How to Hashtag Like A Pro

Hashtags have been a component of social media marketing since the beginning and yet many people still don’t really understand how to utilize hashtags for their benefit. Using hashtags goes deeper than slapping a pound sign (#) in front of a word or phrase and often takes some research to make effective. If you’re looking to up your game on your library’s social media strategy, we’ll teach you how to hashtag like a pro, to make sure the content you work so hard on is reaching your target audience!

WHY HASHTAG AT ALL?

You might be wondering, why bother at all with hashtags? Great question. Hashtags, if used correctly can increase your content visibility beyond your followers. This is because a hashtag isn’t simply a phrase or a word with the pound sign (#) in front of it. It’s the # symbol that turns the phrase into a metadata tag, which automatically groups all posts containing that hashtag together on that channel. Therefore, using a hashtag ties your piece of content to a topic that is easily searchable by any user on social media. For instance, if I post this blog and include #LibraryMarketing in the caption, someone in India could search that hashtag and find my post. Hashtags used to be native only to Twitter, but over the years, all platforms have adapted to this format. Using a hashtag allows for social media platforms to categorize your content and serve it to users who may not directly follow you through their various “discover” feeds.

HASHTAG SELECTION PROCESS

Ok so now that you know why you should definitely be using hashtags, it’s time to find out how to pick the right ones. Because the metadata is collecting other content with the same hashtag and curating a discover page, you’ll want to be specific about choosing the correct hashtag that actually reflects the topic of your content. This requires a little bit of research on the different platforms you intend on posting to. First, brainstorm the hashtags that you think will work best with your content. Then search those hashtags on each platform to see if they’re active and relevant to what you’re posting. It’s always a good idea to use a mixture of hashtags, some that are broad and general like #MarketingBlog and some that are small and more niche to your world like #Bookstagram. Look up other libraries on social media to see what hashtags they’re regularly using to discover more of the niche topics. 

HASHTAG TRENDS

There are a number of regularly used hashtag trends that have a mass following. It might be beneficial for you to sprinkle these into your posts here and there, or even create a new social media campaign tied into one of these topical hashtags. The most popular trends are tied to days of the week. Surf through these hashtags for every day of the week to get inspiration for your social media content. The most popular hashtags like #MondayMotivation, #TransformationTuesday or #TBT for Throwback Thursday have millions of posts on Instagram tied to that metadata. Finding a way to incorporate #WednesdayWisdom or something similar into your social media calendar on a weekly basis could not only help your library’s reach, but could also become a fun trend that people look forward to. For example, here at the New Jersey State Library, every Thursday we feature a photo from our historical Jerseyana collection with a relevant quote for #ThrowbackThursday. The collection features historical photos of libraries throughout New Jersey and each week people are excited to see it and share with their communities, especially if it features a photo of their own library from the past. Hashtags and daily trends are here to stay and using them strategically can only help your library’s brand!