Building Your Brand’s Hashtag Cloud

Are hashtags a focal point of your social strategy? Some platforms reward them more than others, and knowing how and when to use them can meaningfully extend your reach.

Twitter and Instagram lean on hashtags the most — use them there to broaden your reach and help new people discover your brand. On Facebook and LinkedIn, hashtags work better sparingly: one or two in the first comment or tucked into the description is usually enough.

Hashtags serve two real purposes: branding and discoverability.

Branded Hashtags

Build a hashtag that captures your brand's mission and core values — something people instantly recognize as yours, whether that's your business name or a phrase unique to you. If you can get others to use it when they post about your products or services, it reinforces your brand every time.

Using Hashtag Tools

Hashtags work both directions — following relevant tags is a good way to discover industry content, track competitors, and find inspiration. Plenty of tools exist to help surface popular and relevant hashtags; whichever you use, keep them relevant to your content and don't overdo it.

Best Practices

Mix your tags — a blend of popular, medium-reach, and unique hashtags works better than the same set on every post. If you're using more than two or three, move them into the first comment rather than the caption. Tailor your tags to each specific post rather than reusing a blanket set, and aim for somewhere around 10 to 15 in the first comment as a starting point.

Keep a running hashtag cloud — a simple document or spreadsheet where you track and monitor your best-performing tags over time. It becomes a reference you return to every time you write a new post.