#Hashtags

Hashtag

Do you use hashtags on your social media posts?  I have to be honest, I don’t! Okay so maybe occasionally I would remember but not all of the time.  I especially never thought to use them in ALL of my social media posts.

My best friend, Steph Loder, kicked off her business by helping me this week.  She has years of experience in the newspaper industry and she is now putting that digital training to use by starting her own business coordinating social media for small businesses.  I’m her first customer.  Okay, so what does all of this have to do with hashtags, right?

Steph has been blowing my Twitter account up. I have lots of new followers, likes and retweets.  Sounds like I know what I am doing, right?  WRONG!  I was clueless when it came to Twitter but I am learning.  She asked me what I wanted my “unique” hashtag to be; you know the way that people would search for me on all social media sites.  Can you say clueless?  I said, my name.  WRONG!

See finding the right keywords to use – and those that are active enough to attract new people to you can be a challenge.  The key is to use 2-5 hashtags when appropriate, so that  people who are interested in various topics might find your post and interact with you and your business!  The key is to drive people to your website to increase business.

Using a hashtag gives your post exposure when people are searching words or hashtags. An example is if someone reads a post about makeup on a popular Instagram account that has the hashtag #makeup or #cosmetics, they can click on those hashtag words and find other posts (like yours!) where the user also included those hashtags.

Hashtags are a great way to get more exposure.  Some social media users use the search boxes when looking for information about certain topics and hashtags come up in the search results as they are considered popular, or trending, topics. So here are some ideas for those in direct sales:

Direct Sales in General

#dstips

#directsales

#partyplan

Business Opportunity

#bizopp

#incomeopportunity

#businessopportunity

Women/Moms in Business

#wahm (work at home mom)

#mompreneur

#sahm (stay at home mom)

#womenbiz

#mombiz

General Business/Home Business

#homebiz

#smallbiztips

#biztips

#bizitalk

#entrepreneur

Of course, you want to include your company hashtag (#thirtyone) or your team name (#raysofhope).  For my Thirty One business, I can also use #purses #totes #organization #gifts #jewelry #home or #accessories.  I found a fun tool called Hashtagify to discover hashtags about a specific topics.  When you type in a general keyword, you’ll get other related hashtags.  Remember, the objective is to attract interested leads, not others who are marketing their own businesses – or worse, spammers.

So, now as for a “unique” hashtag for my business, I was thinking #Hopes31Bags.  What do you think?  What other hashtags have you found to be helpful for you business?

Have a ThirtyOne-derful day!