The Business of Hashtags

Many people have seen hashtags but there are many who don’t know what they are, or how they can be an effective marketing tool. A hashtag is composed of the “#” symbol, also known as the number sign, the pound sign, or the hashtag sign in social media, and a word. You’ll see them commonly in this format: #hashtag.

A hashtag can also be a phrase, which is likened to a keyword: #hashtagsformarketing. When you add the “#” in front of this word or phrase, it turns it into a searchable link. For example, if you are running a business and sell LED smartphone cases, you’ll do your Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram post and add something like: #LEDsmartphonecases. When your potential customers are on social media, they can find posts that mention the same topic in one of two ways. One is by clicking on the hashtag that you have entered. This will bring up a list of all posts on this same topic.

The second method is by doing a search in Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for what you want. This will also bring up a list of the posts that are talking about your topic.

When you’re creating your hashtags you must not include any spaces. If you need to differentiate words, you can “Capitalize” certain ones. You must also never use any sort of punctuation, symbols or characters. Numbers, such as 1, 2, 3, are acceptable.

Also, don’t get confused by the “@“ symbol. This is used to tweet a person. In this case, don’t use a hashtag if you are trying to contact someone directly.

You also won’t find a preset list of hashtags. It’s up to you to create them. Besides the big social media platforms, others also use hashtags, including Google+, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Vine.