Over the last year I’ve gone just about all in on using hashtags on social media.
I haven’t compared it directly with updates that I haven’t used hashtags. That actually sounds like a good study, but from observation I would say that the engagement from my updates with hashtags have been incredibly higher than it is without hashtags.
Retweets have gone up some, but favorites and follows seem to have gone up the most. And the big one for a person like me is the number of clicks on links I include in many updates that go back to blogs.
I recommend using hashtags, but that leads to the question, “What hashtags do I use?”
Now it’s time to move into the best hashtags for B2Cs.
Hashtags For Your Industry
The industries for B2Cs can get pretty big and the number of industries are vast. This list will be a bit more general, but you should look into using the tags relating to your industry.
For example, if you’re in the travel industry you’ll want to use hashtags like #travel on some of your posts.
Start there, but also use the hashtags below to increase the number of people that see your posts. It’ll lead to more engagement: followers, re-shares, favorites, comments, clicks, etc.
1. #Life
This is a huge hashtag in the social media world. It’s broad and because of that a lot of people follow it for a lot of different reasons. Since you’re a B2C company, this hashtag can lead you to a large number of potential customers.
Again, we’re looking at this from the broad angle of things instead of your specific niche. The #life hashtag is for when you’re posting something that a lot of people would be interested in seeing. Perhaps a photo of something relating to your business that happens in every day life. Maybe an employee coming into work. That’s #life for a lot of people and they can relate.
2. #Love
I would say for the most part people enjoy the feeling of love. It can come from other people, pets and all kinds of things. But lots of people are looking for it and you’ll find that people seem to search for this hashtag or they’ll click on it when they see it on a social update. They’re looking for more things that will give them a good feeling.
3. #Happy
Along with #love is #happy. It’s another one of the most powerful emotions that we experience. People are looking for happiness in life. They’re looking for things that make them happy. It could really be anything and that’s why this is a great hashtag for B2Cs to use as well. When you publish something that makes you and others feel #happy then go ahead and use the hashtag to expand your audience and reach.
4. #Beautiful
In general, people like to look at beautiful things. Again, this can be a broad hashtag and that’s why it can work well for the updates a business will share. If you’re in the fashion industry for example you could share updates with images of #beautiful clothes or of #beautiful models wearing those clothes and things like that.
But this can work in many other ways. Photographers and businesses in the industry would have a field day with the #beautiful hashtag. It can apply to quite a few things. Someone with an Etsy store could go nuts with this hashtag.
5. #Fun
You’ll find that a lot of these are similar in that they’re all about making people feel positive emotions. That’s a good thing because people want to feel good and they look for things that make them feel good. And it seems to put people in the buying mood as well.
So you’re winning on all fronts when you’re focusing on good things including #fun. You could ask a question of your followers like, “This is what we do for #fun. What is your idea of #fun?”
You can get broad and creative with this one too. It can be used for just about anything.
6. #Inspiration
A beautiful photo. An incredible quote. Seeing people banding together to accomplish something great. It can all make people feel inspired and that’s the reason the #inspiration hashtag is very popular. There are so many things that inspire us and just about all of us want to feel inspired to do things.
And the great thing about this hashtag is you can talk about other people that inspire you or if one of your customers has an inspiring story you can share it and use this hashtag.
7. #Awesome
Now we’re getting to something that is just about seeing really #awesome things. It could be a photo, but it could also be a little short story about something #awesome that happened. You might even be able to get away showcasing a new product that truly is…#awesome when you use this hashtag.
8. #Friends
This one might be a little on the edge for effectiveness. You’ll have to stick with things that relate to #friends like photos of customers hanging out at your business and doing what #friends do. It could be a little story about something friends do as it relates to your business. Or maybe it’s about your employees and how they’re #friends.
9. #Tips
This one is different from a lot of the others, but I feel it’s still very important. Every business can share valuable information with its customers. If your customers has common questions as it relates to your industry then you have the opportunity to answer those questions. Your answers are #tips that people look for trying to find answers to their questions.
10. #TBT
Finally we have one of the most popular hashtags, which is the #TBT hashtag. It stands for Throwback Thursday. People and businesses use this one all the time. For some reason people like to look back and laugh at themselves or laugh at others and how silly things might have been several years ago.
Businesses use this one all the time and it works very well. It could be an old logo or an old ad. It could be anything from a long time ago that would make for an interesting social media update. And you can use this week after week.