Using Hashtag Analytics to Find Success for Your Business
Published September 14, 2020 by Bryan Miller
Among the most important elements of social media is the hashtag, which is a short label that can be affixed to posts and content on social media platforms for the purpose of making it easier to locate posts or content. Hashtags begin with the # symbol and include a single word or multiple words after the symbol. The purpose of including hashtags with your content is because these hashtags provide users with the ability to search for similar content by clicking on the hashtag in question. If you include a popular hashtag at the end of your post, your target audience can find your content when selecting the hashtag.
Because of how much content exists on social platforms today, hashtags are a great way to filter content. The main social media sites and platforms that use hashtags include Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Hashtags are very important for your content strategy because they provide you with the ability to reach more individuals who may be interested in your content. The hashtags you use can also help users find specific content. If you’re trying to find long-term success for your company, this article provides a comprehensive guide on how hashtag analytics can help you achieve success.
Key Takeaways:
- Hashtags are useful symbols that include a single word or phrase to help provide users with valuable information regarding your services or products.
- They can lead to conversion rates for your brand if used correctly.
- Below, we discuss the top 5 hashtag analytics tools out there today and what makes them each unique.
There are many reasons why you should use hashtags. When applied correctly, they can provide your business and brand with a substantial amount of value. The hashtags that you use with your posts or content can depict different themes, topics, and even markets, which gives you the opportunity to appeal to specific audiences and demographics. Hashtags also help to simplify the process of finding information. When you search for a hashtag, the results you’re provided with will include every post that uses the hashtag in question. When you use the right hashtags, you should be able to more easily reach your audience.
If used properly, hashtags can lead to conversions for your brand. When a potential customer notices a post that they find interesting, they are more likely to click on the hashtag to find more content that’s of interest to them. Since they are already engaged with the subject matter, your content could push users to take an action with your brand. If you use hashtags that apply to your brand, you should be able to reach your main audience and provide them with content that they find interesting.
If you use hashtags in the social media content that you post on Instagram, Twitter, and other social media sites, you may have found that it’s difficult to ascertain how successful your hashtags are at reaching your audience. To make sure that your hashtags are working properly, there are numerous tools that allow you to evaluate the overall performance of your hashtags. The top five hashtag analytics tools include:
- Command Analytics and Stats for Instagram
- Sprout Social
- Simply Measured
- Iconosquare
- Keyhole
1. Command Analytics and Stats for Instagram
Command Analytics and Stats for Instagram is a comprehensive tracking and analytics tool that provides you with everything you need to know about the performance of your hashtags. If you want to obtain this particular tool, it’s only available as an application on Apple devices. While a basic version of the app is available for free, the $10 per month premium version provides users with hashtag analytics.
When you use this tool, you will be able to identify which hashtags provide you with the best performance. You can also see the average number of comments and likes that you obtain with each hashtag. The information available with the Command tool makes it easy for you to determine if your hashtags are driving brand engagement at the rate that you want. When the engagement rate begins to climb, you’ll know that your content and hashtags are reaching the intended audience. Keep in mind that this tool calculates analytics per post.
2. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a popular management tool for social media that provides extensive reporting and analytics for the hashtags you use on various social media websites. The report that you obtain includes a detailed analysis of your most frequent hashtags as well as the hashtags that receive the most engagement. If a hashtag of yours appears in both lists, you can be confident that the hashtag is working at driving engagement. If you want to obtain full social media management with this tool, you will be required to pay $60 per month. While Sprout Social can be used through your internet browser, it’s also available as an app on Apple and Android devices.
3. Simply Measured
Simply Measured is a fantastic hashtag analytics tool that’s separated into three sections of charts, appendix, and scorecard. When you obtain a report with this tool, you can choose to run a report on numerous hashtags or to analyze each individual hashtag that you use, which should allow for better comparisons. In the scorecard section of the report, you will be provided with a quick look at the results of the hashtag you’ve decided to analyze.
As for the appendix tab, you can look at an extensive list of posts and content that use the hashtag during a specific time period. You can also choose to view statistics for every post that you click on. The third and likely most beneficial aspect of this tool is the charts tab, which gives you a visual interpretation of the results from the analysis. Some of the insights that you can gain from the charts tab include the most engaging comments and the geographic locations of the people who use your hashtag. The pricing for this tool depends on how much you need to use it.
4. Iconosquare
Iconosquare is among the best management systems for Instagram and other social media sites because it provides users with the ability to obtain detailed analytics, schedule posts, respond to comments, and track comments, all of which can be done within the Inocosquare app. While the tool can be used through your browser, an app is available through the App Store as well as the Google Play store.
If you sign up for the high-price tiers of this tool, you’ll receive hashtag analysis. The tool will measure engagement for every hashtag you use and identify how much your hashtags have grown in engagement and popularity. Make sure that you add each hashtag you want to be measured to the tool, which ensures that the hashtag will be tracked in the future. The packages for this tool that include hashtag analytics start at $29 per month.
5. Keyhole
Keyhole is a great analytics tool for social media platforms that mainly focuses on Instagram and Twitter. This tool is similar to Iconosquare in that it allows you to track usage statistics for each hashtag via your account or with the campaign that you’re running. When you measure a hashtag, you will be provided with such information as the number of posts, the number of users, the overall reach, and the amount of impressions for each hashtag.
This tool is also notable for displaying secondary information in an easy-to-understand manner. You will be able to look at the most popular posts that use the specific hashtag while also viewing related topics and hashtags, which should provide you with useful ideas for future hashtags to use with your content. The pricing for the Keyhole tool begins at $132 per month.
When you decide to use hashtags with your social media accounts, it’s important that you use them correctly if you want to benefit from placing hashtags in your posts and content. First of all, hashtags are tags that can be applied to posts and content for the purpose of helping users find posts that have a certain theme or topic to them. These hashtags can be practically anything you want them to be and can be used to promote other content and products if used properly.
If these hashtags are used effectively, you should also be able to target a specific audience. For instance, your main audience should be interested in the industry that you operate out of, which means that many of the hashtags that you use should be related to this industry. If you’re searching for the best hashtags, there are many methods you can use to identify the hashtags that have proven to be popular. One such method is to use the Hashtags.org tool to obtain hashtag trends for the past 24 hours.
Before you decide to use hashtags, keep in mind that the posts and content you place on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram shouldn’t include copious amounts of hashtags. If you want the hashtags to be effective, it’s important that you use around three hashtags or less for every post or tweet that you put out.
Hashtags are highly effective at providing users with an easy way to find your content or to search for content that’s similar to your post or tweet. When you use the right hashtags with your content, you should be able to drive brand engagement and obtain higher conversions, both of which can help you grow your business.
Bryan Miller
Bryt Designs
Bryan Miller is an entrepreneur and web tech enthusiast specializing in web design, development and digital marketing. Bryan is a recent graduate of the MBA program at the University of California, Irvine and continues to pursue tools and technologies to find success for clients across a varieties of industries.
Subscribe to our newsletter