What are Hashtags?
Hashtags are a way of linking into an existing conversation on social media. They are also the simplest and best way to increase your audience for marketing campaigns.
What does a Hashtag look like?
The following are a few of the popular Hashtags that XL.Today™ has identified for 'fashion'.
#style
#shopping
#shoes
#ebay
#vintage
#jewelry
What are the rules of Hashtags?
There are specific rules about Hashtags. These have been developed over the years by social media users, and it's best not to buck the trends. Apply the following 4 rules to Hashtags, and you'll be on your way to increase your social media target audience, engagement and sales:
Rule 1. No punctuation or spaces
No punctuation or spaces whatsoever in Hashtags. Adding punctuation or spaces between words almost guarantees no-one will search for that tag. You can, however, capitalize letters if you want something to be more legible, however, if you're following an existing Hashtag, you must follow the current formatting precisely.
Rule 2. Keep is short
Most social media channels place a limit on the character length of posts, which is why shorter Hashtags work best. Shorter Hashtags are also easier to remember, which helps social media channel users with their searches.
Rule 3. Don't over use Hashtags
There are best practice rules for each social media channel. On Twitter, limit your Hashtags to 2. The same is true for LinkedIn. On Instagram, more Hashtags are better; however, you still want to keep it to 5 per post. On Facebook, Hashtags may reduce your reach, so we recommend you don't use them on this channel.
Rule 4. Use popular Hashtags
'Yes' you can create your own Hashtags; however, these are only helpful when you are trying to create your own conversations around your brand or event. In this case, you will need to invest time to market your Hashtag.
If your goal is to increase your target audience, then follow existing Hashtags. The challenge is how to find the best Hashtags. If you're an XL.Today™ subscriber, it's easy. We provide you with 2 ways to find the best Hashtags for your posts.
Option1. AI Hashtag creation for your images
When you add your images into your XL.Today™ Digital Asset Management library (DAM), we use intelligent software to scan your images to see what they contain and suggest tags. This process allows you to add these tags to your images and add any additional tags you want (e.g. brand). When you then go to create a post to a specific social media channel, we show the Hashtags attached to the image you've selected. You click on the Hashtag, and it's added to your post. Simple and fast.
Option 2. On-page Hashtag research
XL.Today™ subscribers also have the option to search for the most popular Hashtags related to their posts, as they create the post. XL.Today™ then gives you a list of the most popular Hashtags, and you simply click on them to add to your posts. It's fast, accurate, professional and a massive time saver.
On social media, Hashtags are your friend
Hashtags are a great way to increase your audience on social media. However, once you have reached your audience, you need to capture their attention. Nothing beats the right image and every XL.Today™ subscriber has the very best solution for managing their images and accessing supplier images. Your XL.Today™ DAM.