Hashtags can put your business in front of travellers who have never heard of you. But every platform treats them differently.
Tourism operators ask us about hashtags all the time. The honest answer changes with the platform.
Hashtags were first proposed for use on Twitter in 2007. Since then, they have become an essential part of social media.
Used well, hashtags help new customers find you, especially on Instagram.
However, not all tags are equal and how you use them differs from platform to platform.
Quick tips
Two quick ones first:
- Don’t leave any blank spaces within your hashtag. Otherwise, it won’t work (e.g. # perth will not work, it should be #perth).
- Do your research! Search for the tags you want to use on the platform and see who else is using them and if they’re relevant to your business (e.g. will your potential customers be searching for them).
For more tips, check out our Hashtag Etiquette post.
Hashtags on Instagram
Not using tags on Instagram yet? Start today. People search using tags, and you can also choose to follow certain ones, so you see more of the content you love in your feed.
Our top tips for using hashtags on Instagram:
- Instagram now allows up to five hashtags a post, so pick the handful that fit your post best.
- Use your insights and analytics to see which posts gain you the most reach.
- Test different tags to see what works best for your brand.
- Don’t just copy and paste the same tags every time.
- Consider a targeted approach when using tags. Instead of #airport, use #perthairport
- Believe it or not, there is a list of banned tags for Instagram. Again, do your research and try to avoid using these tags.
Learn more about using hashtags on Instagram, and check out our post on the best Western Australian travel tags.
Hashtags on TikTok
Then there is TikTok.
Like other social media platforms, using hashtags on TikTok is great for reach, discoverability, branded content, and jumping on trends. Tags are searchable on TikTok and are often used to find trending content.
TikTok captions have plenty of room now, but a caption stuffed with tags looks spammy and desperate. Keep it short and use a few tags that match the video.
If you want to include more tags, you can always do so in the comments; however, on TikTok, the comments are far less effective than the caption.
Hashtags on Facebook
We don’t typically recommend using hashtags on Facebook unless it’s part of a campaign such as #coralcoasthighway.
We don’t advise using tags on Facebook because people don’t tend to search by tags on this platform. And a string of tags on a Facebook post just looks messy.
Hashtags on Twitter
Twitter is where hashtags were born; however, there’s no room to be extensive. You are only allowed a maximum of 280 characters per tweet, which means limited space.
We recommend giving Twitter a miss for now, but if you still post there, keep it to one to three tags. Typically tags will also be a bit broader than on Instagram, so using your region, state or campaign tags is best. Such as #justanotherdayinwa or #westernaustralia.
What you can also do to save space is make the tags part of your tweet rather than just tacking them on the end.
Guessing at hashtags is a bad use of a Tuesday. We can build you a set that fits your region and your guests.
From our work · #FoamRoam, Foam Coffee Bar144Instagram entries in three months