Hashtags

[momon121]

Hi

I have a small confectionery shop specialising in short dated products.

I mainly use FB to reach customers. I also do delivers around east Lancashire after I close my shop. What I like to learn is what suitable hashtags I can use to get more people to see my posts.

Thanks in advance

 

[Ashley_Price]

Hashtags are really used on Twitter - far less on Facebook.

So, you need to see if people follow the towns you visit as a hashtag (e.g. I regularly tweet with #Lewes). And of course, sweets, and any popular confectionery, should be hashtagged.

I am often tweeting about #OfficeSupplies, and specific things to do with #filing or #stationery, #ink and #toner.

But don't expect this to get you an increase in sales immediately. It can take months of building up enough of a following before you start to get sales directly as a result of your Twitter or Facebook posts.

 

[HarveyIT]

Ask other businesses in your area (if possible),if they use twitter, and if so, what hashtags they use?
If you go onto twitter, and start keying in a hashtag in the search box, it will/should come up with similar match to what you're keying in (if there are any, of course). That might give you an idea?

 

[momon121]

I recently launched a £10 variety box delivery around Blackburn. I wanted to target people on low income and for people who like convenience.

So far it's been successful averaging around 6 boxes a day but i want to get up to minimum 10 a day. Yes you are right I haven't seen much hashtags used on FB. It's more popular on Twitter but I'm wondering do my customers use Twitter and would Twitter be ideal for my type of business

 

[Debbie Barnes]

Hi Momon,

Have a presence on both FB and Twitter - unless you are paying for advertising on FB, I have found it is not as easy for new customers to find you on FB as it is on Twitter. Regarding whether it's the right place for finding your target audience, I tweet voucher codes every day and they get a good uptake on Twitter if I use the most relevant hashtags.

Use location hashtags (e.g. #Blackburn) in all of your tweets, and follow anyone who is tweeting using that hashtag and follow their followers as they are probably also from the area - if you start following accounts people tend to reciprocate in kind and follow you back. You can follow up to 2,000 accounts initially - I set up an ecommerce site last year and got 1,000+ followers in a few days following this approach.

Sounds like it's going well, hope you get up to 10 boxes a day soon!

 

[momon121]

Hi Debbie

Thanks for the advice. I used to use Twitter but I've found Twitter has a different audience than FB that's why I've decided to not to use it anymore. As I deal in short dated confectionery I feel vast majority of my customers on FB.

You're right if I wish to get any presence in the town I need to start tweeting with #blackbubrn. The boxes do well and FB has so many tactics of slowing my visibility because u get the feelings hey want to start paying for advertisement now. I'm a member of many groups with the Blackburn town and sometimes that helps a lot. I've googled to find relevant hashtags regarding my industry that's also a mine filed

 

[HarveyIT]

...and FB has so many tactics of slowing my visibility because u get the feelings hey want to start paying for advertisement now.

LOL, well, can't say I'm surprised about that one!
They DO want you to start paying for advertising!

 

[momon121]

They have removed so many features and of them used to be a feature allowing its users to share business pages into other groups.

 

[mick&sarah]

I would love to help my businesses with just a few hashtags but I must say I can't see the point, maybe I'm just skeptical but I have never noticed any increase in popularity by using them, but then I suppose few have, it must be an impossible task to understand what's working and what's not really in the social field..

 

[momon121]

That is so true

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I dont know if ever helps We do it I have a bit of fun with an old van I rescued from the scrap yard and sometimes post some of the work that does
If you like vehicles with no power steering ,no abs, no air con ,no creature comforts, no computer and you like to feel your still in the eighties then you should see this
#retrocouriervan

 

[Redsquid Communications]

Hello Momon,

Have you tried Instagram or Pinterest? Confectionery is rather popular on these sites, especially anything particularly unique or individual. They also include hashtags as well.

Also for local businesses, signing up to Yelp! Is a good idea; as it adds to your SEO and makes you more visible online.

Hope this helps!

 

[momon121]

Hi Redsquid

I am quiet surprised by that information. I was always under the impression that Pinterest and Facebook were mainly young adults in their early teens. I guess I could always give it try. What sort of heshtags could you use for my business

 

[Redsquid Communications]

Hi Momon,

Pinterest is actually used by a variety of age groups, and it's fast becoming one of the most popular social media sites; it's usefulness is not to be underestimated. You can 'tag' images on Pinterest, so they'll appear when certain phrases are searched.

For Instagram, images can be accompanied by text, including hashtags; think about things related to your products such as their brand, or type of confectionery, or perhaps even their flavour?

Hope this helps!

 

[John_Hills]

Hope I'm not stating the obvious here, but couldn't you kill two birds with one stone and link your Instagram account to your Facebook account? That way you have the possibility of using hashtags (on Instagram), but the posts will also show up on Facebook.

 

[Redsquid Communications]

John Hills is right on the money here; linking your accounts saves time and gives your brand more synchronicity on social media!

 

[momon121]

Wow i didnt realise it could be linked, I will have an attempt today and i will let you know. Would i have to upload on instigram or FB first ?

 

[Redsquid Communications]

Hello Momon,

You would have to post on Instagram first, then in the editing stage of your image you also have to option to share your upload on Facebook (as well as Twitter and other social media sites).

If you haven't yet linked your Facebook account, Instagram will prompt you to do so. Once you've linked your accounts, you won't have to do it again.

Hope this helps!

 

[Simon Dunant]

If you're looking for hashtags to use, then checkout RiteTag which is a really amazing free resource that tells you how many people are using a particular hashtag. We also have a Twitter course on Udemy that might be useful for you, simply search "Twitter Power Marketing" on Google and it should come up on the first page

 

[myself]

I know people use hashtags for tumblr, twitter, instagram, facebook but before to create them I usually search in google what will pop up and if it is relevant to my business I use them.

 

[momon121]

Thanks guys I really appreciate it thanks

 

[myself]

You don't need #tag optimisation. You need SEO.

Does shopify platform good enough for that?

 

[ethical PR]

Hi Redsquid

I am quiet surprised by that information. I was always under the impression that Pinterest and Facebook were mainly young adults in their early teens. I guess I could always give it try. What sort of heshtags could you use for my business

Definitely not - Facebook is used by people predominantly from 13 - 55 but older age ranges do use it and its very popular with the 30--55 age and within that age range, parents.

Do some market research on the type of people who will buy your boxes - this in turn will help you identify communications they use. There's lots of stats and research out there on which demographics use particularly types of media and social media channels.

There's also lots of research out there on the growing issues around obesity, particularly amongst children and young people. It's a huge growing cost on our NHS, in terms of treating related health problems and of course on individuals themselves who are obese.

The hashtag you should use should relate to your brand for example you could hardly call yours #healthyfoodsblackburn

 

[momon121]

Thanks for the information Ethical and I acknowledge that there's a growing concern with obesity and excess consumption of sugar related food. Although sugar related food I retail my intention was not to capitalise in that market.

Since people have their own choices my main objective is to give people real value for their pound. I have a very small in a small town so the people have choice where to shop

 

[StevePoster]

What I like to learn is what suitable hashtags I can use to get more people to see my posts.

Hashtags are very popular to social media and you must learn how to use it properly for your product and services.

 

[Matthew Nathan Hargreaves]

Hashtags are more suited to Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram. They don't tend to get used very much on Facebook, however, in the past I have seen the odd one or two. Hashtags need to be short and snappy in my opinion to get attention. As there are so many posts and hashtags I wouldn't expect a massive take up. Your business name is good to use, along with any products you sell too. Using taste adjectives may work well too.

 

[Krystsina]

Hi!

After reading your question and partly answers, I've had an idea for you. Usually when I want to reach my target audience on Facebook, I create Facebook events as it attracts more people then just a usual post with a picture. Why can't you try this way? You could make an event saying that you are coming to Lancashire with products, so people could see it in their events thread when checking and come to get something from you. When creating a Facebook event, it offers to place 3 tags there that are actually groups of interests, so you can put there Lancashire and other related to the location tags, Facebook will offer them to you when you type the name of the place.

Just my thoughts, hope it will be helpful!