Last week, we began to learn about hashtag etiquette and how to make marketing hashtags clear and effective. Today, we are going to dive deeper into the world of hashtags by discussing how to know if your hashtags are reaching and impacting your target audience. Let’s see how well you did with Hashtag 101!
Keyword Analysis
Keyword analysis isn’t just for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)! Search for your hashtag, or variations of your hashtag, to find out the volume and frequency of posts related to your hashtag. This can be accomplished by using the search feature on your chosen social media platform.
For example, take a minute and type #burgers into the search feature on Instagram. See how many posts come up? Notice that you can scroll across the top of the page and see related hashtags, such as #burgerlover and #onionrings. You’ll also see some popular burger brands, such as McDonalds and Red Robin. Try this with your hashtag and see what comes up.
If you want to get even deeper into hashtag analytics, you could choose to purchase a more powerful hashtag analytics system such as Advanced Listening.
Partner with Influencers
Just who are influencers? They are the people at the top of any given industry who have a lot of credibility and can serve as brand advocates. If you know your audience well, you’ll know which influencers they follow and care about. Approaching these influencers in your industry can significantly increase your online presence. When influencers use your hashtags, they will be seen by many more people then they would be if you were hashtagging alone!
Check out this great article from Clutch for a step-by-step approach to partnering with influencers.
Analyze Your Competition
Even if you think you’re up-to-date on industry trends, it’s always a good idea to keep an eye on what your competition is doing. By using the search feature on your social media platforms or by using a purchased analytics system, you can see what hashtags your competition is using, as well as who they are partnering with and what campaigns are associated with them. This may spark a new idea for your next campaign!
Measure Your Hashtag Campaign
So how do you know if your hashtag campaign was successful? You will need to monitor your mentions, views and followers. Good hashtags make people want to mention your hashtag in their posts. Additionally, you’ll want to compare your numbers of views and followers before and after your hashtag campaign.
An effective campaign will cause both of these numbers to increase. By measuring these three things, you’ll have some hard data about the effectiveness of your efforts. And if you find that this particular campaign wasn’t as successful as you would have liked, run a keyword analysis and hashtag again!