What are hashtags? In simple terms, a hashtag is a keyword phrase without any spaces and has a pound sign in front of it — and is used on a variety of social media platforms. The purpose of a hashtag is to tie conversations from different users together into one stream, which can be found by searching for the specific hashtag. #Homebuilders , for example, is a heavily populated hashtag, It’s worth noting that if there is a space in your hashtag, it will not work.

You might now be thinking, so what? Why should I care? Well, you should care a great deal because it makes tweets (among posts on other social media platforms) easier to find. This leads to a whole slew of other benefits. If users who are not otherwise connected use the same hashtag, their post will show up in the same stream as others using the hashtag. Hashtags are clickable and can bring any wandering user to any given stream. They are also searchable and will help you show up in searches on social platforms.

Hashtags are incredibly valuable specifically to homebuilders. After all, many utilize social media platforms to share homes they are selling, or use the platform to narrow down listings in particular areas of interest.

We’ve outlined everything you need to know about hashtags — and how they can help you sell homes.

 

 

 

Benefits:

 

Reach: This can be effective in helping you expand your reach. Your reach is the amount of people who see your post. If you don’t include hashtags, only people who are already following you will see your updates. By using hashtags effectively you will be able to effectively expand your reach, and ultimately your presence.

 

Track Conversations: This is probably our favourite benefit and we’ll tell you why. Tracking is a major pillar in social media, and using hashtags allows you to make tracking conversations significantly easier. By creating a hashtag you can then use various tools online to track that hashtag. Some example include Keyhole, HashTracking or Social Mention. These tools can tell you the sentiment, replies, comments and much more. But you can go even further — say you created a marketing campaign or Home Builder event. If you associate your campaign with a hashtag, it will allow you to better track your campaign and determine the effectiveness.

 

Join Conversations: You can use hashtags to search out relevant and popular hashtags that your buyer personas are using. You can then use these trending and popular hashtags to your advantage, gain visibility and target your posts specifically to your buyer personas who may be interested in what you have to offer.

 

Brand Yourself: You can use hashtags to categorize your content or events. Create your own hashtag and use it to compile posts about your business — but have fun with it, and get creative. Maybe you will create a sub hashtag that will be used purely for tips and information articles. Or, you can use hashtags for events that you are hosting, allowing people quick access to relevant information.

 

Create Conversations: Hashtags give you an opportunity to create trends and conversations of your own. Just create an effective hashtag with engaging content, and people will start to jump on the bandwagon and you will have a conversation on your hands. Just make sure you stay active with it!

 

 

Different Platforms:

On each platform we’ve highlighted some key points about hashtags.

 

 

Twitter:

•  Tweets with hashtags get 2x more engagement than those without.
•  Use no more than 2 hashtags

 

Instagram:

• Different than the other social platforms – the more hashtags the merrier…. only to a certain point though! 11 hashtags has a 79% interaction percentage. Be sure your hashtags are relevant to your target audience. (For example you would use #customHomeBuilder, #NewConstruction, #NewListing, #HomeBuying etc.)

• Imagery is what Instagram is all about, so combining pictures of your new model home being built with hashtags that reach homebuyers, realtors and lawyers will produce some off the charts engagement.

 

Facebook:

• Beating your loyal Facebook followers over the head  with hashtags will just annoy and deter them from wanting to check out what you are posting. 1-2 hashtags will earn you 593 avg. interactions per post, where as 10+ average 188 interactions per post.
• Again, the marriage of awesome imagery with the appropriate hashtags will get you noticed by those who matter.

 

Google+:

• The cool thing about Google+ is that it’s super smart! It will generate hashtags for you based on the content you’ve supplied.  That said, you do have the option to edit.
• You can create hashtags in your comments & posts doubling the opportunity to be discovered!

 

Pinterest:

• Pinterest is a hot-bed of visual activity, and a great resource for those looking for tips and tricks.  It’s the perfect place to post pics of your new luxury model home, showing how it was built, or maybe even an infographic on your company’s history.  Anything that will get potential buyers feeling like they know you.
• Did you know that Pinterest will generate four times more money per click than Twitter? And 27% more than Facebook?
• Pinterest is 70 million members strong – think at least one of those is in the home buying market in your area? We think that’s a safe bet.
• Using hashtags on Pinterest will increase your click through rate by a whopping 94%!

 

 

Best Practices:

Over the years, MediaTown has developed and come to understand the best practices for implementing hashtags — and today we will share them. Excited yet!?

 

Pick a Keyword: When creating hashtags, make sure you use keywords that are relevant to your business or brand. This way, people who are not actively searching for a specific hashtag may see it, think its interesting, and end up searching for it. This helps create traction for your hashtag.

 

Is It Already Being Used: Is the keyword that you are think of using already being used by another business? Go to search.twitter.com to see. Just type in the hashtag you are thinking of using, and if something comes up that means that there is already someone using it — and you should choose another one. You do not want people who are not a part of your target audience or conversation using the same hashtag.

 

Keep it Short & Simple: There are a lot of hashtags that are frequently being used, which makes it hard for people to remember them. Make sure that your hashtag is short & simple so it is easy to remember and use.

 

Don’t Spam Hashtags: Now that you understand the importance of hashtags, it is important that you do not get too excited and start overusing them. Creating too many hashtags will not be effective as it takes time and relevancy to build up conversations around hashtags. It is also important not to use too many in your tweets. Make sure your hashtags are relevant to you and the conversation.

 

So give it a try, start using hashtags to see what proper use of them can do you for and your business.