How Do Hashtags and Press Releases Work Together? Some Effective Tips
What are hashtags and why do hashtags and press releases work really well together? Well, hashtags, just like with any other content, increase PR’s visibility!
A “hashtag” is a punctuation mark that has been around in civilizations for years. It is believed that the Romans used to use this to abbreviate “lb.” Centuries later, when typewriters were discovered and used, this pound sign was used to represent a short form of “number”. Now computer programmers use hashtags in the computing language to group messages or content together. Today it is also used in social media on the internet to easily find things that people are looking for.
The hashtag first appeared on social media platforms or the internet for common people use in 2007 when it was first introduced to Twitter. It was then that the term hashtag really got popular. Initially, the term was thought of as something “nerdy” or unpopular. But after the famous fire in San Diego, the #sandiegofire was used on the platform to find content faster and make tracking updates related to that easier. This is where the hashtag as a concept was quickly to be adopted by different activist groups, and political parties. Now it is regularly used in social media for different trends like “#ThrowbackThursday”. After gaining popularity on Twitter, the symbol was adopted into other social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, and Pinterest.
Now you might wonder what the relationship between hashtags and press releases is, then you first need to know why you should use hashtags in the first place. So let’s get into it.
Why are Hashtags used?
In today’s digital world, hashtags are used in social media platforms most often to group or link similar content or updates. This helps social media users and readers to find a topic they are interested in quickly, while also helping them with additional content on the same topic. For example, if you open Instagram or Twitter and type #cutedogs on the search bar you will be able to find any and every post that uses the same hashtag in its description or caption. In just a few seconds, your feed will be filled with content that features a cute dog and the platform’s algorithm will soon pick it up. Not just at the moment but your feed will be filled with similar content for a few consecutive days until you search or show interest in something more than you were interested in cute dogs!
Do Hashtags Play a Role in Sharing Organizational Content and Updates?
The biggest revelation is that hashtags are not just for Twitter or Instagram, they can very well be used in sharing any news or updates of your company or brand. If you incorporate relevant hashtags in the press release content, it can help boost the content’s searchability while increasing its reach and organic engagement. So the idea to integrate social media and press releases along with hashtags actually works. For this to work successfully, you need to think of hashtags as keywords. You need to search for answers to what terms would people be searching for when they look for your shared news. You can use this as a starting point when you are determining which hashtags to use in your press releases.
Where to Place Hashtags in the Press Release Content?
Adding hashtags in your press release content is a genius idea to bring attention to the target readers. This will let the target audience know that the hashtags are relevant to your announcements, therefore your announcements are relevant to them. If you are sharing any news about any upcoming event that you will be attending or hosting, try to include the hashtag in the first sentence or the first subheading. You can also use the relevant and trending hashtags in the company boilerplate.
When you are sharing the announcement with the distribution service, you also get the option to add the hashtag in the sidebar of the press release. These tags will be directly linked with the company’s official Twitter or Instagram. This will also allow the target audience and the readers of the content to help find similar news to yours. In turn, your news will add value to all conversations taking place on the platforms.
How do you Determine which Tags to Use?
Understanding which hashtags you should use in the announcement takes thorough research. Here are the ways you can do that –
- Start by doing competitive research and analysis on social media. This will help you to understand which hashtags your competitors are using and which of these are used most often.
- Look for hashtags that are currently trending. You can use available tools online that provide you with suggestions based on your keyword.
What are the Tips to Add Hashtags to the Press Releases?
If you are new to this or someone who is looking for some effective tips on adding hashtags to your press announcement, then here are some tips for you that actually work.
- Start by adding #PressRelease to the press announcement. It might seem simple but it will help to search for the term and immediately find your news.
- Remember to do your research well, as only the relevant ones will work.
- You can adopt terms from your press news as hashtags. If your news is about any event, you can try and include something related to the main event. If your news is about any findings from a survey, try a hashtag like #surveyresults.
- Don’t go overboard, stick to just 3-5 hashtags. You aim to increase readers but stacking the news with too many hashtags will be distracting.
- If your story is about a specific geographical location, you can incorporate terms that are relevant to the region, state, or city.
- Sometimes it helps with the views if you add a hashtag specific to a person or people in your announcement.
- Keep the hashtags precisely limited to the announcement only. If you use irrelevant tags, you have the risk of losing interested readers.
- You need to incorporate accessible and easy-to-read hashtags. So you need to keep it simple and use title cases only.
There are several paid and free tools online that will help you understand which hashtags to use. If you are still in doubt, get help from your distribution network and build the specifics that will work for you.
I am Jessica Gonzalez and i have over 16 years experience in the financial services industry giving me a vast understanding of how news affects the financial markets. She is an active day trader spending the majority of my time analyzing earnings reports and watching commodities and derivatives. I have a Masters Degree in Economics from Westminster University with previous roles counting Investment Banking.
