Q: What's made up of four straight lines and has the power to SIGNIFICANTLY increase your social media engagement?
A: The hashtag!
The hashtag is a powerful tool. According to Buffer Social, the hashtag is defined as "a pound sign immediately followed by a keyword. They're used for categorization on social media." Sometimes it's hard to cut down social media clutter. Hence, the hashtag was born. While the hashtag is used widely across nearly every social media platform, they seem to work the best on Twitter and Instagram for engagement purposes.
For example, tweets containing hashtags receive two times more engagement (likes and/or retweets) and Instagram posts containing 11+ hashtags see the highest interaction (Buffer Social).
Hashtags help users connect with a social media community of their choosing. They also provide brands an opportunity to interact with popular trends such as #tbt (throwback Thursday), #nationaldonutday and #photooftheday. Identifying unique ways to integrate your brand with frequently searched hashtags will do wonders for your engagement and boost your following.
To easily track the usage of a hashtag, click on it and you will be directed to a list that displays each time the hashtag was used. This is especially useful when creating an original hashtag.