Are hashtags a thing of the past or are they still relevant for businesses today?
Hashtags first took social media by storm in 2007. Chris Messina, a social media expert, first came up with the idea to use a hashtag (pound sign) to group together conversations on Twitter (now known as X). In 2009, Twitter officially introduced hashtags into their platform. This made hashtags clickable and searchable. From this point on it was a snowball effect across all social media platforms. In 2011 Instagram started using them for discoverability, followed by Facebook in 2013.
Hashtags became essential for boosting movements or bringing awareness to a topic. Many people use hashtags to start group conversations while social media algorithms use hashtags to show you content you might be interested in.
Businesses have found that hashtags are a useful way to boost their brand presence online. Here are three ways that hashtags can help your online marketing.
- Hashtags improve visibility, engagement, and brand identity. As social media has evolved, marketers have found that it is better to pick a few hashtags that are relevant, trendy, and niche to a specific target audience rather than spamming a post with too many hashtags. By researching the best hashtags to reach your target audience, businesses can increase the reach of their posts on social media. This helps them engage with the right people online.
- Hashtags help make content searchable. For example, Gary Vaynerchuk, an entrepreneur and social media expert said, “Hashtags are a great way to make your content discoverable, but it’s not just about stuffing them in-it’s about using the right ones to engage your audience and add value.” Many businesses have found lifelong customers just by incorporating hashtags into their marketing plan.
Social media users rarely had control over what they saw in the earlier days of media platforms. Hashtags have helped group together things a specific person might be interested in seeing. Hashtags have made it easier to search for something and find it with little effort. For example, if you are into cooking, it is beneficial to search using a cooking hashtag to find content created especially for the cooking crowd. This is beneficial for both users and content creators.
3. Hashtags bring an incredible boost to specific movements or topics online. Spend a few moments online and you will quickly notice the hashtags that are trending. If your company is looking to start a new campaign or perhaps play into an already existing online trend, hashtags can be a great way to gain traction quickly. Hashtags work best with a specific purpose in mind. An article on Sproutsocial reads, “Hashtags impact the overall performance of social media content. Forward-thinking brands use them with specific goals and intentional strategies in mind.”
The hashtag is still relevant. Although you may not see it used as it used to be, it still serves a purpose in developing engagement. Trends come and go, but the hashtag became more than a trend. It became a tool that when used right can boost your social media.
