New Hashtags Dos And Don’ts

Promotion via social media is a complex and ever-changing beast, with little consistency. Here we look at several dos and don'ts when it comes to marketing using hashtags, such as where and when they should be employed for maximum effectiveness.

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Guest Post by Bobby Owsinski on Music 3.0Social media constantly evolves along with how we use it, especially for promotion. That means that the way something was used a few years ago might be different today, and that’s certainly the case with hashtags. Here are a few hashtag do’s and don’ts as they apply to promotional use today.Do: Use hashtags on Twitter, Instagram and Vine. These networks are built for hashtags and postings and users depend on them, especially when it comes to search.Don’t: Use them on Facebook. Most users don’t like them in this context, and they can actually do more harm than good.Do: Choose your hashtags carefully. Just because you create one doesn’t mean that anyone will use it. If it’s not relevant to you, your music, or your brand, it’s probably not worth using. Don’t: Over-emphasize your brand name. Not everything has to be about your brand, music, etc.Do: Use them in your marketing materials. If you have strong hashtags associated with your brand, be sure to include them in all your marketing materials.Don’t: Include them past their useful time. Many hashtags don’t age well, so be prepared to change them as needed.Do: Expect them to spark online conversation. That’s what they’re there for, to improve engagement, then be able to track it.Don’t: Expect them to do all the work. Without great content, hashtags are useless.Do: Use the right amount in your post. 1 or 2 on Twitter and 11 (yes, that’s right) on Instagram.Don’t: Use numbers alone or punctuation within a hashtag. A combination of numbers and letters are okay, but numbers by themselves don’t work.Do: Check for trends or alternatives. Hashtagify.me is a good choice.It’s been proven that hashtags work, with posts with the correct number and kinds of tags getting up to 5 times the engagement of one without. Use them and use them well.