How To Integrate Hashtags to Strengthen Your Marketing Campaign

Dara Busch, 5WPR on March 16, 2023

Businesses of all sizes are now leveraging the popular platform TikTok for marketing and taking advantage of the platform’s large user base and easy-to-use features. One effective way to promote a brand on the app is to use hashtag targeting.

Understanding Hashtags

It’s important to understand how to use hashtags, how they work, and what hashtags to use on TikTok or Instagram. When a customer clicks a hashtag, a word or group of words preceded by the “#” symbol, it allows them to explore the content associated with it. Hashtags can help people discover new content, as well as let businesses advertise products or services.

Using Hashtags

Companies posting on TikTok should use relevant hashtags to reach their audience. This includes specific hashtags related to the company, as well as broader hashtags targeted at the audience. For example, beauty product companies can leverage #makeuptutorial and #beautyhacks to reach makeup-lovers.

Trending Hashtags

Companies using hashtags on TikTok should stay aware of current trends including dances and challenges, these trends usually have corresponding hashtags. If there is an opportunity to pair your products with the trend in a way that makes sense, trends are the perfect opportunity to make use of hashtags that help to expand the reach of your audience, ending up on the pages of someone who might not be in your audience right now, but could still be interesting. 

How Many Hashtags Should I Use on Instagram or TikTok?

Number is key when using hashtags. While it’s tempting to add as many hashtags as possible to each post, it’s important to remember that too many can be detrimental. Recommended use is 3-5 per post, as too many can seem spam-like or desperate, reducing visibility.

Using Branded Hashtags

Brands can use hashtags to build user engagement on TikTok. Branded hashtags are unique to a particular brand or product, and allow users to connect with like-minded people who share the same interests. For instance, a skincare brand might create #glowyskin for their customers to share tips and advice about their products. 

Branded hashtags can also be an effective tool in upping brand recognition on TikTok. They serve the dual purpose of creating a sense of exclusivity and stimulating user-generated content. Recognizing that the hashtag links to a particular brand, users are more likely to interact with it. Companies can leverage this by encouraging their users to create content featuring the hashtag. This enhances visibility and grows their fan base of loyal brand supporters.

Timing

When using hashtags on social media, it’s essential to think about timing. TikTok has algorithms and best practices when it comes to posts, suggesting peak usage times in the evening and at weekends. By posting during these times, businesses can expand the reach of their posts and get seen by a bigger audience. In addition to timing, consistency is important as TikTok rewards posting frequently with the use of the hashtags.

Performance

Companies should track hashtag performance continually. This means monitoring the engagement and reach of each hashtag, and making adjustments as needed. If a hashtag isn’t successful, replace it or refine content to boost performance.

How to Encourage UGC from your Brand Followers

Dara Busch, 5WPR on February 7, 2023

These days, user-generated content is a powerful source of marketing material used by many brands. One of the main reasons behind it is the fact that this type of content allows companies to generate more engagement and awareness while connecting with their audiences on a personal level. Companies that want to take advantage of user-generated content will first have to put in place the right strategies. Those strategies should motivate their consumers to start creating and sharing their own user-generated content. Then, the company can then start incorporating it into its marketing strategies.

Audit

Auditing is the first step businesses will have to take to start incorporating user-generated content in their marketing strategies to identify the existing content that their consumers have shared in the past. To do that, businesses will have to head to some of the most popular social media platforms their consumers enjoy using, including Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Then, the company can begin their audit by looking up its name, any branded hashtags the company has created, and its physical location where possible. Companies have to remember not all consumers will end up tagging the brand on the content they’re sharing across social media platforms or even using branded hashtags. That means companies should think outside the box when conducting this type of audit.

Trends

The next step for companies to take is to look through all the content consumers have already shared about the company and its products, and identify trends among them. Some of the things that companies should take into consideration when analyzing past user-generated content include the people most likely to share content about the company and its solutions, the products or things they’re sharing the content about, and the location of the content when they shared it. Brands will need to identify the reason why the users decided to tag the company or use a branded hashtag.Identifying these details can help companies develop a more data-driven user-generated content strategy. This strategy will inform all user-generated content campaigns in the future for the business.

Incentive

Once the company has conducted an audit and analyzed the content that previous customers have shared in terms of user-generated content, it’s time to think about incentives that will motivate other potential customers to start sharing their own content. Call to actions should encourage users to create content that doesn’t focus on the brand, but rather content that focuses on the customers and their experience with the brand. This type of content succeeds because it showcases the way the customers are using and enjoying products while connecting with the brand. Companies can use the data they’ve gathered to figure out the best strategies to get more people to share their own content about the company and its solutions.

Which Companies Should Be Advertising on TikTok

Dara Busch, 5WPR on August 20, 2022

TikTok gives companies a great opportunity to promote their products or services and increase the target audiences, and their return on investment given the large user base that’s currently counting over 1 billion active users.

However, the biggest challenge that the companies face on the platform is standing out from the crowd and ensuring that the right audience will see a company’s ad at the right time.

Fortunately, companies that want to get more out of their TikTok advertising campaign should be utilizing the right strategies.

Read More about Which Companies Should Be Advertising on TikTok

Sharing Content on YouTube

Dara Busch, 5WPR on May 10, 2022

It’s not always easy for companies to create content for YouTube. Between brainstorming content ideas, scripting those ideas, filming, editing, publishing, and finally promoting the content, it takes a lot of work.

When a business is just starting out, it’s easy to begin the entire process with a struggle, especially if a company decides to invest a lot of time and effort into creating and uploading a piece of content that doesn’t end up getting a lot of traction.

Even companies that have been working on their YouTube marketing efforts for a while that aren’t getting the deserved traction, can improve their performance with the right strategies.

Read More about Sharing Content on YouTube

Top TikTok Business Strategies

Dara Busch, 5WPR on April 21, 2022

TikTok offers plenty of opportunities to every company, from small businesses to large enterprises. Plenty of big brands that have notable marketing budgets quickly turned TikTok into their marketing playground. Brands like Google, Coca-Cola, and Sony have established partnerships with popular creators on the platform to drive conversions and improve brand awareness.

Additionally, TikTokis going to great lengths to promote TikTok as the top social media platform for small businesses. It has done so by unveiling the Small Wins initiative and showing the value it can bring to smaller businesses around the world. TikTok has also become a popular app with younger generations of consumers, quickly surpassing Instagram in its popularity.

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Social Media Advertising vs. Traditional Advertising

Dara Busch, 5WPR on April 14, 2022

Social media advertising has quickly become a crucial avenue for companies to expand their reach.

The common perception is that it’s cheaper and more effective than traditional advertising such as TV, radio, and print. It has also proven to be highly effective, especially in terms of engagement.

Users on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other platforms are looking to share content with friends and followers.

When a brand creates an ad that appeals to their interests or passions, they become inclined to engage with it by liking it, sharing it, or even clicking through to linked websites.

Traditional advertising and social media advertising are quite different. The traditional methods of advertising include television, radio, newspaper, and magazine ads. Social media advertising is an entirely different world.

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