The Socialize Strategy - About #Hashtags
Welcome to the socialized strategy, June 7, 2024. This is the happy Friday edition where we get deep into one topic and we go into it in a deeper way in a and talk strategy. So this week's topic is hashtags. And gotta say, I get a lot of questions about how to use hashtags. And it's surprising to me because I feel that it's so common now, the use of hashtags.
Helen:But I think because hashtags have been around for so long, I don't think a lot of people even ever thought about how to use them. I can remember when I first started on Instagram, and the hashtags used to be like, how am I gonna say this, like sarcasm. So if you posted a video and then it was something about, I'm gonna make this up like a bakery and it was whatever. Some of the hashtags I might use are not necessarily searchable hashtags, but it would be it would be like a little sarcastic addition to the post. So I'd say, visiting a neighborhood bakery, hashtag love to eat, hashtag delicious croissants, hashtag you know, and it would be more about not necessarily a searchable thing that I was trying to get people to search or discover.
Helen:So interesting difference and use of hashtags. I think the use of hashtags has evolved. At least it has for me because it's the way I think about the hashtags now. It's kind of a different a different mindset because learning through listening to people on social media and learning through the 4 years of being on social media heavily, especially on TikTok, I really, really understood and listened to a lot of, experts talking about hashtags. And so experimenting myself and learning how to use hashtags, when does it work, is it successful when I do it this way versus that way.
Helen:So it's my own experimentation. Experimentation. I like how I put an an emphasis on the x. My own experimentation with hashtags is where I think a lot of the expertise comes out, and that's what I'm gonna share with you today. So using hashtags and keywords within your video and your caption can actually help it reach a broader audience.
Helen:And I wanna start by talking about SEO. And I know if I I don't mean to be talking down to you by saying let's talk about what is SEO. But I do think there's a lot of people who might be new to social media and not even realize what SEO stands for or what it means and why it's important. So I'm gonna really start with the basics. So take no insult.
Helen:Let's just come with me for the ride. SEO means search engine optimization, and it's about helping the search engine on a platform formerly like YouTube to be able to deliver your content to the right audience when they're searching for certain words. So it was always really for websites and for blogging. But recently now, social media has become very searchable. And that started with hashtags, really.
Helen:It is how people were able to categorize their content. And then if someone was looking for a specific thing, they would search the hashtag. Now you don't even need necessarily the hashtag for it, but the hashtag does still help to put you in that category. Hopefully, that makes sense. I know it's even sometimes sometimes even though I understand it, I still have trouble explaining it.
Helen:So how I'm gonna explain it even a little further is when I post my videos to YouTube, for example, there's a little box where you can put in search keywords. And I and you put them in and you delineate them with commas in order to separate them. Sometimes, I will put in an entire phrase as if I was doing a search. So for example, you know, when you go to Google or YouTube and you wanna find out how to change a flat tire, you would type in the words, how to change a flat tire. So sometimes when I'm in that keyboard section, I will type the whole sentence out.
Helen:How to and I won't do flat tire because I'm not teaching that. But let's say, how to understand hashtags, how to use hashtags on social media, how to categorize my content with hashtags. I will put in full sentences like that in my search keywords because sometimes they think, well, maybe it'll show up with somebody typing in that exact sentence. But in reality, you don't have to put in the whole sentence. You can just put in the keywords that are the things that people are going to be searching for.
Helen:So if you think about when you do that, when you post a YouTube video, it's the same kind of thing when you're posting a piece of social media content. You want it to have bunch of words usable and hashtags are a great way to do it, the things that people might be searching for. And the more views your video gets and the more you post, your videos might likely show up in that search. And weirdly enough, even though we had this episode planned to go out and this newsletter planned, I got a question today on a TikTok about somebody who said, how come my video how can I make my videos searchable? And the person only had posted, like, 5 videos in her life.
Helen:And I'm thinking, well, honey, if you just started a YouTube channel today, you're not gonna be showing up at the top of the search right away because that's just not how it works. It's people who've been get online. People have been here ahead of you. They've got tons of content out. So and they have keywords attached.
Helen:So their videos are likely going to show up more because they're more highly viewed. So the search engine is going to serve up someone who's looking for content. It's not gonna serve up a piece of content that only has 10 views on it. I know that I'm going a little deep, but I wanna I wanna make this understandable. So if you if you are just starting out and you're saying, oh, I'm putting hashtags on, doing everything they say, and my videos aren't showing up in the search.
Helen:Well, that's because there's a lot of people with a lot higher viewed videos with videos with tons more views on them that have those same search keywords. So therefore, they're being prioritized in the search engine. So you have to get yourself into the cycle, and it takes time to build. It's not gonna happen overnight. But if you start adding the keywords in there, the more video more your content gets views, the more the possibility exists that yours would be served up in that grouping.
Helen:And depending on how far people dive and deep and go through and go through and go through under that search word, maybe they'll get to your video eventually. Okay? So it's not about immediately you put these words in and immediately your video is gonna show up at the top of the search. But it's a possibility that if you have, let's say, a viral video and it had the right search words in it, it's possible that it could. So I wanna just say, you know, don't be discouraged, but use hashtags because they can help you.
Helen:And it matters because social media platforms, now that they're using these SEO keywords to serve up your videos, it it possibly will have, like, a random chance where sometimes I'll search, on the TikTok platform, and there might not be a lot of videos on this one topic. So therefore, I am seeing smaller creators with much lower viewed videos that are popping up because maybe they put in the keyword and no one else made a video about that. So think of it like YouTube's been around forever. So this it's so deep, the search. And you have to go really deep to find new creators that are serving up content about something.
Helen:But on social media platforms, since it's newer, you have a better chance of being seen if you use those if you use your hashtags sensibly. Now I'm seeing my hearing my jersey. Hash hashtags instead of hash. Hashtag. Now I don't even know how to say hashtags.
Helen:Okay. This is gonna be fun now. Alright. Now let's move on. Let's talk about really what what the other ways to get into the search engine are.
Helen:So number 1, when you put hashtags on your videos, I'm gonna talk specifically at the end of this episode about the the groupings of hashtags and how I do my hashtags. But aside from hashtags, video titles are also something that is made searchable. Your lower caption is also made searchable. So for example, if you're making a video about how to do a certain makeup look, make sure that you put those in the titles of your video on screen. Make sure you put it in your lower caption, on your lower caption of your video.
Helen:And then also put them in the hashtags. So you're covering it in 3 different areas. It helps you more likely be seen. One thing I will say, this is a tip that I'm gonna go on and share. If you do the thing where you type a title and you don't want it to be visible and you slide it off screen, a lot of people are finding that the TikTok platform and sometimes Instagram is cropping the video and hiding and showing black on the top and the bottom of the so it's not filling the screen.
Helen:And that's really happening because you're hiding your titles. So if you find that your videos are being cropped weirdly and you're hiding your titles and sliding them off screen, that could be why it's happening. So that's just a little a little bonus red alert to pay attention to. But definitely using these same keywords that you're thinking of using in hashtags, using them in your video titles and your lower caption really does help. Okay.
Helen:So think about going to the question of if someone was looking for a piece of content, what would they search? Think about the language of that person. What language are they are they using and what key what keywords are they using and then what what are they gonna be searching for and try and work those keywords into your copy when you're speaking. If you're speaking in your video, your on screen titles, your lower captions, and then also putting in your hashtags. So you're gonna cover it in all these different areas.
Helen:And, you know, we never know. I look at sometimes a video I'll post, and I think, okay. I've used this phrase, whatever, green screen tutorial. On the screen, lower caption, in the hashtag, and for some reason, it categorized the video baton twirling. Just kidding.
Helen:Not really that off the mark. But it will literally categorize it with something completely different. And I'm like, where did it get that from? And then I'll look and it was maybe the last hashtag or the last thing I put in the caption. And so it doesn't necessarily prioritize with the first thing you put, and sometimes it can be very frustrating.
Helen:So if you have suggestions, I would welcome to hear I would love to hear any suggestions or things that have happened to you. But if you're really trying to get that top search bar to show your video where when when you scroll on TikTok in particular, it shows what's searchable. You really have to stay focused. Like, get in the lane and lean into the lane and put all the hashtags about that and focus as much as as you can possibly can. So I'm gonna talk a little bit about Instagram now because Adam Mosseri makes I don't know if you know who he is.
Helen:He's the CEO of Instagram possibly. I don't even know what his title is, but he's on Instagram and he does he does talk about new features when they come out and he loves to speak to the audience. I get such a kick out of reading the comments on his videos, and sometimes I feel a little bad because people just come at him. They're like, yeah. Yeah.
Helen:Stop talking to us about this feature and show my videos to my audience. Oh my god. People are so mean. I don't know how this guy even, like, sleeps at night because so much negativity. But he does try and come on and talk about what's working, what's not working, new features.
Helen:And I do appreciate that because as a CEO, he's trying to he's trying to speak to the people and help us out, I guess. So he recently came out saying that too many hashtags could actually be counterproductive because then it doesn't the platform doesn't know where to send you. So I'm gonna tell you the good practice that we put in the newsletter today, the practice that I tend to use, the practice Julie tends to use, is do this 3, 3, and 3 system. And a lot of creators have talked about this where it's 3 hashtags about hashtags? I'm not laughing.
Helen:Three hashtags about what your content is about, 3 hashtags for who your content is for, thinking about your audience, And 3 hashtags about why your content is helpful and important and relevant. And you can think of that as what the what the video is about, specifically, who who it's for, and then in general, what your page is about. And I'm gonna I'll use myself as an example because I think about this constantly when I'm making my videos. So it's a video. Let's say the other day, I was at the bake I was did a little bakery video.
Helen:So I literally put New York City bakeries, New York City food, and and New York City something else. So I had 3 NYC titles. Then I had my titles, TikTok tutorials, TikTok teacher, the mothership, my personal titles. And then I think for that one, I didn't because I wasn't teaching a lesson. I didn't put anything specific because I already had the New York City Bakery 1.
Helen:But for tutorials, I would do something like this. Let's be specific now for a tutorial. Green screens tutorial, how to use green screen, green screen effect. So those are my 3 about what the video is. Then my next 3 would be, who am I looking for?
Helen:Beginner TikTok, TikTok newbie. Then I might put somebody like might do something like over 50 TikTok or because sometimes older people don't know how to use the app, something like that. And then I would do I really I know I just generalize really well there because I'm over 50 and I know how to use the app. But a lot of people in my following are older, and they don't know how to use the apps. And they tell me this all the time, so I'm gonna lean into it.
Helen:Then my 3rd bucket is is, so it's audience. It's what the video is about. And then it's also what my content is about. So that's when I do more generalized. I'll do TikTok tutorials, TikTok tips, TikTok course, TikTok.
Helen:And so I'll do a general thing, TikTok teacher. So I do 333, and that's how I work it. So think about what your 3 areas are and do 333 or 222 and see how it does for you. Does it do better when you do less? Is it better when you do more?
Helen:And see. You can also on a lot of platforms, you can see how many posts have been made with a specific hashtag. And so if you see there's been like 1,000,000,000 posts made with the hashtag green screen, for example. Not the best hashtag to use. Do I still use it?
Helen:Heck, yeah. Because on the off chance that I want mine to show up there, I might put one that has a 1,000,000,000 views. Then I try and do something that's more within the 100 of 1,000 views like green screen tutorial because that one's not gonna show up with a 1,000,000,000 views. So try and vary the size of the hashtags you're using so that you can maybe be searchable. If you're like a needle in a haystack of a 1000000000, the chances are slim that yours is gonna show up when there's so many other videos made with that hashtag.
Helen:Alright. So there's a little bit of strategy behind that. And unfortunately, I wish I could say, here's all the answers and this is exactly how to do it. And if anybody told you that, guess what? They're lying.
Helen:There's no hard and fast answers to any of this. Honestly, it's just trial and error and we're all out here doing our best. So with most social media techniques in general, finding the perfect formula that works for you will take experimentation. And maybe you can keep a little, I don't know, running note about what hashtags you use and so you can have a bank of the terms that you can play around with and say, oh, in that combination that that video did really well. In this combination, it didn't.
Helen:I personally, I don't know. That's a lot of time spent tracking something that seems very arbitrary to me. So I don't recommend you spend time doing that. You're better off spending time making more content and just throwing throwing more content out there than sitting there trying to make a chart of hashtags. It just seems counterproductive and, like and not and maybe not the best use of time.
Helen:What a good use of time would be is to come to the expert workshop that we have coming up because that's gonna be a 1 hour workshop that is going to be filmed live and released as a podcast. So I have Tammy from my conquering. She makes fidget spinner rings, which are quite amazing, and she has exploded on TikTok with a TikTok shop. And even before that, she was selling she was going hard and selling on TikTok. So she's a small business owner.
Helen:If you are a small business guru or you're just starting out or you're considering doing a small business, be a great one for you to listen to to see what what was her thinking? How did she do it? Her and her son are in business together. So I really relate to that being in business with Julie. I I like to I like to pull from experts because the learning every single time I'm on one of these expert workshops, I learn something new.
Helen:They're all so smart and they have such great tips for us. So come and join us. And that link is in the show notes here, and it's in the newsletter today. The next month for July, I have a special guest coming who is an influencer agent. So for all of you creator, wanna be monetizing, you know, maybe your dream is to have a social media agent, this one's for you because she's gonna talk to us about what the what she looks for when she's looking for to take on new clients and what you should be doing to prepare yourself for that, to get yourself marketable to an agent so that an agent would want to represent you.
Helen:So those are the next 2 expert workshops. I love that we're going into this expert world. I think it's bringing in a lot of value that I can't bring. And here's one funny thing that I did recently. I decided, I think I'm gonna do the TikTok shop once because I want to be able to teach how to use it.
Helen:So I applied. I got accepted. And then I said, what am I gonna advertise? I'm looking at the products. It gives you suggestions of products, what you wanna advertise.
Helen:I was wanting to advertise the go Pure Neck Cream because I kept seeing videos over and over and over on my for you page about it. But then I ordered it, tried it, and I'm like, I don't know. It didn't help my neck, so I can't be making a video about something that really didn't do anything for me. And but I what I found on doing this is that when you join the TikTok shop, you suddenly get I talk about, like, your DMs blowing up. I have, like, now DMs from shops that want me to promote their products.
Helen:And I'm like, my my head's already spinning, so I haven't even done anything about it just because I guess that's what it is. When you join the TikTok shop, you're able to promote other people's products. So when they see that you've joined and they see your audience size, then they're coming for you. They want you to pick their product. And I'm like, I'm in a panic.
Helen:So I haven't done anything with it yet. But maybe I'll have some time and maybe I'll experiment with something. I don't know. It's not gonna be because I'm gonna start doing the TikTok shop and going hard. It would be more to learn how to do the TikTok shops that when people ask me, I can maybe do a tutorial.
Helen:That is my reason for doing it. And I thought maybe I could sell some neck cream. But guess what? This neck ain't selling no cream. So that's not happening.
Helen:It was a fun idea, though. What can I say? Alright. Let's talk on a personal note. This week, I went to an early morning 7 AM dance party.
Helen:Oh my gosh. It was so much fun. It's called day breaker. And every one of these is always themed. So this was a rainbow theme because for pride month.
Helen:So I had to try and find something rainbow to wear. Do you think I could find anything? I'm walking the streets of New York. All I could find was a bathing suit. I'm holding it up for those of you watching.
Helen:If you're not watching, you're missing out on my bathing suit shot. Anyway, I found this 1 piece bathing suit, ended up wearing it like a tank top. I put something under it so it wasn't so revealing. So I wore that, and then I wore these fabulous heart shaped rainbow y sunglasses. Fun, my sunnies.
Helen:And I danced at 7 AM. And I'm not a morning person. So trust me, it's a lot to get me out of bed at 7 AM. That's how good it has to be. And it was at Rockefeller Center, and it was so much fun.
Helen:And I'm probably by the time this podcast airs, I will have posted content. So if you have missed it, go look on my TikTok and my Instagram because it'll be posted there. A little recap of the early morning dance party. The other thing that is happening this week, and it is happening post me recording this, but probably will have been done by the time you're listening to this, is I'm interviewing an NFL former player from the New York Giants for work. So I have a production job with the NFL alumni, and I'm gonna be interviewing Victor Cruz.
Helen:I am so excited. I love working with these, projects where I get to interview I don't know. They're quasi former greats, and I've met a lot of them for in the NFL. It was so good. I've had so many cool experiences that production has brought to me and I'm so grateful for it all the time.
Helen:So I've, I've met Otis Anderson. I got to meet the. I I'm trying to even think of all the names that are gonna, like, go off the top of my head right now. But Dick Butkus, I was at his house with his wife named Helen, and I got to interview him. It was so much fun.
Helen:The player from the, Steelers who made the the catch, and I can't remember the the Emancipation Proclamation. I forgot the name of the catch. I'm really gonna be sending myself, like, into another place. I'm gonna get I'm gonna get some bad feedback on this podcast because I can't think of the famous play. But he had a famous play, and he was awesome.
Helen:And his name is I'm blanking out on his name right now, but it's gonna come back to me immediately as soon as I stop recording. Hey. I'm cracking up. So it's Franco Harris, and it's the play. The famous play is the immaculate reception.
Helen:It's not the Emancipation Proclamation. I'm cracking up. Oh my gosh. Well, you know, now you know that the end of these podcasts is where the silliness gets gets unveiled for you. So that's who that was.
Helen:Anyway, it was so fun to meet some of these really famous players. And the refrigerator Perry. I've got to meet him and his famous brother, Michael Dean Perry, I think was his name. So I've had some really fun fun interview opportunities in production. So just sharing that with you here, and I will be making another memory with Victor Cruz.
Helen:And maybe we'll be doing a salsa. His famous salsa touchdown dance together. I hope so. I'm gonna channel it, and I'll get back to you. I'm also gonna be able to speak Spanish because he speaks Spanish.
Helen:So we're gonna practicar espanol con con el. I'm gonna leave you with that because I'm starting to lose it and I appreciate you listening if you're still with me. Thanks for being here. Thanks for sticking it out through my silliness. And thanks for supporting the podcast.
Helen:If you enjoyed it, please leave a review and let us know what you'd like to hear about in future episodes. It's so nice to know if these are helpful. It's nice to know that you are enjoying them and you're getting something out of them. And don't forget to sign up for our next expert workshop. I'm really looking forward to it.
Helen:And you'll get to chat with me and Tammy, and you get to ask questions live in the moment. Alright. Have a great weekend, everyone, and I'll see you next week. Bye.
