If you are even 10% active on social media, you have definitely heard the term ‘hashtag’. Hashtags gained momentum on the social media platform of twitter where it was used for trending topics but gradually won over instagram and now facebook, linked-in too! I decided to write about this because I see a lot of ‘interesting’ usage of hashtags everyday and my OCD about proper titles, descriptions and social media elements poke me when I read them!

What is a hashtag?

In simple words, hashtag is text joint with the symbol of # and is used on the social media platforms to bring posts of similar topics under one heading. It is a ‘link’ which gathers various posts posted by different people who has used that specific hashtag under a giant umbrella. So when you want to make your post discoverable under a common interest you can use a trending hashtag for that topic. For example, when I release a new song in the marathi language, I can use the hashtag #newmarathisong to make bring it under the umbrella of collection of new marathi songs.

Things to keep in mind when using a hashtag

1. A hashtag does not work with spaces. The text has to be joint with the symbol of #. So the correct hashtag is #newmarathisong and not # new marathi song.
2. Hashtags are not case sensitive. But if your hashtag is not a single word, you can use capital letters to begin a new word and that would make it more readable. For example : #NewMarathiSong.
3. Spellings are very important for hashtags. It is not about the correct or wrong spelling but about using the EXACT spelling of the hashtag you want to be under. Even if you want to say the same thing but there is one letter missing, your post won’t be included in the hashtag
4. There is no rule as to who should use a hashtag, but if the purpose of it is to be fully understood, it is a discovery tool – if you are writing a post and hunting tool – if you are looking for content on a specific topic. So in this ideal scenario, #happy birthday #dear # best friend or something similar is of very little significance to the actual concept of hashtag.
5. Here is how you can use hashtag for work . Try and search for trending hashtags in your area of work and use them in your relevant posts. If you want to learn more about a specific topic related to your work, search that hashtag in the search window of your social media platform and you will have a bundle of information on the same.
6. You can create your own unique hashtag and use it every time you post to create your identity and bring all your posts under that umbrella. For example, all my travel blog posts are under #smtravelstories. This is unique hashtag to places we have visited and is not a discovery-based hashtag for travel industry.
7. Avoid hashtag crowds. Too many hashtags make it difficult to read the post and can also seem annoying, There isn’t any rule as how many hashtags one must use, but we can try and keep it reasonable.

This was a simple post to share my experiences of using digital media. If you would like to share any insights on this, please share it in the comments! Would love to know more! If you need a customised solution for digital media for any of your projects, I would be happy to help here : https://saeetembhekar.com/digital-media-services/