7 Tips to Increase the Effectiveness of SMM

Social media marketing (SMM) is one of the most effective ways to improve your brand’s awareness, reputation, and reach. Whether you are a marketer, a webmaster, or a small business owner, pay close attention to the marketplace’s dance.

You should also pay attention to your industry’s news, digital marketing news, as well as relevant updates and product launches.

Why would you do this?

Well, simply because everything in this world is evolving incredibly fast – especially the digital marketplace.

 

1.   The Power of Hashtags

Hashtags took social media by storm, and in a matter of a few years, the trend and the overall use of #hashtags across the biggest social media networks have succeeded every expectation. Yet, even though hashtags have been active since 2007, they’re far underrated. If you know how to leverage them, they can be one of the most effective techniques of improving your brand’s reach, reputation, and website traffic.

In today’s post, we’re providing 7 tips to increase the effectiveness of SMM by using hashtags. Hashtag marketing is a free form of marketing. You can build traffic juice out of your intelligence. The better you understand what you’re doing and the more knowledgeable you are, the stronger the effects of your action will be. Let’s begin.

Be Omnipresent on Social Media

Even though hashtags have primarily started to show up on Twitter, the trend has evolved up to the point where every major social network has accepted and implemented #hashtags as a part of their platform. Use the “#” character on every social platform search, and you will instantly reach relevant information.

What does this mean for us, marketers and entrepreneurs? Well, it’s pretty obvious that we should focus our hashtag marketing efforts not just on Twitter, but on every major social network such as YouTube, Instagram, and even LinkedIn.

Using hashtags on multiple platforms, or being omnipresent in the digital space, will provide significant benefits. As a matter of fact, people will start to recognize your hashtags, and by the time they see it multiple times – on different platforms – they’ll have your brand keywords embedded in their head. This is great, extra value that your brand’s getting!

Create Value with Hashtags

Every hashtag that you use must be well-thought-out. Place hashtags strategically and you’ll improve your performance. Here’s how #hashtags should be:

• Memorable

Find words that are both remarkable and memorable. When people notice a mainstream hashtag, they will hardly differentiate it from the rest. However, if your hashtag’s wording and message connect with the viewer’s perspective, they’re likely to remember it. By promoting memorable hashtags, you can improve your brand’s awareness and reputation big time.

• Unique

“Nothing’s new under the sun.” You must have heard it before, and you may have found some truth in it. Most likely hashtags have already been used before. Don’t try to find originality in words. What you need to pursue is the uniqueness of your ideas. It’s the message that you send through your hashtags that must be unique, not the wording!

Basically, create your own ‘branded’ hashtag. It does not even have to contain a specific brand name, but be unique and connected to your idea. For example, take a look at the branded hashtag of Samsung for the Galaxy S8 – they used #GalaxyS8 on all platforms to promote the phone. So simple, yet so specific!

• Relevant

Hashtags, like any other marketing “element,” must grab the attention of its viewers. Strive to apply this hashtag properly during your marketing campaigns. To be relevant to your audience, know how your prospects think, behave, and act. Find out about their buying behavior and you’ll be able to display very attractive terms that appeal to them.

Some marketers even use hashtags to achieve a goal, such as attract talent to the company. For example, TripAdvisor used Instagram and Twitter to encourage job seekers to grow the team by using the hashtag #GoTripAdvisor. People now use this hashtag for meetups or share stories on the official blog.

Follow the Hashtags Rules of Each Unique Network

You can’t use #hashtags on Twitter the same way you use them on Instagram. Each platform has its unique hashtag posting rules, and even though these are not official statements from the social channels themselves, we feel that they’re pretty accurate. Check them out for yourself and use them accordingly.

• Twitter – Twitter likes short content. They even make it obvious by limiting the character count of each post. If you follow the best tweets, you’ll see they do not exceed 2 hashtags.
• Facebook – Like Twitter, use around 1 or 2 hashtags per post. Ideally, use a popular hashtag that the general Facebook user can see, and a descriptive hashtag, which will drive more targeted traffic. Either way, you’ll gain organic traffic.
• Instagram – Instagram users love to use hashtags. You can post up to 30 hashtags per each post, however, don’t exaggerate. A study proves that using less than eleven hashtags per post will improve your Instagram’s post reach performance.
• Google+ – Well, Google+ is another great place that allows the use of #hashtags. Hashtags are even more relevant to this network because they allow users to find and join specific conversations. Use up to 3 to 4 hashtags.
• Pinterest – Two hashtags per post, according to the best-performing pins. Unique hashtags work like magic on Pinterest.

Short, Concise, Remarkable

Hashtags are meant to be short, concise, and remarkable. That is their purpose, and you should follow it strictly. Social media platforms are encouraging the soft use of hashtags, and so are the social users.

Do you remember the Coca-Cola hashtag #ShareaCoke? This certainly built a lot of interest and comes at the top of many lists of most effective hashtag campaigns the world has seen. The idea of cokes with titles and names led to a massive number of, not only sales, but shares and hashtags on social media, too. People even use this hashtag to promote their own business (see below).

 

2.   Build Your Brand’s Image & Reputation

Every serious brand has a well-established brand purpose and message. Hashtags can help strengthen the power of your message by making it even more public. When more people interact with your message, a community flourishes. Many new positive reviews of your products and services will arrive shortly, and so your brand’s reputation will grow. Therefore, whenever you #hashtag your posts, consider using brand hashtags.

 

3.   Repost with Different Hashtags

Many social networks (like Facebook) like to reduce the reach of business pages. Your posts will now show up on your followers’ walls unless you insist.

“On Twitter, you should post a piece of content multiple times each day. Change the photos, the copy, and the hashtags. By adding more relevant hashtags, you’re automatically boosting your reach. Do this consistently, learn from mistakes, tweak, optimize, and scale,” advises Mark Spenser, a marketing expert.

 

Takeaways

The more you learn about hashtags, the better you’ll use them in the future. The more frequently you’ll use them, the more effective results you’ll get. Perceive it as a skill that you keep growing. Every social media channel is a goldmine of opportunities if leveraged right. Your social media marketing campaigns can now become more powerful and profitable because you are willing to follow the marketplace and dance with the trends.