9 Quick Tips to Improve your Hashtag Strategy

Are you wondering about all these #hashtags you see all over social media these days and whether you should be also be using them to promote your own educational media projects? Once seen only on Twitter, hashtags are now also being used on Facebook, Pineterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube to help people interested in your topic connect with your post. Today I’ll focus on a few free tools and simple guidelines to help you use hashtags to improve engagement with your content.

1.  best-hashtags.com/ is geared towards Instagram, but can help with any platform. Enter your term and it gives you related hashtags and where they rank of popularity (on Instagram). It also provides lists of top and trending hashtags. all-hashtag.com is another such free tool.

2.  Find your niche. While it’s tempting to use the most popular hashtags, your content will probably get lost in a sea of other posts. Use the popular ones occasionally when applicable, but try to figure out which ones can reach your audience by being searchable, specific, and relevant.

3.  See who else is using the hashtag and how they are using it before you post. I had thought that #olderwomen would be good for my film about a most formidable 82-year-old woman, but it turns out that tag (at least on Twitter) is used mostly for those with an erotic interest in mature women. Turns out #womenover50 would be a better choice!

4.  For Twitter:

  1. Optimally, use no more than 2

  2. Use them:

    1. Anywhere in your Tweets themselves

      1. At the start for emphasis

      2. At the end for context

      3. In the middle of your post to highlight a keyword.

    2. In a comment when you Retweet

    3. In replies

    4.  In your Twitter bio.

5.  For Facebook:

  1. Optimally, use no more than 2

  2. Use them in both posts and comments

  3. Less effective as more groups and user profiles become private 

6.  Instagram

  1. Optimally, use 5-10

  2. Include in your profile bio

  3. Use after your image’s caption

  4. Place in a comment after the post so they don’t distract from the post itself 

7.  YouTube

  1.  Optimally, use 2-3

  2. Use in video title or video description

  3. Using more than 15 hashtags will lead to your content being ignored, and possibly even flagged 

8.  LinkedIn

  1. Optimally, use 1-2

  2. Use in the updates and articles you write

  3. Use professional terms

9. Pinterest

  1. Optimally, use 2-5

Coming soon – I’ll go more in-depth on how to more effectively use different platforms.

Thanks to my new marketing guru @VinnyMwano for the inspiration and resources to write this article.

Learn more: How to Use Hashtags: A Quick and Simple Guide for Every Network

Resource to Identify a Font

A graphic designer recently shared with me a nifty website called Identifont to help you figure out what font is being used.

According to Identifont’s website:

Identifont provides designers with a tool to help them identify fonts or select the best fonts for their projects. Since then it has grown to become the largest independent directory of digital fonts on the Internet, with a number of unique tools for locating fonts for particular applications.

Double Exposure Panel: Copyright and Fair Use: Facts and Myths

Presenters:

Dale Cohen, UCLA School of Law, Director, Documentary Film Legal Clinic

Dan Mayeda, UCLA School of Law, Associate Director, Documentary Film Legal Clinic

Fair Use Key Truths:

1.   Fair use is complicated

2.   Look at both what the law says, and what the risk is. Lawsuits are very expensive.

3.   Always helps to know who the potential plaintiff or copyright owner is. Are they litigious? Do they have an ax to grind – do they have reason to not like what you are doing? Even though copyright claim is not meant to protect reputation, it can be a tool used for that? Do they have deep pockets?

4.   Expect that there will be uncertainty – part of the risk of doing business is a possible fair use claim

5.   With good advice you can avoid most problems.

Fair Use Myths:

1.   There are no rules of thumbs for fair use (7 second rule, 10% rule, 49 words or less etc all bogus).

2.   If “they” put it on the internet, they want it to be distributed/used etc. Posting on social media, YouTube, or a website is not permission. This does not mean they won’t give permission (or have put it in Creative Commons).

3.   Giving credit to copyright owner or any sort of disclaimer of ownership does not absolve you. It may be useful to do, or hurt you not to have done.

4.   It is not true that once you have asked for permission and been turned on you can not fair use something. However, there are numerous situations where there was a good fair use argument in cases where the copyright holder refused to license the work.

Interesting Notes:

  • There has been a disturbing upsurge in frivolous lawsuits by “copyright troll” lawyers in the past few years.

  • Presenters agree that teachers can't use a whole film and claim "fair use", as it interferes with the financial value of the work. Using limited clips for educational purposes may be OK, but always better for teachers to license the work.