How many hashtags are too many?
Who would have thought that there would come a time when the average person would spend 4.8 hours a day on their mobile phone?
But that is what app analytics firm App Annie indicates as the duration spent by humans on their devices.
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Our behaviour and decisions nowadays are largely influenced by the content we consume, especially on social media.
One common feature we see almost every day as we scroll through our timelines are blue-coded characters that are preceded by the # symbol.
These are popularly known as hashtags. Essentially, a hashtag is a combination of letters, numbers, and/or emoji preceded by the # symbol (for example, #DailyGraphic).
If you hover around a hashtag, it’s typically as though you’re clicking a link on a website.
Just as search engines use keywords to help aggregate information in order to help you to find what you are looking for, social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram rely heavily on hashtags to aid users in searches.
In other words, if you were looking for any post related to Daily Graphic on Twitter, for example, and you keyed “#DailyGraphic” in the search, every tweet with the hashtag would be displayed.
Easy
Whether it’s on YouTube or TikTok, hashtags make it easy for you to locate what you want to see in the wide expanse of videos available online.
Remember that understanding your audiences, their needs and anticipating what they want enables you to streamline your content (hashtags included) to meet their needs.
Hashtags are necessary both for content creators and the average user who rarely posts. For the creator, it makes your content easily visible to those looking for content related to your hashtags.
On the other hand, for the average user who rarely posts, you will easily find what you are searching for using the relevant hashtags.
Do you remember #ShareaCoke? Long story short, that campaign increased traffic to the Coca Cola website by a staggering 870 per cent.
Talk about the power of a hashtag!
There are various types of hashtags and depending on how you use them, your content is likely to reach relevant audiences.
Last year, the hashtag “#love” found its way into close to two billion posts on Instagram, making it the number one hashtag on the platform.
Scope
Deciding on a hashtag to use in your post is largely dependent on the scope of your post. Are you into fashion? Are you into cars? Are you into food?
If you’re into fashion, your typical hashtags could be #fashion, #photooftheday, #lookgood (and #promo or #sale if you’re running any).
According to Hootsuite, Instagram breaks hashtags into nine major categories including product or service hashtags, niche hashtags, seasonal hashtags and acronym hashtags.
On Instagram, one common acronym hashtag is #tbt- Throwback Thursday. I don’t really know whether #wcw is still a thing, though. You can consider that too.
On Twitter, you can choose already trending hashtags and jump on the bandwagon by couching your own content to fit in with that particular hashtag.
For example, in recent times, you will come across “#vaccinated or not …”. The bottom line of that trend is simple: whether or not you’re vaccinated, read my tweet! C’est clair?
Now to the big question: how many hashtags are too many hashtags? Hootsuite recommends 11 hashtags as a good start; a common number used is often between one to three.
Nevertheless, you are at liberty to use up to 30 hashtags on Instagram.
It is a good idea to consider the harmony in the various hashtags you are using.
Remember, the key is to increase visibility.
As such, precision is the aim in creating hashtags.
The writer is a Community Manager at Interactive Digital. E-mail: [email protected]
