Boost Social Media Campaigns With These Hashtag Management Tips

According to a survey by RadiumOne, 58% of respondents use social media hashtags on a regular basis and 34% use them to search and follow categories and brands. Though most people associate their use with Twitter, hashtags are showing up on all of the major social media networks including Instagram, Pinterest and most recently, Facebook.

These mini-organizational tools don’t just benefit the end user, businesses can also use them to reinforce branding and encourage consumer engagement. All you need to do is follow these 5 key #hashtag strategies to bolster your social media management:

1. Jump on a trending hashtag bandwagon   Responding to a trending hashtag is a great way to introduce your brand to new followers. Just remember, no matter how popular, only reply to hashtags that fit in your company culture. Stay away from controversial tags and anything of an adult nature (unless, of course, that’s your business.)
2. Create your own hashtag   You can create your own company hashtag for topics you post about on a regular basis or to support an ad campaign. Your hashtag should be short but meaningful. To avoid an embarrassing misstep, have several people in your office read the tag out loud. The Children’s Laughter House thought #childrenslaughterhouse was a good idea. And what exactly are they selling at #expertsexchange? Be consistent. Once you decide on a tag, make sure everyone who posts gets the memo. #dailydeal and #dailydeals won’t yield the same results.
3. Reward your audience for using hashtags   For a hashtag to catch on, you can’t be the only one using it. Encourage your customers to promote your tags by running a social media giveaway. Ask them to post a shout out on Twitter or a themed photo on Pinterest or Instagram. Once the submission date passes, do a hashtag search to find all of the entries. It’s extremely easy and every post is an ad for your company.
4. Run a Twitter Chat or Pinterest party   Hashtags are not only excellent for finding information after the fact; they’re perfect for tracking responses in real time. Tools like Twubs and Tweetdeck automatically update every time someone replies using the noted hashtag, making it easy to follow even a fast moving conversation.
5. Turn hashtags into fresh content for your website   Using an aggregator such as Paper.li or Rebelmouse, you can turn social media posts into a digital newspaper or dynamic webpage. Simply choose the hashtags you want to follow and the tool finds, filters, and formats the posts into a comprehensive, supremely readable format. Use it to collect branded responses from all over the web or curate content on a topic of interest to your customers. This makes your social media management simple and effective.

Remember, when using hashtags in social media less is more. So choose your tags wisely and don’t pack in more than two in a post. That’s #smartsocialmedia.