#arehashtagsreallyinportantquestionmark

Did you see that? It looks more like a tongue-twister than a #hashtag

But it got your attention, right?

Apparently, we are nothing in social media without a #hashtag, but do they really work? are they good for all social media platforms? is it worth the trouble?

I have to say that since last year I´ve been quite active on social media in order to promote my online teaching business and cake decorating business, even my personal brand. And I also have to say that I´ve learned a lot since last I wrote a post about hashtags and social media. Not because I became a master in everything that there is to know, more of a try and fail kind of situation, and be aware that by the time I finish this post, the algorithm in social platforms have changed and #hashtags too!

I found out two good things: what really work for me and what gives me less work to do.

I have a lot of information to give you, so I will divide this post into several parts.

Now, going back to the # hashtags, believe me when I say they are a big help, and I can recognize the advantages of their use, but like many or some of you, I didn´t even know what they were until last year.

So, If you are any like me, here I have for you a little crash course, a simple 101 on how to use #hashtags to your advantage for your cake business.

What is a #hashtag?

It is a tool that allows us to identify and easily follow a product, place, event or personality as well as promotions and trends. Consists of using the hashtag symbol of our keyboard (#) followed by a word or words that refer to what we want to identify and they are always in lower case and without space between the words.

For business it is a great and useful tool, it helps to showcase our product, be followed or even discovered by users around the world.

What social media platforms use #hashtags?

At least the main ones, Twiter, Facebook, and Instagram are the most common ones. But also Pinterest and more Social Media platforms use them. I confess that I´m not a big Twitter user, I prefer Facebook and Instagram because they work for my business and my target audience, but that can be a different case for you. Pinterest can be a great platform for cake decorators and cake designers, but to really take advantage of it,  it should be used in a very specific way and that is for another post.
For Facebook, even though some people use the hashtags (#) I don´t recommend it. It is proven that the posts with hashtags in FB have no difference in their success. FB posts rely on images, that is what truly makes the difference, so don´t bother wasting time creating hashtags for FB, remember we as cake decorators are always short on time so we won´t want to waste it.

Now, Instagram in the other hand is the home of the hashtags. It is a must to use them!

I have seen the number of my followers grow with the use of hashtags.  The number of interactions; meaning the likes and comments, have to do not only with the use of hashtags but with the quantity, quality of the hashtags and frequency of the posts.
Instagram allows you to use a large number of hashtags, and it is proven that posts with more than 10 hashtags work even better than others with less. We can even follow hashtags instead of a person or a profile.

Now, I don´t want to bore you with a long post, so I´ll ask you to just think about what social media platform really works for you and you are willing to commit to. Then in my next post, I´ll show you how to write a good hashtag and how to use it.

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See you next time

love,

Cristina