The Ultimate Guide on How to Use Hashtags and Why

At this point everyone should know what an hashtag is why you should use it, to get traffic of course. But judging from what's being done on Social Media today, clearly most people still don't know how to use hashtags effectively.

Why should I care about hashtags

• They get traffic
• It drives discovery
• Better to use them than not to

I've managed to build a following of almost a half million followers on Google+, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for my personal projects.
iHipHopMusic.com – Google+ 400K, Twitter 3K, Facebook 60K
Mixtapes.tv – Google+ 30K, Twitter 1K, Facebook 7K
A part from that, I've worked with quite a few brands to build up their social media presence.
For the most part I did it all with the help of hashtags.
Of course not all hashtags are created equally, for example hashtags on Instagram and Twitter work much better than on Facebook or Tumblr.
The power of the hashtag is really dependent on the aesthetic and context of the platform. Twitter for all intents and purposes invented the hashtag, it's their original signal for discovering new things so obviously it would be the best place to use it.
Facebook just simply copied it, but that isn't Facebook's way of driving discovery, they just added it because it became so popular on other platforms.
So the platform itself is what's really important when it comes to using hashtags, looking at my personal data, as of right now Instagram is clearly the most effective place to use hashtags.
Discovery on that platform is very vibrant and will continue to be that way for at least the next 24 months, that's around the time SnapChat will become a much bigger player in the space.
Some social platforms such as LinkedIn have completely done away with hashtags altogether have opted to go with other signals to drive discovery on their platform. As I said earlier it really comes down to the platform, it's aesthetic and context.
For the platforms that do deem hashtaags important, lets break down everything in a way that's the easiest to understand, which is visually of course.

The Infographic for how to use hashtags

Brought to you by the good folks over at Quick Sprout.

Conclusion

• On Twitter less is more when it comes to using hashtags
• When it comes to Instagram, the more merry
• Facebook hashtags usage has improved but it's still no where near effective as other platforms
• Google+ hashtags are deeply integrated into the platform, they drive a lot of discovery and gives you oppertunities to double up on the promotion of your content

When it's all said and done, it's a definite yes to whether or not hashtags are important and if you should use them.
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Later….