3 reasons why your small business should be using hashtags!

Including hashtags in your posts means taking part in a conversation happening on that social media platform. And most importantly, it makes your posts visible in that conversation.

Karen Olafson,

Hashtags have become a search engine within social media. You can easily find similar content just by clicking on the hashtag. Almost like a filter, if you see a post or photo that you like, you can follow the hashtag trail to find more! While many of us already use hashtags, the main focus should be on small business owners.

Why should small businesses be using them?
It’s simple – REACH!
Let’s get started..

3 reasons small businesses should use hashtags:

1. Brand Awareness
2. Engagement
3. Attract New Customers

Brand Awareness

Brand awareness is extremely important for small businesses. Consumers need to know who you are and one of the easiest ways to do that through social media is using a hashtag. By simply using the brand name or slogan as a hashtag, you’re likely to reach your target audience faster!

Another advantage of a hashtag for brand awareness is the community wide hashtags. For example, if you’re a small business owner and you’re not using #smallbusiness, that’s a shame! When you use that hashtag, your content will be featured with other small businesses as well.

#SmallBusiness hashtags should be in the arsenal of every new business.

Nadia Carmon

Adding #smallbusiness to all social media posts will help with brand awareness. Adding your own business hashtag to the same post will help connect other small business owners to your brand and even new customers as well!

Engagement

By utilizing your own small business hashtag, it will encourage engagement from old and new customers. Engagement is everything when it comes to social media, especially for businesses. Using a brand’s hashtag will increase traffic to the brands website and social media profiles. When customers use it, the target audience becomes wider as well, meaning you reach more people. Every time the hashtag is used, engagement can be measured to see the success.

If your brand already has a hashtag and it’s not getting the engagement you had hoped, it’s time to adjust. Ask yourself…

• Is the hashtag too specific?
• Are you utilizing popular hashtags (ex. #smallbusiness) with your brand’s hashtag?

Hello New Customers!

The power of a hashtag can increase your following dramatically with just one post on social media. The simplicity of a hashtag is easy enough that anyone can use it, which is key! If one person uses a business’s hashtag, that persons followers just saw your brand. Every time someone utilizes your hashtag, more people see it. This increases the chances of gaining new customers every time it’s used! So simple and yet so affective!

Hashtags are such an underutilized tool on social media, especially for small businesses. Using a hashtag creates an opportunity to increase brand awareness to your target audience on a much larger scale.

Just remember, before you post, make sure you have your brand’s hashtag and other like hashtags to help increase your presence on social media.

What hashtags are you currently using? How can you tailor them to be more beneficial for your business?

For more small business tips and tricks, check out The Social Observer!

Category: Advanced Tactics