Hashtags are everywhere on social media, particularly on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, you-name-it. They are typically used to categorize posts or to express thoughts (#relateable). They can be a great marketing tool if—you guessed it—used correctly. So, how do authors go about using hashtags to their best advantage?
You may have to do research to see what specific hashtag resonates best with the audience you’re trying to appeal to. You may find that perhaps you feel most comfortable using your book’s topic or subject as a hashtag (#businessbook, #motivational, #success, #etc) or perhaps you may find more success using a trending hashtag and connecting it to your book. For example, if #NationalCoffeeDay is trending, why not use it in a tweet about what coffee beverage you’re currently enjoying while working on your book?
Hashtags also give you the opportunity to do research , if you click or search for a hashtag, it shows you all the posts that use that particular hashtag, any related hashtags that are used with it, who’s using that hashtag and what time of day they’re most active, all great insights that will greatly benefit you.
The idea of it is that you want to use hashtags to find possible new readers for your book and get them following you.
But you need to be careful, if you use more than two hashtags in a single post, you run the risk of turning off your audience because it may look like spam to them. You don’t want to look desperate.
Read more information about how to best use hashtags for authors at The Book Designer.