What the #

by Rianna Neal | Rianna@PancakeDigitalSolutions.com

What is a Hashtag? That is a great question that can spawn a veracity of answer. Many people who use hashtags are not fully sure what they are even for. Or even why they are used. However, hashtags are an integral part of social media, and with both on the rise, it is important to understand how they work for your business.

The Pound Sign

For anyone who remembers time before 1999, there was something called the pound key that was a huge part of making phone calls. The symbol originally comes from a Latin mark that means “pound by weight.” The symbol was added to keyboards in the 1960s as a way of sending instructions or information to the phone operating system. (according to dictionary.com). This symbol has also been called the octothorpe & the number sign.

What is a Hashtag

The creation of the hashtag from hashtag.org…Hashtags mark a topic or theme of ideas (worldwide) that are searchable and shareable. You can create one of whatever you want.

Where do You Use Them

Twitter and Instagram at the main social media sites for hashtags. Twitter includes trending tops both in content and in frequently used hashtags at the given point in time. Many posts on Instagram incude a good chunk of hashtags to label posts with what the content of the image is about. This is also a great way to get more likes on followers on your IG content.

Why do You Use Them

On Twitter, 2-5 hashtags per tweet is a good way to join a topic or conversation. It puts your content in front of the right people. To post a link or start a discussion about pancake recipes, use hashtags such as #pancakes #recepies #thebestpancakes etc. This will help get your content in front of the right people. Instagram is the same with 5-20 hashtags, depending on your industry. Twitter focuses more on links and short thoughts where Instagram is about images. Take this into consideration for how you want to add hashtags to them.

Another way to think of hashtags is as labels. Many contests are run using hashtags. A company will often launch a photo contest that requires participants to submit their entry by using a specific hashtag. You see this frequently at large events and with big brand holiday giveaways.

On The Table…

The hashtag goes beyond a funny joke or an ironic statement. What is a hashtag? A way to mark the topic and content of a post, tweet, or picture. #LearnAnything

Learn the ins and outs of Social Media for your business!