Hashtag Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Brand

Social media is a stream of endless content. With more than 500 million tweets posted to Twitter and 100 million videos and images uploaded to Instagram every single day, it can be incredibly difficult for brands to get their content noticed by the social media users that matter. This is why many brands create a hashtag marketing strategy.

When used correctly, hashtag marketing can put your content in front of a wider audience, raise brand awareness, target a specific market segment, and encourage user engagement. So, how can you use hashtag marketing to your benefit? We’ve pulled together the top hashtag marketing examples you can use on social media today. 

What is hashtag marketing?

Let’s start with the basics. What’s a hashtag? 

Hashtags are a type of data common on social media and are used to categorise and identify content. Hashtags are made up of two parts: the hash (#) symbol and a keyword or phrase. 

Hashtags are predominantly used on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. Although most social media platforms offer some form of hashtag marketing, it is not widely used on platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube or Facebook. 

How do hashtags work?

Across different platforms, hashtags work in mostly the exact same way. The main purpose of hashtags is to help users find relevant content as hashtags help categorize content. When a user clicks on a hashtag, they will be directed to a list of posts that all contain the same hashtag. Users can browse through this content and find and engage with other social media users based on the hashtag theme. 

In terms of hashtag marketing, using hashtags can increase the visibility of your content and your brand’s organic reach. The more relevant hashtags or trending marketing hashtags you use, the more relevant audience members you will find. 

Why you should use hashtag marketing?

Creating a hashtag marketing strategy can help your brand in numerous ways. We have listed the 5 main ways hashtag marketing can help your brand grow.

Hashtag marketing can boost your post’s organic reach

By categorising content using hashtags, you can attract any users that specifically search for that hashtag. This means your content is being seen by more than your existing followers. 

Hashtag marketing can increase your engagement

Hashtags can increase the number of engagements on your content—especially on Twitter. Using hashtags on Twitter can increase engagement by almost 100% for individual users and 50% for brands. 

Hashtag marketing adds context to your brand and content

Hashtagging allows you to add context to your content, which is especially handy when presented with a limited character space. You can quickly let users know what your content is about with the right hashtag. 

Hashtag marketing allows you to join trending conversations

Using a trending marketing hashtag strategy can help you keep on top of the most popular social media conversations. Inserting yourself into these conversations, you can position yourself as culturally relevant or a thought leader. You can also target a huge audience base. 

A hashtag marketing strategy helps you join relevant conversations

While joining trending conversations is great for reach, joining relevant conversations is how you will gain new followers. You can monitor and join relevant discussions by following certain hashtags; this way you can always make sure you are staying on top of what’s going on in your industry. 

Hashtag marketing strategies to follow

Now you know why to use hashtag marketing, let’s take a look at how you can use it. 

Branded hashtags

This may be one of the most popular hashtag strategies for brands to follow and potentially the most important. Branded hashtags are hashtags that contain your brand name, tagline, slogan or product name. For example, Nike uses its tagline #JustDoIt, while GoPro simply uses its name. 

Branded hashtags are an easy way to track untagged content relating to your brand or products. Once you have a branded hashtag, you can use it across multiple platforms to get a real understanding of what people really think of your brand. 

Campaign and event hashtags

Campaign hashtags are similar to branded hashtags, except they are only used for a specific campaign or event (and usually for a limited time). Using a campaign or event hashtag can encourage other users to create their own organic content using the hashtag. It is an easy way to track any content relating to your campaign or event. 

Location hashtags

Using a location-relevant hashtag can be incredibly useful for businesses looking to target an audience from a specific area. For example, you can use #LondonRestaurant to find keen diners in the London area. 

Giveaway and challenge hashtags

Who doesn’t love a giveaway? They’re great for both brands and consumers—brands get their engagement boosted and consumers have a chance to win a free product for minimal effort. 

Challenge hashtags have become significantly more popular on social media, especially on TikTok. Brands create branded hashtag challenges where users are encouraged to share their own content. This is a quick way of increasing your brand awareness and reach with tonnes of free promotion through user-generated content. 

FAQs

What is a hashtag in marketing?

A hashtag in marketing is the same as general hashtags, but it has a more specific purpose. When using a hashtag for marketing, brands typically use hashtags to boost awareness and reach. 

Are hashtags good for marketing?

Hashtags are good for marketing. They require minimal effort but often offer good results. Hashtags can boost organic reach, increase engagement, provide context and allow brands to join trending and industry-relevant conversations.

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