The #Hashtag Takeover: Best Practices for Growing a Brand with Hashtags

Hashtags are becoming more and more common. A mere ten years ago, this symbol was known as a pound sign. Our internet marketing company in mid-Missouri has 20 years of experience and we've seen the transformation of hashtags over the past years. Traditionally, hashtags were introduced on Twitter to help connect posts by indexing keywords for easy search results. This week, hashtags are taking over our blog as MSW Interactive Designs dives deeper into the benefits of using hashtags across your social media and best practices for using them.

The History of Hashtags:

The first hashtag was used in 2007 and has since evolved and changed the way we communicate on social media. Hashtags began helping to connect ideas surrounding specific topics. People from all over the world can connect and share ideas and thoughts via a hashtag. World-wide movements have been sparked and gone viral, all connected by this powerful symbol.

Benefits of Using Hashtags:

  • Extend your brand's reach.
  • Build business following.
  • Connect with your audience.

Best Practices for Marketing with Hashtags:

Create a Unique Hashtag

Having a specific hashtag for your business is a great marketing strategy. Anytime that hashtag is used, your business posts will appear. It's a great tactic to help subtly push your brand as you make regular posts across various platforms that support hashtags.

Get Specific for your Audience

Try to narrow down your niche audience or ideal client through your hashtags. Instead of a generic term, try to make it more specific about the type of person you're trying to reach with your message. For example, instead of targeting all "college graduates" (that's a wide range), you can target "new college grads" for a specific product or service you may offer to assist a person who falls into that category.

Match Hashtags to Each Platform

Find and use the appropriate hashtag types and the number of hashtags, when posting to each platform. Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter all optimize for between 2-5 well thought out hashtags that are targeted to your message or brand. On Instagram, it's more freely targeted as you can use many more hashtags (it's even encouraged) and you can target a specific demographic with your hashtags to get in front of specific audiences.


Hashtags are an effective marketing strategy to help your message reach more of the right people for your business. Social media can be an overwhelming task for many small businesses and our online marketing company at the Lake of the Ozarks helps a number of local and national businesses run highly effective social media campaigns and we'd love to help you, too!




Phone: 877-211-5492

Info@MSWInteractiveDesigns.com

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