You can use hashtags on your content to connect with more people and increase the reach of your post. When you are promoting a product or your entire brand on social media, hashtags help you gain more exposure. You can also use hashtags to connect with other brands or events.

The usage of hashtag gained popularity on Twitter. But nowadays, hashtags are used on all other social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Tumblr, Vine, LinkedIn, and even Google+. Hashtags are also used to find relevant content on Google search. Using hashtags while searching for content on Google is fairly new but it does work. As a Google user, you will have most of the information available to you. If there are public social media accounts with popular content containing a specific hashtag, Google will show you that as well.

With a Google account for any of the services like Gmail, Google Drive, or Calendar, you can access these public accounts even if you are not active on the different social media sites. On social media platforms, if you have an account, then you can find several different posts and even connect with new accounts through hashtags. Using hashtags is a very easy way of putting your brand out there and allowing people to see more of your content.

For e-commerce businesses, having a social media presence can be helpful. Using hashtags while posting about your content will help you to showcase your brand and generate more traffic. However, there are certain ways to use hashtags, so that they are effective. The best ways to choose and use hashtags on your content have been listed below.

• Do not use too many hashtags: Most social media platforms have a capacity for hashtags and they do not allow you to use any more than that. For example, Instagram allows only up to 30 hashtags. But that is a lot. You do not even need to use all 30 to improve the reach of your content. Select your hashtags according to the niche of your content and do not go overboard.
• Engage your audience: Since hashtags reflect the niche of your content, write descriptions that will engage interested people. These people are part of your target audience and they are going to use the hashtags to find your content. So it is important to give them relevant information and keep them engaged.
• Use hashtags in your content description: It is better to use hashtags organically while writing about your content, instead of adding them after the content. This is usually more effective for Twitter. There is a character limit and you might lose out on some important ones if you try adding all hashtags at the end. If you write the description to include important hashtags then you will not need to worry about the limit.
• Compare your hashtags to those used by your competitors: Hashtags will tell you a lot about the traffic being generated. Check the hashtags on your competitors' posts. You can then compare your progress and reach. This will help you improve your content and thus come up with more useful hashtags.
• Promote your content: Just adding hashtags is not going to be enough. Once you have added the important hashtags, promote the post. Share it on as many platforms as possible. This way it has a better chance of appearing on the top of search engine rankings.

If you are using hashtags, make sure to track the results. Check the reach and how many views you are getting. It is also important to check who else is using the same hashtags. This will help you to understand if any of the hashtags need to be changed. Hashtags when used wisely can prove to be quite beneficial for marketing and brand promotion.