Hashtag in social media

Today, most of the people are familiar with hashtags. A hashtag or the symbol “#” as it is more commonly known has become an integral part of social media. Whether you are on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or any other social media channels, you simply cannot escape the all-encompassing presence of the #hashtag. But, do you actually know what is a hashtag and what does hashtag mean? So, in this article, we’re going to find out what a hashtag is and how it can help in marketing.

What is a hashtag?

A hashtag is a type of metadata tag used on social networks such as Twitter and other microblogging services, allowing users to apply dynamic, user-generated tagging which makes it possible for others to easily find messages with a specific theme or content; it allows easy, informal markup of folk taxonomy without need of any formal taxonomy or markup language. It helps others who are interested in a certain topic, quickly find content on that same topic.

Users create and use hashtags by placing the number sign or "#" sign (known as the hash character) in front of a string of alphanumeric characters, usually a word or unspaced phrase, in or at the end of a message. The hashtag may contain letters, digits, and underscores.

When it comes to social media, the hashtag is used to draw attention, to organize, and to promote. Hashtags got their start in Twitter as a way of making it easier for people to find, follow, and contribute to a conversation. Archeologists have unearthed this early tweet, and believe it to be the first time the hashtag was used for this purpose.

Why should you use hashtags?

With thousands of images published every minute on all social platforms, it can be hard to stand out amongst the crowd. The possibility for your post to be seen isn’t promising unless they are one of your followers. That’s where hashtags come into play. A hashtag is a keyword or phrase preceded by the hash symbol (#), written within a post or comment to highlight it and facilitate a search for it. Essentially, by including hash marks in your post; it can be indexed by the social network so that it can be discoverable to everyone, even if they’re not your followers or fans. By adding hashtags, your content will be accessible to all other users interested in similar topics who search for your hashtagged topic or word. The hashtag can greatly broaden the reach of your social media posts to thousands of potential followers, fans or customers.

How to use hashtags?

Hashtags, once your phone’s pound sign, now have a place on most popular social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Instagram, and Pinterest. The hashtag is likely the most popular means of categorizing content on social media. It makes your own content discoverable and allows you to find relevant content from other people and businesses.

Using a hashtag on a social post is really as simple as adding the # sign before a single word or phrase, without spaces or punctuation. You can also include numbers in your hashtags as well. Typing out a hashtag is simple enough, but Here are a few quick rules for how to use hashtags without making the mistakes -

• Don’t string too many words together with a single hashtag.

• If you use a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hashtag can find your post.

• Don’t #spam #with #hashtags. Avoid over-tagging a single post or adding them to every word.

• Use hashtags only on Tweets relevant to the topic. Trying to get attention by using a mismatch between the content of your Tweet and hashtag use won’t do you any favors if people are annoyed.