Let’s clear up some misunderstandings and misconceptions about hashtags today and get you on track with how to use them properly for your beauty, spa or wellness business to your advantage. You don’t want to overuse  hashtags and you want to make sure you are using them correctly on Facebook and Twitter. When creating a hashtag, proper etiquette is key. The misuse, or overuse, of hashtags can lead to permanent account suspensions, unfollowing, and/or upsetting the social media community. It is important to ensure hashtags directly relate to the topic being discussed. Let’s go over these two so your post to both of these social networks will be beneficial for you and save you from some “hashtag blunders.”

Hashtags on Facebook:

Hashtags turn topics and phrases into clickable links in your posts on your personal Timeline or your  Business Page. This helps people find posts about topics they’re interested in on Facebook. To make a hashtag, write # (the number sign) along with a topic or phrase (written as one word) and add it to your post. Also, make sure the hashtag you use is related to that post and makes sense. Don’t go on a hashtag frenzy and overuse them, because it will come across as “spammy” to people. Have you tried clicking on one of those hashtags you used to see what comes up in the feed? You will be surprised at some, so be careful how you use them. When using key words for your hashtags and using theme correctly, it will boost your search engine optimization. (SEO) Don’t go making up sentences or 2-3 word sentences that will not even be SEO worthy or pull up in a hashtag search. It’s really to your disadvantage and can be annoying to your viewers. Here is an example:

• 7 Tips to Healthier Skin. #skincare #healthyskin #skincaretips
• 50% off sale on all hair care products today only! #haircare #organicshampoo

When you click a hashtag, you’ll see a feed of posts that include that particular hashtag. You can search for a hashtag using the search bar at the top of any page. Note that you’ll only see posts that were shared with you. If you share a public post, like those shared by Pages, and allow people to follow you, anyone who clicks that hashtag can see your post in that feed.

Hashtags on Twitter:

• People use the hashtag symbol # before a relevant keyword or phrase (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets and help them show more easily in Twitter Search.
• Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets marked with that keyword.
• Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet – at the beginning, middle, or end.
• Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics.
• If you Tweet with a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your Tweet
• Don’t #spam #with #hashtags. Don’t over-tag a single Tweet. *Best practices on Twitter recommend using no more than 2 hashtags per Tweet.
• Use hashtags only on Tweets relevant to the topic.

*Note: To avoid account suspension, read Twitter’s “Best Practices” on hashtags.

As a marketer for your beauty, spa or wellness business you can’t ignore using hashtags. You need to know how to strategically implement your tagged topics. Hashtags can expand your content reach, amplify your brand, target your market, get your content found, improve your SEO, and more.

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To Your Success,

Valarie Hurst