EMBiz: Pros and Cons of #Hashtags

Pros and Cons of Hashtags

Cody H. Owens

Hi, Cody here, Content Director at Elevate My Brand. In this EMBiz video, I'm going to be talking about a somewhat controversial topic in social media marketing. And that is hashtags.

If you talk to a social media marketer, they are definitely going to have an opinion about hashtags. And it's going to range from the extreme positive to the extreme negative and some people are just completely neutral about them and they don't get involved whatsoever. However, it is a somewhat controversial topic because hashtags have waxed and waned in utility over the years. There is a lot of ambiguity and mystery around how they're used while on the social media platform algorithms and there are lots of pros and cons. It's up to each individual brand to decide how they're going to use them if they're gonna use them, etcetera. I'm going to talk about the pros and cons of hashtags so that your brain can make its own decision about how to move forward with them, how to use them if you use them. 

Caveat before we start, if you work in social media marketing we're going to tell you that we do our best to take the ego out of marketing. At the end of the day, the data is going to tell you what you should do. If you A/B test and you find out that posts with hashtags perform better and meet your social media goals more, then great use them. If you use them and you find out that you're reaching the wrong audience or that it's having a detrimental effect onengagement, then don't use them. We're not going to tell you a sort of cookie-cutter answer. At our agency, we always test everything that we possibly can to make sure we're optimizing your content and hashtags are no exception. However, if you are not equipped to do all that kind of testing and you're just looking for some advice on generally, should you or shouldn't you? This video is for you.

The pros of hashtags

We're gonna start with the pros and I'm going to do three pros. 

The first one is that hashtags can help you reach a more specified and engaged audience. So if you're using hashtags particularly like longer hashtags that are more niche and specific, you're gonna be able to reach a more targeted audience who are looking for that specific thing. One of the problems with hashtags is that they've sort of waxed and waned in utility over the years. But Instagram recently said they're gonna sort of refocus on hashtags to make sure that they're more optimized for search on the platform. So people can use them to find content that matters to them more easily. So if you are going to try to use more hashtags on Instagram in particular, this mightbe a good time to do so because it does help you reach an audience that is more engaged with a particular topic. That is one pro. 

The second one that I want to talk about is the potential for associations with topics. And basically speaking to the algorithm to tell it the aboutness of your page. So not so much for the user themselves who is going to be using the search feature to find whatever content you tag. But speaking to the platform itself, constantly using particular hashtags has the potential to associate your page with particular kinds of content or ideas, etcetera. So it is a way to tell the platform what you're about and make you a better candidate for particular searches. 

The third pro is that it is great for campaigns. So imagine you're running an in-person event. You have a specific and unique hashtag that people can use when they take photos. Or maybe it is a specific hashtag for a digital collaboration with another brand. It is incredible to be able to track those photos or use them, sharing the content or commentary, whatever, if you have that unique, hashtag it's great for measurability. So you can tell what's going on and measure the success of your campaign. So those are some pretty great pros associated with hashtags. 

The cons of hashtags

There are also some cons and I'm also gonna give you three of those. 

The first is that it can potentially reduce your larger reach. The flip side to being more specialized and reaching a very niche engaged audience is that you can potentially limit your reach to the wider like social media sphere, right? If the algorithm does associate your account with specific hashtags and topics, then maybe you're not going to show for other things or show to other audiences. So there is definitely a balance there in terms of being super like hyper specific with that content.

Number two is that it can appear spammy or cringe. So cringe is not quantifiable, but it's definitely something particular with the younger generations. Gen Z for sure, but definitely Gen Alpha that hashtags can appear to be sort of an antiquated way to put content in your captions. If you're specifically trying to target younger audiences, then hashtags may not be a way to go for you. Even though it could have the potential of like in terms of the technicality of your content and find ability of your content at the end of the day. If it's just going to really repulse your audience, then there's no use for hashtags for you. So this is where the A/B testing comes into play to see what actually your audience wants. 

The third one is overuse. Hashtags have been overused and overused and overused and even in specific posts, a lot of brands will use like 20 different hashtags which not only can be confusing and ugly, but it also so ends up just muddying the waters, right? So if you have all these different kinds of topics and you know, themes that you kind of put into your caption with hashtags, then you can actually make it even harder for people to find you because no one really knows who you are or what you're doing. It also just like adds a whole bunch of space in your caption. So overuse is also a problem. 

What hashtag strategy is right for you?

So if you're going to use hashtags please consider the pros and the cons and make your own informed decision and then also please test that hypothesis. You could be right, you could be wrong at the end of the day. You've got to weigh the pros and cons and make your own decisions. 

Of course, if you don't want to do that for yourself. You don't have that time. We would love to take the ego out of that conversation, test that for you and do a lot of your organic social media management. So talk to our experts today. And also feel free to leave your hashtag love or hashtag hate in the comments because we'd love to see it.