How to Improve Your Following

Hashtags are a mainstream part of our social media culture nowadays. They filter media posts, linking those that share the hashtag to one another. Because users can click on the hashtag and be taken to a page that groups together all posts using that hashtag, they have become a valuable marketing tool for ecommerce businesses looking to grow their consumer following and generate sales.

Attract Customers

Hashtags attract customers to your site, allowing them to learn more about you and your company’s backstory and become familiar with your product. The hope is that, once there, they will engage with your interesting content and eventually become a customer who returns time and again to read and learn more and purchase products.

Hashtags can be used on all social media platforms, although there are rules governing the use on each. Understanding how to use hashtags on specific media platforms can be tricky, but some basics can be easily covered and considered.

Be specific and simple.

As an ecommerce business owner, your goal is to focus on and develop a community that shares a common interest in a specific theme. The more specific you are able to be with your hashtag, the more you will target your true audience and increase the potential for them to engage with you and your company. Start by developing a hashtag unique to your business or find an existing one that fits your product or service. Avoid tags that are too generic, and opt for something that will filter out unwanted elements. The goal is to find something that markets itself to your users so that it filters their posts about your store or product and anything that directly relates to it.

If a hashtag is too long or too complicated, potential followers will be unlikely to remember it. The hashtag should be interesting and memorable, but not too clever or offbeat, since your hashtag will need to be something people would naturally search for. Don’t develop hashtags that are something no one would ever think of using, and remember to contextualize it and not just leave it hanging out there with nothing to support its use.

Modify hashtags to particular social media networks and don’t use too many.

Hashtags serve the same basic purpose on every platform but vary from network to network. Whether you choose to use Instagram or Facebook hashtags or decide to focus efforts on Twitter,  you will want to research the proper way to use them for each.

You should not have more hashtags characters than you do content characters. Even if you’re using a social media platform that allows many hashtags in one post, competing hashtags may cause confusion and lack of interest in your post.  Remember that the goal is to have your post show up in searches that matter most for your business so try to avoid this and other common hashtag mistakes.

Hashtags matter for more than product or service information.

Hashtags have many advantages, including the ability for businesses to announce events over social media networks. If your business intends to have a giveaway or a promotion, you can encourage customers to visit your business site by developing a hashtag others will find fun and interesting like a charity event or a contest.

You may want to look at some of the best hashtag campaigns for inspiration on how to develop a hashtag promotion that will work for you and your business.

Grow your following organically to ensure real followers.

Unfortunately, it is deceptively easy to falsify a digital number, and not all “followers” in your accounts represent real people. This is a problem for businesses because only “real followers” can be product-purchasing consumers and fake followers are more common than you think. The number of followers your ecommerce business has is not necessarily an accurate representation of its popularity, so remember to follow guidelines that help you get more real Instagram followers.

For businesses looking to influence people, there must be people behind the numbers. Becoming a leader in your industry means that real followers follow you because you provide innovative and interesting ideas and concepts worth reading about and paying attention to. Respond to your followers’ comments, create a conversation, and build a community of like-minded individuals who value your product, service, and your company’s backstory. This is something you cannot do with fake followers!

What are some ways you have been successful at improving your business following? Share your tried-and-true tips and tricks of the trade below.