Did you know Hashtags were initially created to better organize content being posted to social media? They’re now one of the most powerful tools that B2B companies can use to generate brand awareness, leads, conversions, and more. Forbes tells us that effective hashtag use on Instagram can lead to a nearly 80% engagement rate. Are you looking to achieve marketing and sales growth by implementing B2B hashtags in your strategy?  Then keep reading to discover the best tips and tricks compiled by our Envision team of social media marketing experts for using hashtags effectively in the B2B sector.

Finding the Right Hashtags

Hashtags are an easy way to reach more users with your social media posts, which in turn can lead to more sales, leads, and conversions. With 72% of Americans using social media today, you can’t afford to not utilize the power of hashtags for your business. Without them, companies would have to hope that the right consumers found their content purely by chance (or the ever-changing algorithm). The first step in implementing hashtags for your B2B company is to understand which ones to use, and how often.  It’s tempting to include as many hashtags as possible in your posts regardless of relevancy, but taking the time to formulate a hashtag strategy will help you to generate the quality leads and conversions you’re looking for. 

One of the ways we help our clients compile applicable hashtags for their business is to look at the keywords being used for their website or any online ads. Often, these keywords can easily be turned into viable hashtags. To test your keywords for hashtag viability, type them into the search function on the social media platforms you’ll be using. You’ll be able to see how many posts fall under each hashtag and can determine your potential reach and engagement from there. One thing to keep in mind is that the most popular hashtags aren’t always the best to use. If you use a hashtag that is too broad and has been used millions of times, your post is less likely to be found than if you had used a more specific hashtag used only a few thousand times.

An additional way to discover hashtags is to look at which ones your competitors are using. While you will want to always tweak your hashtags to fit your own content and brand, this can be a great way to find hashtags that you may not have thought about or ones that are already speaking to your target clientele. Similarly, looking at the hashtags your audience or customers are using can be incredibly insightful as well. 

After you’ve done the research to find which hashtags you’d like to implement, begin compiling hashtags lists. You can do this by making lists of hashtags you will use in specific situations. For example, if you have multiple products or services that are fairly distinct from one another, try making lists of different hashtags for each one. This way you can be more easily found by consumers. For example, if you are in the commercial real estate industry targetting restaurants and fitness centers, your two branches of hashtags could be #RestaurantRealEstate and #FitnessCenterRealEstate. These are quite generic but should help you understand the differentiation between your products, services, and personas. 

Hashtags can be broken down into different categories, depending on which topics they cover or how they’re used. Some important categories for B2B companies include:

• Content Hashtags – These will relate specifically to the subject matter of your post. These should be words related to your industry, your services or products, or anything else that you discuss regularly.
• Branded Hashtags – These hashtags relate to your brand and can be your business name, your slogan, or any other words or phrases that are specific to your business. These can be great for businesses that already have strong brand awareness.
• Event Hashtags – These will be the names of events like trade shows or conferences, event hosts, and any other related phrases. Event hashtags are great to use whether you’re the host or an attendee. You can even use them if you’re not attending, as long as your post is related to the event’s industry.

Differentiate by Platform

Something else that’s very important to keep in mind when researching hashtags is their performance across different platforms. A hashtag that’s very popular on Twitter may not do so well on LinkedIn, and vice versa. Differentiating your hashtag strategy per platform is incredibly important to ensure that your content will perform at its absolute best and receive the conversions you’re looking for.

Here are some tips about using hashtags across platforms:

• LinkedIn – LinkedIn is incredibly important in the B2B world because it is a professional space. Additionally, there is less content posted to LinkedIn than on other platforms, increasing the chances that your content will be seen. LinkedIn states that optimally, you should use a maximum of 3 hashtags per post. Forbes also states that LinkedIn content shows up in Google searches, so the more targeted you can get with hashtags, the larger the audience you can reach.
• Instagram – Instagram is a platform where hashtags can really thrive – you can use up to 30 of them per post! While Instagram is more social than professional, it is still an important platform for B2B companies. About 81% of consumers use Instagram to research products and services, and 90% follow at least one brand. Ensuring your hashtag strategy is optimized for this platform can help you to generate even more viable leads.
• Twitter – Twitter is where hashtags were born, and the platform recommends that you use only two of them per Tweet. As the number of hashtags within a Tweet increases above two, engagement experiences a 17% drop. With only a small number of hashtags you should use, it’s important that you are using those that will perform the best for your business.
• Facebook – While Facebook supports the use of hashtags, the platform places less importance on their use than the platforms previously mentioned. Recommendations lean towards using them sparingly, taking a “less is more” approach. 

Hashtags are a very powerful tool for B2B companies to have in their marketing toolkit. They can help your content be seen by the right consumer audiences, and help generate quality leads and conversions. However, hashtags are just one part of an overall social media strategy that your business needs to perform at its very best. If you’re looking to spruce up your social strategy in order to boost your content’s performance, contact us today! Our team of marketing experts here at Envision is not only experienced in social media but can handle every one of your marketing needs.

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