In this episode of our Cutting Edge Digital Tactics for the Outdoors, I discuss the trends, tips and best practices in 2017 for the use of hashtags with various social media platforms with Casey LeBrun, Marketing Strategist at Revenue River. Casey is one of their social media trendsetters. The focus will be about insights and trends affecting how outdoor industry marketing content creators should be using the hashtag. Check out the Fundamentals of Digital Marketing for the Outdoor Industry.
For the full interview, check out our blog on this topic.
Trends in the Use of Hashtags
Ron- Casey, thanks for joining me today on The Digital Outdoorsman. Refresh me for a minute, what is a hashtag and is it a fad or here to stay?
Casey- People are more likely to forget that # stood for "pound sign" than the fact it's use is now ubiquitous with its use in some movie or sitcom with the character saying, "oh yeah, #inyourface." It's here to stay. Using relevant hashtags with your social media posts you are cataloging your post by "topic." This makes it easier for the people in your potential audience you are trying to reach to find you. This increases your brand awareness and engagement.
R- Ok, let's talk a bit about best practices for different platforms. What are you seeing?
C- Let's start with Twitter. Hashtags really got their start with this platform. Based on research from Budda Media, Tweets with hashtags get two times more engagement. Buddy Media’s research also showed that the volume of hashtags bears monitoring: one or two hashtags appear to be the max. When you use more than two hashtags, your engagement actually drops by an average of 17 percent. Remember with Twitter, you only have so much space to use.
R- With Google being the dominant search engine, what about their Google + platform?
C- Google+ automatically gives your posts hashtags based on their content, but you can also edit them or add your own. Also unique about Google+: You can add hashtags in your comments as well as your post – double the opportunities to be found.