Hey there, my fabulous listener, welcome to episode 208 of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast.
Thank you for lending me your ears today – I know you have lots of choices, so I sincerely appreciate me being one of them!
If you’re enjoying this podcast – I’d love you to take a screenshot and share it on your socials and tag me in it. How cool would that be!
Don’t forget you can get the show notes for this podcast at www.socialmediaandmarketing.com.au/208
Before I get started on today’s episode – how did you go with last week’s episode? Episode 207? If you didn’t listen into that one – then once you are finished here – slip back there for even more small business made simple GOLD! My guest Kathy Rast talked about the power of words and give some pretty amazing advice to us on the use of language in marketing.
And again, just before I get into today’s episode, if you are, as a business owner, struggling to get content out there, struggling for content ideas, then have you signed up to get my monthly calendar of prompts? A creative content prompt for every day of the month – so September today! If you haven’t and would like it – simply go to https://bit.ly/JennSeptemberCalendar and sign up to get it delivered instantly!
Anyway, on to today’s episode – we are talking hashtags!
Those pesky little things that turn us upside down trying to work out when to use them, why to use them and how freaking many to use on what platform!
For little things, they cause big headaches!
So, let’s analyse these little buggers some more.
Firstly, what is a hashtag, and what is it used for?
Well, I think we all know what they are – they are the naughts and crosses symbol and what they are for is to help you to be found on social media for particular subject matters, locations, campaigns etc.
They are a way of grouping together similar content to help the consumer of the content find it all in one place.
So, let’s start here – there are 5 types of hashtags to keep in mind when you are thinking about what to use them for.
- Location – so places, neighbourhoods, cities and countries
- Branded hashtags – so for campaigns, events and your brand – of course!
- Industry hashtags – for your business niche – eg/ marketing, social media etc
- Community hashtags – for a specific group of people – #blacklivesmatter
- Descriptive hashtags – the content of your actual post – eg/ catsofinstagram
It’s important that you don’t use just one type, and when you hear people say – don’t use the same hashtags all the time – this is what they really mean. You can’t use #catsofinstagram if your content is about trucks, or you shouldn’t use #australianruralbusinessawards2022 if you are talking about Christmas, for example.
Hashtags aren’t hard and fast rules; you need to test and measure what works.
A hundred marketing/social media specialists will probably have a slightly different take on them, so it’s super super important to test and measure for yourself – not just listen.
For example, Instagram For Business (so not Instagram but an account that looks like it’s Instagram) said earlier this year only to use 3 hashtags in your posts.
The platform blew up – ONLY 3 – What the …..
But the reality was, that was great for that account and accounts like it – they already have 14 million followers – so it makes sense, right – they don’t need to be found, just followed.
But for accounts like ours, with only 500 or 3000 followers, 3 isn’t going to get us far at all.
So, again, don’t just follow the advice you read or hear or see – test, measure, polish, test, measure polish!
Even what I’m saying here today – test it for yourself!
Ok, so next on my list to chat to you about is how many on what platform – I’m going to talk about the 4 most # popular platforms – Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Instagram first: How many # do you use on Instagram?
Well, it’s all about being found – so a few!
Make sure that 1/3 of what you use are <5K (and some are brand specific to you – after all, that’s the whole point!), 1/3 are between 5k and 300k, and 1/3 can be as huge as you want!
So how many?
For smaller accounts – up to 30
For larger accounts between 3 and 10
LinkedIn next: Be hyper focused on the content and think “connection”.
LinkedIn recommends between 2 and 5 #s.
Watch for trending #s that you can jump on board with.
Facebook: Using # on Fb is more like using them on LinkedIn than Insta.
Facebook recommends between 2 and 5. Again being hyperfocused on content and connections that would come from using that #.
Twitter – between 2 and 5. Again being hyperfocused on content and connections that would come from using that # and watch for trends you can jump on!
I hope this episode clarifies things for you and that you start to think more strategically about what ones you use.
But first, before you change up your # strategy after listening here today:
a. do an AUDIT of your current #s and see if you are coming up in feed for that #
b. if you aren’t, then ask yourself why not (e.g./ it’s massive and has millions of posts against it)
c. and then decide on any changes.
No matter the number you use, remember the different types – location, branded, industry, community and descriptive and make sure you are using a mixture of those because that’s how you can get more traction, more reach and hopefully, as we are doing all this work, more qualified leads of beautiful peeps who want to buy from us one day!
Ok, so that’s it for another week, and another episode of the Small Business Made Simple Podcast. Thanks again for listening.
I’d love you to come into my Facebook Community and continue the chat in there. If you aren’t a member of the Like Minded Business Owners Group – head there and join up!
See you next week on the podcast for episode 209!
But in the meantime, let’s hang out on social and get social on social – you’ll find me on Instagram, Facebook and my fav LinkedIn.
But whatever you do,
……..remember small business peeps, as my opening song says, there’s no point in dreaming small!
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