How does hashtagram work

When used properly, hashtags are a great way for individuals and brands to make their social posts more visible and increase engagement. They can give people useful context and cues for recall, aggregate posts and images together, and update a group of like-minded individuals on certain a topic in real time.

The key is to use hashtags sparingly and only when they add value. Use them too much, and they can be confusing, frustrating, and just plain annoying. A Twitter hashtag ties the conversations of different users into one stream.

If Twitter users who aren't otherwise connected to one another talk about the same topic using a specific hashtag, their tweets will appear in the same stream.

Here's what a hashtag stream on Twitter looks like -- we'll use MotivationMonday as an example:. Most of the good stuff takes place in the center of this page. For the hashtag MotivationMonday, you'll see there are a few ways to toggle the hashtag stream: Top the default , Latest, People, Photos, Videos, and More.

On the left-hand side of the screen on the MotivationMonday stream, you'll find "Related searches. Want to get involved in the conversation, or even start your own? Using a hashtag on Twitter is as simple as publishing a tweet from a public account that includes the hashtag, like this:. A little inspiration for your MotivationMonday.

As long as your account is public, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your tweet. There are a few ways to find hashtags on Twitter. If you already know the hashtag you want to search for, there are four main ways to search for it: a simple search, an advanced search, monitoring using a third-party tool, or typing it directly into the URL.

If you're searching for a hashtag but want to include more details in your search, try Twitter's Advanced Search. Here, you can search for tweets with specific words and phrases, written in a certain language, from certain accounts, near certain locations, published on certain dates, and even containing smiley : or frowny : faces. For example, if I wanted to search for the sad MotivationMonday tweets, I might search for the MotivationMonday hashtag with a frowny face, like so:.

The results show up in a stream with different toggle options, just like our original hashtag search. You can also use a third-party monitoring tool like HubSpot's Social Inbox to monitor certain hashtags.

These tools will put certain hashtags in a stream beside any other streams you've set up in the tool already. Click here for detailed instructions on how to create monitoring streams. Finally, you can search for a hashtag by typing it directly into a URL like so: twitter.

So MotivationMonday can be found at twitter. If you're searching for popular hashtags from scratch, the best place to look is the trending topics bar on the left-hand side of your homescreen. Popular hashtagged words often become trending topics -- which are topics so many people are talking about that they are a "trend. By default, Twitter tailors these trending topics to you based on your location and whom you follow.

If you want to change the location Twitter uses to tailor your trends, you can do so by clicking "Change" to the right of "Trends. Twitter's native "trending topics" is limited to only a few hashtags, so if you want to find more outside of trending topics and you don't know what to search for, consider using Advanced Search to browse tweets, or a third-party application like Trendsmap.

Along with hashtags for events, campaigns, and promotions, there are these unique things on Twitter called Twitter Chats. I like how Buffer explains them : "Imagine a business networking event -- but without a dress code and with a keyboard instead of a bar.

There are Twitter Chats about pretty much everything, from marketing to personal finance to affinities for cats. If you're looking for Twitter chats to engage in, check out TweetReports' Twitter Chat Schedule , which you can toggle by date, hashtag, and topics like writing, social media, and so on. You can also submit your own Twitter chats to be considered. Like on Twitter, a Facebook hashtag ties the conversations of different users into one stream. But unlike Twitter and Instagram, where many people have public accounts and their posts can be seen by anyone, most people's Facebook posts and accounts are private.

This means that even if individuals are using hashtags, they aren't searchable. The result? The hashtags you can search for on Facebook tend to be published by influencers, brands, and publishers, rather than by individuals.

Here's what a hashtag stream on Facebook looks like, using MotivationMonday as an example:. But there's a much betterway to be strategic with hashtags for your business, and we're gonna unpackall of that, coming up. Where should you use them? Which ones should you use? In this video I am gonna share with you my super secret recipe to not only get yourcontent found more often, but to actually get morefollowers and to get more sales. And stick around to the end because I'm gonna share with you how to use very specific hashtags that your audience is actually looking for to ensure you get foundby the right people for your business.

So when it comes to hashtags,how many should you use? You can use up to 30, and anything beyond thatwon't show up in search. But your first 30 are freeto use however you want. But should you use 30?

Should you use five? Should you use 10? How many should you use? Personally I recommendusing at least 15 to Hashtags are ause-it-or-lose-it-type tool, meaning if you use the hashtags, there's a chance you're gonna get found.

If you don't, there's nochance of getting found. So more is better in general. Does that mean you should use all 30? Go for it. Use as many as you can use strategically and in relevance to your business. But I do recommend about15 to 20 as the minimum. Now I know you may be freaking out 'cause some people think that's a lot and it's hard to come upwith that many hashtags. You might be able to think of three or four off the top of your head, but how can you come upwith 15 to 20 hashtags?

That is where the supersecret recipe comes into play. Here's the thing. You wanna combine a variety of hashtags. In order to figure outhow popular a hashtag is, if you go into the search on Instagram, go to the magnifyingglass, and start typing in a hashtag in the search results, it will tell you howmany posts are associated with each of those hashtags.

So you're gonna wanna pickthree to five popular hashtags. By popular, I define that as something in the low- to mid-hundreds of thousands, up to a million posts,for a specific hashtag. Anything over a millionbasically becomes irrelevant to you because it's so saturated with content that the only thing you're going to attract are spambots.

And we don't want that. Then you're gonna pick threeto five moderately popular. These are gonna be hashtags that fall in the kinda high tens of thousands into that mid-hundreds of thousands range.

And then you're gonna pickthree to five niche-specific. These are super targeted specifically to your industry, what you do, the solution you provide, whatyour customer is looking for. And then you're also going to include your one to two branded hashtags.

That alone, you're alreadyup to 12 to 15 hashtags without even trying, so you caneasily get to that 15 to Now the key is to find relevanthashtags for your business. We're not gonna usepopular hashtags like love or vacation, or somethingthat's super popular that everybody is using, because it's not related specifically to your business and it's too concentrated. Instead we wanna pick something that is very specific to your industry, to the content that youspecifically posted, or what it is you offer as a solution.

So now that you've picked your hashtags, you know you're gonna useall of these different ones, why does this work? The popular hashtagsgive you an initial burst of activity from non-followers.

But within a matter of seconds, maybe into minutes, yourcontent is gonna be buried in the archives of those popular hashtags. So moderately popularhashtags are gonna keep you active for hours into days. Instead, you might choose one or two. Additionally, if you want to embark on a deep-dive, you can take HubSpot's Instagram Marketing Course.

Here, you have three options. You can look through your Photos library on your phone, you can take a new picture from right within Instagram, or you can take a new video. For our purposes, I looked through my Photos library and found a picture of Boston I wanted to use.

Then, I clicked "Next" in the top right. There are two categories you can use to edit your image -- "Filter" and "Edit". Instagram automatically shows you filters first. You can scroll through the carousel and click any of the filters to apply it to your image.

Additionally, if you want to use a filter but you want to tone it down, double tap the filter and move the cursor to the left to lessen the intensity of the filter.

Next, click "Edit". Here, you can adjust contrast, brightness, structure, warmth, and more. When you're happy with your edited image, or if you don't want to edit it at all, click "Next" in the top right.

Now, you can add a caption, tag people you can only tag someone if they also have an Instagram account , and add a location. Additionally, click the button beside Facebook or another linked social media account to share your image on that platform, as well. When you're ready to publish, click "Share" in the top right. In , Instagram launched "Stories" , a feature that allows you to post videos or images that disappear after hours. Instagram's Stories feature is similar to Snapchat in terms of content -- users often post more casual and candid videos and images, offering glimpses into their every day lives.

For instance, you might post a heavily-edited picture of yourself and friends at a baseball game. But you might post a more candid video to your Story of the stadium singing "Sweet Caroline". Click the camera icon in the top left. Once you're within the Stories feature, you can take a picture or video right from within the app.

Alternatively, if you have an image saved to your phone that you'd like to use, click the small square in the bottom left corner. In the top right, you have a few different editing features. The smiley face lets you add a location, hashtag, time, date, and other fun images or emojis to your picture. The pencil lets you handwrite or draw on your image. And the "Aa" icon is your text button. Once you click "Aa", you have the option to change your font by clicking "Classic" at the top.

If you click the smiley face icon, you'll see the following screen. Simply click on one of the icons to add them to your image. If you don't like it, drag it to the bottom, and a trash can will appear so you can delete it. For instance, I clicked the smiley face icon to add a location and hashtag to my image. You can also swipe to the left or right to add filters to your photo or video. It's incredibly easy to find and follow users. Using Instagram's search feature, you can find celebrities, brands, and friends.

Additionally, you can search "Tags" or "Places". For instance, you might search " familyrecipes" under tags -- your results will include any images with that hashtag. As you peruse, you might find someone who posts content you really like, and you can choose to follow them so their content appears on your feed.