a long way toward garnering more exposure for your brand.

For the first of this 5-part series, we will be addressing the hashtag. We frequently come across instances of hashtags being used incorrectly. Misused hashtags can be an unfortunate setback because they may limit the amount of people that are exposed to your post. Fortunately, this can be easily corrected by simply reviewing the basics of hashtag construction and use that we have provided below.

What to include. Not only must hashtags contain the # symbol, the symbol always goes at the beginning of the hashtag. Hashtags can be made up of a single word or phrase (as long as there are no spaces). Abbreviations and even made-up words are also permitted. When placing numbers in your hashtag, remember that at least one letter must also be present. Including capital letters in your hashtags is perfectly fine.

What to avoid. Not only are spaces not allowed when constructing hashtags, punctuation and additional symbols are also prohibited.

Be precise. The purpose of a hashtag is to connect various conversations under a single topic to make them easier to find. When employing hashtags, the main objective is to catch the attention of as many social media users as possible in order to expand your brand’s awareness. Use searchable terms in your hashtags to attract people or businesses looking for the type of product or service you offer. You also want your hashtag to be as memorable and catchy as possible. To this end, the most effective hashtags are brief, uncomplicated and specific.

Don’t go overboard. A message containing too many hashtags appears too much like spam. Avoid confusion by limiting your hashtags to no more than three per message. Similarly, adding a hashtag to a single word repeated throughout a tweet or comment is merely redundant and does nothing toward promoting your hashtag.

Check in next week as we present tools designed to aid you in all phases of hashtag use!