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How to Incorporate Hashtag Trends Into Your Social Media Strategy

 

One of the most powerful tools you can use in your social media strategy is a hashtag. But if you don’t know how to use them properly, or which ones to use, they can do little to help, and can even hurt your brand. So, in this post, I want to show you some good ways to incorporate popular hashtag trends into your social media strategy.
But before I dive into the hashtag trends you can use, I want to warn you of hashjacking. I talk about this phenomenon frequently when I talk about hashtags on Instagram, but I want to reiterate it here.
Hashjacking is the practice of using popular hashtags that have no relation to your business or content, just to be found in popular searches. And this is a no-no. Adding popular tags that have no relevance to what you’re posting do not help your business. If anything, the hurt your business.
Imagine you’re looking for specific content related to an industry conference. But in searching that content hashtag, you find a number of posts that are selling shoes, or content promoting a new weight-loss pill, or posts advertising a new musician. What are the chances you’re going to actually look at this content. And would you actually buy from theses companies? Probably not.
And what if there is a local or national event with a hashtag. Maybe it’s a disaster or catastrophe. Or maybe even a celebration. Either way, do you really want to see a coffee shop promoting their local discount around this hashtag? No, you don’t.
So don’t hashjack.
Instead, use hashtags that are relevant to your business, your post content, or your industry. Anything else is unnecessary.

Daily Hashtag Trends

One of the biggest trends with hashtags is the daily hashtags. There’s everything from #MotivationMonday to #SelfieSunday. Find the daily hashtags that work for your industry or brand and create content that capitalizes on these trends.
Some of the most popular hashtags are:

• #MotivationMonday, or #MondayMotivation
• #TransformationTuesday
• #WellnessWednesday, or #WednesdayWisdom
• #ThrowbackThursday, or #tbt (for short)
• #FlashbackFriday
• #SelfieSunday, or #SundayFunday

But how do you incorporate these hashtags?
If you want to share motivational quotes, moments of inspirations, stories of success, or other content to motivate your audience, craft that content around the #motivationmonday hashtag.
If you work in the health and wellness industry, the #transformationtuesday and #wellnesswednesday hashtags give you plenty of content to work with. But even if you’re not in the health industry, you can also use the #transformationtuesday hashtag to show how your business transforms your clients or projects. If you work in landscaping, construction, or another trade, you “transform” projects all the time. Use before-and-after shots with the #transformationtuesday tag to showcase this work.

The #throwbackthursday hashtag is one of the most popular hashtags in use today. The idea is to show photos of you “back in the day”. Many people share photos of themselves as kids or in certain eras that give us all a good laugh. But you can incorporate this fun trend into your business as well. If your brand is based on you as an individual, you can show photos of you from various stages of your life. But even if you’re a business, you can go back in time and show how your business has grown. If you have photos of old marketing materials, photos of your business location from when it opened, or photos of your staff over the years, these are all types of content that can play into the #tbt or #flashbackfriday trends. Just, don’t overdo this one.

Another one which you can find creative ways to incorporate is the #selfiesunday hashtag. I know, I’m always advising you to avoid the selfie overload. So why would I encourage this one? Well, I’m not thinking so much “selfies” but selfies of your products. Take a photo of your product instead of a selfie of you. Starbucks and other food and beverage companies have had success using this tactic and you can too. This also works for technology and pets and jewelry. Just be creative!
As fun as these hashtags are, use them in moderation in your strategy. You might justify using a certain tag every week (a Monday motivation or a Tuesday transformation). But, if you’re using one of these weekly, don’t overload every other day with a trendy hashtag. Incorporating one more a week on top of your regular content should usually be enough to stay on trend without overwhelming your audience and content.

Industry Hashtags

Every industry has its own popular hashtags. Those in the fashion industry have #ootd (outfit of the day) and others. Those in the healthcare industry might use #healthinnovations. Those in event planning likely use #eventplanning or #wedding. And those in social media use variations including #socialmedia or #smm or #socialmediatips. It’s important to find the best hashtags for your industry and learn how to create content that will incorporate these trending hashtags.
Beyond just general industry hashtags, there are often events, conferences, training sessions, and other occasions in your industry that will be relevant to your business. If you’re participating in, supporting, or in any other way involved with these events, make sure to include these hashtags in your content to get the additional exposure of others looking for this content.

Geographical or Local Hashtags

All around your business neighborhood(s) are events and situations incorporating hashtags. A local sporting event, a conference in town, a city milestone or celebration, or another occasion. If your business is located near these events and can provide a service to attendees, incorporating the hashtag is a good way to reach them. Perhaps you’re a local restaurant, a boutique store that sells team memorabilia, or a hotel offering networking opportunities.
If your business or staff are celebrating your local milestone or want to send your greetings on the celebration, share photos or videos of this and incorporate the hashtag.

Holiday Hashtags

This is a fun way to incorporate hashtag trends into your content. Everyone loves a good holiday celebration (well, most people do!). So choose trendy holiday hashtags that you can include in your holiday related content.
This will apply to everything from New Years, to Valentine’s Day, to National Dog Day, to St. Patrick’s Day, to Thanksgiving, to Christmas, and more.
Your content could be a holiday greeting or an image (or series of images) of your employees dressed up for the holiday. It could be holiday products you offer. It could be tips on how to celebrate the holiday or how to craft DIY projects for the holiday. However you choose to incorporate the holiday content, find the right hashtag(s) to include in your posts.

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