Hashtag Tracking to measure the Impact of your Social Media
Hashtags are a vital aspect of any social media marketing strategy. A great way to identify related stuff, give your audience an easy way to find your content, and group identical conversations.
You’ve probably seen hashtags used previously on Twitter or Instagram. You’ve probably used hashtags on these platforms.
The ability to track hashtags is essential for any social marketer, whether they are seasoned hashtag experts or newbies. It’s vital to know which hashtags get the conversations going and make it easier to find content.
In this blog, we’ll discuss how to use hashtag tracking to increase your brand’s social media presence. Let’s get started.
What is a hashtag?
As the number of users of social media platforms increased, so did the volume of content on the platforms. Chris Messina, a Twitter user, suggested the use of hashtags (adding a ‘#’ before a continuous keyword or phrase) to tag related content. Twitter soon adopted the use of hashtags and now it has become one of the most effective marketing tools and a great means to find relevant content.
Important Hashtag Metrics
Here are some important hashtag metrics to monitor for identifying the right hashtags.
Popularity: It’s important to know how popular the hashtag you’re utilizing is. The hashtags that your audience often uses and is frequently searched for are ideal for use in your tweets. Just make sure that you are not using any unrelated hashtags just to show up in the searches.
Reach: It’s important to know how many people actually notice the hashtags you use. Using the wrong hashtags can limit your audience’s exposure.
Engagement: In addition to ensuring that your hashtags are being seen and used, you also want to ensure that your followers are engaging with them. Increasing the reach of your campaign is as simple as using hashtags that get shared and retweeted by other users.
Users: What are the hashtags being used for? People who are in your target demographic should use and search for the same hashtags that you are planning to use so that your message reaches the right audience.
Use a Hashtag Tracking Tool
There are numerous new hashtags introduced every day and you never know which one of them might go viral. Furthermore, it’s not possible to manually track all the conversations related to a popular hashtag and measure its performance. So, it’s best to use a third-party hashtag tracking tool such as TrackMyHashtag.
An AI-driven Twitter hashtag tracking and analytics that can help you find the most popular hashtag in your industry. It also provides in-depth analytical insights that can help you choose the right hashtags to promote your brand and increase the reach of your content.
For hashtags on Twitter, Trackmyhashtag provides a list of other relevant hashtags, how many tweets use that hashtag per hour, how many retweets that hashtag receives per hour, and how many people are seeing that hashtag per hour.
Key features of TrackMyHashtag:
- Identify popular industry hashtags
- Download historical hashtag data
- Track hashtag performance in real-time
- Track hashtag campaigns
- Find key influencers
Which Hashtags to Track
Here are the hashtags that you must track and analyze with a hashtag tracking tool.
Content Hashtags: Content hashtags are keywords that you include at the end or within your post. #socialmediamarketing is a content hashtag in the context of this article. Content hashtags are also industry hashtags. Keep track of these so you know which content hashtags to use when posting blog posts or other company news.
Trending Hashtags: Simply click the search icon in the Twitter App and then the trending tab to find the trending hashtags. It displays the most popular hashtag on the platform. Incorporating these hashtags into your tweets will help you get into hot hashtags and boost the visibility of your company. You may also go viral if done correctly.
Event Hashtags: You should use the event’s hashtag in all your postings regarding the event, whether you’re tweeting about an event, or whether your brand is hosting an event. In order to increase the number of people who hear about your event and use the hashtag you’ve created, consider using live tweeting to spread the word about it.
Campaign Hashtags: What better way to spread the word about a company’s products and services than by creating an official hashtag for the company and its consumers to use? Since these hashtags are so relevant to each campaign’s goal, they are also perfect for tracking purposes. Monitoring the use of your campaign/ad hashtags and how well they catch on with your audience can be made easy using hashtag tracking.
Branded Hashtags: A branded hashtag is one that your company has developed and promotes as a way for others to directly tag your firm. For example, #nike is a hashtag that Nike uses to market its products on Twitter. Furthermore, the audience uses these hashtags the most when sharing their experiences with your brand’s products and services. So, it’s better to follow these hashtags to find out what they think of you.
How Many Hashtags to Use?
Twitter: When it comes to hashtags, they are the most relevant on Twitter. Using 1-2 hashtags can double your engagement. Although, using any more than 2 hashtags can drop the engagement as well.
Facebook: On Facebook, using hashtags helps your content acquire recognition, generate new followers for your brand, and expand your total reach. You should use only a couple of relevant hashtags for your post when using hashtags on Facebook.
Instagram: Up to 30 hashtags can be used in an Instagram post, and it’s highly advised that you do so in order to get the most exposure and engagement.
LinkedIn: LinkedIn has just incorporated hashtags into their platform, they have also created a search method that focuses on hashtags as well. Your company’s LinkedIn post can benefit from up to three hashtags, so it’s a good idea to include them in your article. There is no restriction on the number of hashtags you can use in your post, but 2-3 is a good place to start.
Hashtags Best Practices
Hashtags are one of the most effective organic ways to increase your brand’s reach to connect with a larger audience size. Let’s dive into some of the best hashtag marketing practices :-
- Perform thorough research– Before using a hashtag, you must do complete research for a hashtag. Extract insights and statistics and analyze performance metrics can help you achieve your defined goals.
- Identify trending and popular hashtags– When it comes to increasing your brand awareness and reach organically, use trending and popular hashtags. A hashtag analytics tool can help you find and track trending and popular hashtags related to your industry.
- Identify trending conversations– Tracking trending hashtags can also help you find popular discussions related to your brand. You can use these hashtags to enter into trending conversations to generate awareness about your brand. Along with this, you can also gain followers related to your brand.
- Track hashtag analytics and performance metrics– You must consistently track hashtag analytics and performance metrics. It enables you to measure the impact of implemented strategies. Doing so can help you improvise your hashtag marketing strategies in real-time.
- Use a hashtag analytics tool– Choose an effective hashtag analytics tool to monitor the performance metrics of a hashtag in real-time. A tool can help you automate the analysis part and provide useful statistics. You can identify effective strategies as well as the ones that don’t work. You can use Trackmyhashtag, an effective hashtag tracking tool which can track real-time performance metrics in real-time.
- Analyze competitors’ hashtags– Along with tracking your brand’s hashtag, don’t forget to track your competitor’s hashtags. It can help you analyze their social media and hashtag marketing strategies. By doing that, you can implement similar and improved strategies to grow your brand.
Wrapping Up
Now that you know what hashtag tracking is, which metrics are crucial, and the kind of hashtags you must track, it’s time to get started on planning your hashtag tracking strategy. Start by tracking hashtags with TrackMyHashtag today and magnify the reach of your content by using the right hashtags.
Until next time!