The best hashtags for social media marketing are not the most popular. Social media marketing hashtags have some do’s and don’t’s that can make or break a social strategy. I‘ve outlined some key points I follow for effective hashtag use throughout the three leading platforms my clients use: Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

Each of these social media channels uses a slightly different algorithm, so it’s important to curate your strategy for each platform individually. It’s important to tailor your strategy to each platform differently based on how the algorithm works — cross-posting just won’t cut it. I highlight an alternative strategy to cross-posting in another article, but here I’d like to talk about how each social media algorithm uses hashtags to help you reach a bigger audience.

Before I get into platform specifics, I’d like to talk about the different hashtag strategies across all platforms.

How to Use Hashtags Effectively in Social Media Marketing

No longer the pound or number sign, the # symbol has taken on a new name in the social media world. The hashtag helps users categorize and label posts on social media (similar to keyword tags on blog posts). But as a consumer, how often do you search for new channels or products to follow through hashtags? Probably never if not very infrequently. Social media algorithms, however, love to use hashtags to help link thousands of different pieces of content together.

Have you ever noticed that after liking, commenting, and viewing a bunch of travel content on social media you suddenly start getting recommendations from the platform for similar content? This is the algorithm using its tags to generate relevancy! It’s not the users directly searching #tastytreats to find your content, it’s the algorithm noticing that this user loves food photos and suggesting more of the same content to keep them hooked.

Using this knowledge is key to creating an effective social media marketing hashtag strategy. The uses vary slightly depending on which platform you’re posting on.

Best Instagram Hashtags for Social Media Marketing

Instagram uses hashtags to help link photos together. Unfortunately, it’s difficult for the algorithm to recognize a cute cat photo, but it can certainly recognize something like #catstagram. If you tag your cat photo with that hashtag, your content will be linked to all the other #catstagram photos and be shown to other cat lovers in the world.

The best Instagram hashtags for social media marketing are the ones that describe your content in as detailed a way as possible. You can use the maximum amount of hashtags that Instagram allows (which is 30), but they will only be effective if they accurately reflect the content relative to the hashtag.

The best Instagram hashtag strategy is utilizing all of the 30 hashtag slots with highly-curated keywords. Simply using the most saturated hashtags (like #love, #instagood, or #photooftheday) on your post won’t make your image unique within the algorithm. If you post a photo of your young staff member winning a barista of the year award, it would be best to use a less saturated and more specific hashtag like #specialtycoffee or #baristadaily.

Using a collection of very specific hashtags, rather than popular hashtags, helps the Instagram algorithm differentiate your post from the millions of others and helps you reach an audience that will truly enjoy your content. Be sure to look through the hashtags you’re thinking about using to make sure there’s a good number of posts (10,000 — 1,000,000) that are similar to yours.

Best Twitter Hashtags for Social Media Marketing

Twitter is a slightly different beast from Instagram when it comes to hashtags for social media marketing. The main difference between the two platforms is the intent behind their content. Twitter is more fast-paced and less image-based than Instagram, allowing users to post more thoughts and fewer events.

Contrary to the Instagram hashtag strategy, the Twitter hashtag strategy uses far fewer tags per post. It’s best to stick to a handful of broad topics that relate to both your tweet and your page, instead of focusing on hashtags that are specific and relevant to one tweet only.

The consistency of your hashtags is also important when considering a broader content strategy — you should use the same hashtags across your tweets to help define your account as a whole. Creating a connection between your hashtags and profile encourages your followers to use your hashtags for their posts. Creating a business-specific hashtag, like #DannysHaircutsNYC, across your tweets builds the connection between the hashtag and your business which is then used by your customers.

Retweeting, replying to, and liking the tweets using those hashtags then encourages your audience to use them more often. The hashtag should be the link that helps bring all of your community’s posts together.

Best TikTok Hashtags for Social Media Marketing

The newest social media platform of the bunch is TikTok. The TikTok hashtag algorithm is somewhere in between the Instagram and Twitter algorithms. Less is more, and specific is great. Your TikTok hashtag strategy can be the difference between your video going viral and it getting lost amongst the millions of other videos posted.

Contrary to popular belief, using #foryoupage or #fyp does not help you reach a bigger audience. The algorithm wants to put your content on people’s for you pages, but they’ll only do it if it’s relevant to their specific interests.

Instead of cramming your TikTok description with overused hashtags like #fyp or #foryoupage, use specific hashtags that will place your content within a community. For example, if you are promoting your local brunch spot, using a hashtag like #brunchtime can help you reach brunch enthusiasts and stand out amongst a sea of food videos.

Hashtag Strategy Summary

Regardless of which social media platform your business is on, implementing a hashtag strategy can help you generate many more leads than before. Understanding the way each platform uses hashtags to curate your content to new leads can take your page’s growth even further.

There’s no one answer to “the best hashtags for social media marketing”. Copy-pasting hashtags that are popular will only make it more difficult for the algorithm to understand your posts. It’s more important to be aware of how to use hashtags effectively in social media marketing.

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