How Hashtags Make all the Difference.

With the new generation of millenials spending more time on their phones and social media than interacting with their friends and family, why wouldn’t a business jump on to the trend of advertising on social media?

What is a hashtag?

In the simplest terms, a hashtag is a keyword or phrase used to categorize your tweets and instagram posts, identified with a ‘#’.

In order to have an effective hashtag, it needs to be specific enough to narrow your search, but not overly specific, so as to create a new hashtag that no one has any interest in.

• For example, if you are marketing your Dallas based restaurant on Instagram, #Food is too broad with over 257 million results, but #DallasItalianFood is too specific, as it only brings up 22 results.  However, #DallasEats would be a good hashtag, with 154,000 people using it.  Then all you have to do is add your restaurant in the location. With consistent and delicious looking posts, your socials will start to garner more traction, driving in more sales.

Using the right hashtags is crucial to stay relevant with millenials. Social Media has become their number one resource to find real reviews from real people around them.  Finding a company with a strong online presence, and constant interaction with their customers is reassuring to buyers, as it allows them to trust that their fellow users trust your brand.

How they help small businesses

Hashtags are also an ideal way for small businesses to get brand recognition.

Blue Seed Solutions helps you understand the millenial generations, as our team is comprised of all age groups.  Here is how our team utilizes hashtags to find and market businesses:

“While I was living in Mississauga, I was looking for someone to lift my lashes.  I immediately went to Instagram and looked at the tag #LashLiftMississauga.  I found a bunch of posts relating to what I was looking for, and started scrolling and looking at people’s profiles.  I came across this one profile with a few hundred followers, and consistent posts that were showcasing the services she provided.  Her bio had her price and location, so I DM’ed her, and and we set an appointment. I got my services, and she got my business, and positive review!”

Small businesses tend to have the hardest time penetrating an already existing market filled with big competitors. Due to their limitations of looking for low cost, yet effective advertising.  Here are our top techniques that will optimize your advertising budget.

Brand Well
The simplest, yet most commonly overlooked advertising technique is branding your business in a memorable way. Creating advertisements with your logo and trademark colours builds a consistent relationship with your customer, so they know your values and ideals are unchanging.  In other words, good branding will resonate with customers, creating long term profit.  

Identify your audience
Know your niche.  The product or service you are providing does not apply to every single person in the world.  The biggest advantage for a small business is knowing your audience.  Regardless of the medium, ensuring your advertising is relevant to your client base allows a sense of relevancy, and increases market share.  

Spend time online
Once a business identifies who they’re targeting, they may fall under the trap of making assumptions about their audience.  So ask them, create forums, create a relationship with them.  If they feel like a company is listening to their wants and needs, you’ll attract more worthwhile leads and customers.

Know whether or not it’s worth it 
The biggest advantage to using online marketing, namely social media, is the ability to measure the reachability and effectiveness of your advertising.  Facebook and Instagram allow deep insights on all posts, along with analytics to determine what is popular among your audiences.  

Use your resources well
Based on your budget, companies need to weigh their options and choose accordingly.  For example, a small business, with a low marketing budget may not want to invest in hiring bloggers and constantly updating their website, and instead may place a strong focus on their social media accounts.  

Blue Seed Solutions helps you bridge the gap between what your company has and what you want to achieve.