Finding relevant hashtags

Using relevant hashtags can make or break your social marketing campaign. If you are not using hashtags, now is a good time to start. But where to start …

First, if you are already marketing on social media, then you probably see many posts from competitors. If you are not, download an app like Perch or use Hootsuite to find your competitors and keep tabs on what they are doing. As you are doing this, take note of what hashtags they are using to get in front of customers. Most likely, they are using hashtags that are relevant to your industry and, more importantly, relevant to your customers.

Second, take the time to browse hashtags that are on the same posts that are using the hashtags you are already using. Many times, people have already researched hashtags for you. If you are savvy enough to find them, you will save time and possibly open more doors sooner. To take this to the next level, you can use a hashtag site called “Tagboard”.

Tagboard allows you to enter a particular tag and search for the posts containing that tag. Furthermore, Tagboard allows you to search hashtags across 6 different social networks:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google+
• Instagram
• Vine
• and Flickr

For this reason, Tagboard has fairly well-rounded demographics results. You may even be able to use this for determining which platforms may have the best results or least competition per given hashtag.

Third, look at hashtag websites and see what they suggest for relevant hashtags. Start by searching for a hashtag and then look at the other suggestions that come up. One excellent resource is finding relevant hashtags is ritetag.com.

This site has a paid service, but you can find relevant hashtags by their “hashtag mapping” function. This function allows you to input a hashtag and connect that hashtag to many other related hashtags. The web-like interface makes for an easy to use interface. In addition to finding hashtags, you can also find out how relevant a hashtag is to the general market. Rite Tag gives feedback on each hashtag.

You can see information like:

• Unique Tweets (per hour)
• Retweets (per hour)
• Potential Views (per hour)
• Tweets with Images (per hour)
• Tweets with Links (per hour)
• Tweets with Mentions (per hour)

In addition, the site gives a general idea of how much competition there is for a hashtag by tying each hashtag to a color coded rating system:

• Gray – Unused
• Red – Overused
• Blue – Good
• Green – Great

By this metric, you can get a very quick idea of what hashtags your competitors are using and which hashtags you should use. Take a moment to visit the site and familiarize yourself with getting around on Rite Tag. This resource is invaluable.

Thanks for reading! I hope that this helps!

~Joshua