Do Hashtags Still Work?
EPISODE FIFTY THREE
Social media is always changing and growing, so it can be difficult to keep up with what is still relevant. The question of hashtags has been coming up more and more, so I thought I would address it in this episode. Should you still use hashtags? If so, how? And how many do you use? We will cover all of those in this episode.
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Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Book Marketing Simplified Podcast. I'm Jenn Hanson dePaula.
Social media is always changing and evolving, and it can be difficult to try to keep up with all of these changes to know what's still relevant. And one of the questions that I get asked most often is in regards to hashtags, should we still use them? Do they still play an important role on social media, and how do we actually use them now? And so I thought that we would use this episode to address those questions. So let's get started.
Hashtags still play an important role in our overall social media presence. The reason that hashtags are still important is because it provides the algorithm with really important information in order to know who to put your content in front of. The way that we used to use hashtags was really as a research method. It helped categorize content into certain categories to make it easier for people to find what they were looking for.
But now the algorithm has gotten a lot smarter and it's able to scrub our content so it will pull out keywords and information that it needs to put your content in front of the right people. But sometimes it doesn't always get everything just right. So including hashtags in your content is a great way for you to tell the algorithm who to put your content in front of and who it's for.
But the question comes into play of how do you actually best use hashtags? So what I would recommend is using three different categories of hashtags. First, you want to use hashtags that tell the algorithm what your post is actually about. Now, this is going to change from post to post. And so even though you can use a collection of hashtags over and over again, making sure that you have relevant hashtags pertaining to that particular post is going to be important.
Second, you want to use hashtags that talk about who you are trying to connect with. So if you're looking for readers, if you're looking for readers of romance or young adult fiction, using hashtags that target those specific people will be really important to use.
And then third, you want to use hashtags that say what it is that you provide or what it is that you do. So if you are a romance author, you can use #romanceauthor or #romancebooks. It's telling the algorithm the information that you provide and what it is that you do. So using a collection of those hashtags is going to be key, but you can use and reuse some of the same hashtags over and over again.
And then the third question that I get all the time is How many hashtags do you actually need to use within your post? So this is different for each social media outlet, but when it comes to Twitter and LinkedIn, less is more. I would say use 1 to 3 hashtags per post. But when it comes to Instagram and TikTok, we get into a little bit different arena. With Instagram, you can use up to 30 hashtags.
A few years ago, the CEO of Instagram said that using 3 to 5 hashtags would probably be best for all Instagram users. But in my own experience and in the experience of other social media experts and other authors that I've worked with, using 3 to 5 doesn't always work. It's really using relevant hashtags. It doesn't mean just plopping a bunch of hashtags in your post just to fill all 30. You want to use a number of hashtags that really speak to what it is that you are talking about in your post.
So, for example, if you can find 30 hashtags that speak to the reader, speak to what you're talking about, and speak to what you provide as an author, use all 30. That's great. But if you can only find ten relevant hashtags, then only use ten. The key here is to use hashtags that are specific and relevant to your content. So the same applies with TikTok. Use a relevant number of hashtags that speak towards your content.
All in all, hashtags still play a very important role in your overall social media presence, but it's just using them a little differently than what we used to use them as before. So be sure to really be mindful of what you use in regards to your hashtags. Do a little bit of research. I would suggest using hashtags that have less than a million posts, specifically for Instagram and on TikTok. You don't want to use hashtags that have millions and millions of posts - on TikTok there are some that have billions that use those particular hashtags. Try to aim at a million or less. And this does take a little bit of research. So take your time and be mindful again and intentional with your hashtags.
So just to recap. Hashtags are still relevant and you want to use three different categories of hashtags. You want to use hashtags that speak to your reader, that speak to the content that you're sharing, and speak to what you share as an author. You still want to use a decent number of hashtags, but focus on relevant hashtags for your posts.
So if you do have questions or have any thoughts or feedback on hashtags, let us know in the comments or send us a note and let us know what you think.
(Automatic transcript by Adobe Premiere Pro’s Speech to Text)