Social media hashtags connect small businesses with wider audiences, boosting brand awareness and engagement.
Business hashtags are a crucial tool for increasing visibility, engagement, and networking for small businesses across social media platforms.
When using hashtags on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter), small businesses can tap into trending topics and reach their target audience more effectively.
Top tags for small businesses include #SmallBiz, #ShopSmall, #SupportSmallBusiness, #EntrepreneurLife, and #ShopLocal.
What are the best hashtags for your small business?
The pound sign, the tic-tac-toe symbol, the octothorpe. What is this symbol really used for? Hashtags are the secret sauce of social media. The main reasons hashtags are important for small businesses are that they increase content discoverability, visibility, and engagement, helping your posts reach a wider audience—these are the key reasons hashtags matter. Hashtags help users find content relevant to their interests, making it easier for potential customers to discover your business. Hashtags act as a tool for categorizing social media content, which enhances discoverability, brand recognition, and engagement by connecting your posts with targeted audiences. They can help small businesses increase their reach and attract new customers online. Using trending or industry-popular hashtags ensures your content reaches a wider audience and attracts more potential customers. But with so many hashtags out there, it can be tough to know which ones to use. In this blog, we’ll explain the ins and outs of using hashtags and share some of the best hashtags for small businesses.
What are Hashtags?
Unless you’re a millennial or gen z, you probably aren’t quite sure how hashtags work. They seem like these mythical objects that have to be on a social media post. But using hashtags wrong can be #cringe. Hashtags are used to group relevant topics together and make them easier to find. They also help to connect social media content to a specific topic, event, theme or conversation.
Instagram hashtags and TikTok hashtags are especially important for small businesses to increase visibility and engagement on those platforms. Hashtags help connect content to specific topics, making it easier for users to discover posts relevant to their interests. Local businesses can use hashtags, including location-based tags, to attract local customers searching for services in their area. Niche tags often have lower volume but higher engagement because they target a specific, interested audience.
The first time the pound symbol was used as a “hashtag” was on Twitter in 2007. A web marketing specialist suggested using the symbol as a way to group relevant tweets together. The idea of hashtags took off and showed to be incredibly useful for grouping relevant posts.
How to use Hashtags
Next, you need to be aware of some of the basic tips and tricks of using hashtags on your posts. Using strategic hashtags is essential for small businesses to increase reach and engagement on social media platforms. People sometimes don’t utilize hashtags correctly when they’re first starting to use them. This leads to confusion and frustration as to why they aren’t seeing results. The most important rule to follow is making sure the hashtags are relevant to your post. On almost every social media platform you can see what hashtags are trending. The trending hashtags are the topics that are getting the most attention at that time. In addition to trending hashtags, using popular hashtags and trendy hashtags can boost your visibility and help your content reach a wider audience. Many people make the mistake of using these trending topics in hopes to get more exposure. This is not a good strategy.
If #tacotuesday is trending and getting a lot of attention, and you post something about your jewelry shop that has nothing to do with taco Tuesday, your post is not going to get the attention that you’re hoping for. The reason for this is, if people are scrolling through the posts connected with a certain hashtag and see something that isn’t relevant, they will scroll right past it. Here are some other things to note while picking hashtags; creating a unique hashtag for your brand can help strengthen your brand identity and build a community around your business.
Proper Format
They always start with # but will not work if there are spaces, any punctuation or other symbols. An example of a hashtag that will not work is something like, #Best Burger Restaurant! “Best” would be the only word that gets connected with the hashtag if there are spaces like this.
Additionally, creating a unique hashtag for your business can help strengthen your brand identity and make your content stand out on social media platforms.
Account Set-up
Your social media profile must be public. Instagram and Twitter have the option of having a private account. With a private account, only the people that you allow to follow you can see your posts. If you’re trying to use hashtags to get more followers or more exposure, you must have a public account. Otherwise, the hashtagged content will not be seen by any non-followers.
Multi-Word Hashtags
You should try and stick to one to two word hashtags. You don’t really want to be stringing together 5 or 6 words. Doing that becomes hard to read, they should me short and easy to remember. For example, #locallysourcedhoneyfromrealbees is very hard to read. Instead, try breaking it up #locallysorced #honey #bees. This way you’re hitting multiple relevant hashtags, this will maximize your reach. Make sure the hashtags are unique to your business but not too obscure. Those will be hard to find and most likely not be used by other social media users. If there is a hashtag that has more than one word and each word is fairly long, try capitalizing the first letter of each word. #NationalReasturantAssociation is a good example of this.
Amount of Tags
You want to walk the line of having enough hashtags, but not too many. You want to tag all the relevant topics of your post, but not too many to where it looks spammy. As an example, say you own a flower shop. Mothers Day is coming up and the weather is getting nice. You post a picture of a Mothers Day flower arrangement. You’d want to use the hashtags #spring #MothersDay #giftideas #flowers. This hits, the current season, a well known event (Mothers Day), a common search (gift ideas), and your businesses specialty (flowers).
Use Local Hashtags
If you’re a small business, you’re going to want to use location based hashtags to increase community engagement. Even if your business has multiple locations, they’re probably all in one state. If you’re looking to market your products on social media you want people that are near your location to see your posts. To do this, you’ll want to throw in your location with the hashtags. If you’re a restaurant located in Chicago using something like #ChicagoResturants or #ILsmallbusiness is a great idea.
Why Hashtags for Small Businesses are Important
Hashtags can easily be used for almost anything and are a terrific way to find others who share your interests. For instance, if you run a small business, you might utilize hashtags to advertise your goods and services. Additionally, hashtags can be used to spark a discussion or bring attention to a subject. Using hashtags is a terrific method to stay current on news and trends. By using targeted hashtags and engaging with your audience, you can build relationships with potential customers and brand advocates, fostering long-term engagement and loyalty. Using hashtags that resonate with your content and audience can inspire more likes, shares, saves, and comments. Tracking post engagement on different variations of hashtags in your posts helps you see which ones are driving the most likes, comments, and shares. An Instagram post that includes at least one hashtag gets 12.6% more engagement than a post without hashtags. By using hashtags, you also;
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Increase engagement with your followers
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Build brand awareness with branded hashtags
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Show support for social issues
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Add context to a social media post
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Help your target audience find you
If you want to learn more about how hashtags can help your small business grow on social media, here’s a great blog about it.
Branded hashtags are a good idea if you promote it within your business. If you want to create a hashtag with your business name in it, you want to make sure people know about it. The reason for this is, a person that doesn’t know about your business will not be looking for your branded hashtag. Once your business is established with loyal customers, then your branded hashtag will be more successful.
Popular Hashtag Types
When it comes to building a strong hashtag strategy, understanding the different types of hashtags is essential for small business owners. The most effective approaches combine branded hashtags, niche-specific hashtags, and trending hashtags to maximize online visibility and connect with both a wider and more targeted audience.
Branded hashtags are unique to your business and help create a recognizable identity across social media platforms. These can include your business name, slogan, or a campaign-specific phrase. Using branded hashtags consistently encourages customers and other small business owners to engage with your brand and share their own posts, building community and brand recognition.
Niche-specific hashtags focus on your industry or the unique aspects of your business. These hashtags help you connect with a relevant audience interested in your specific products or services. For example, a local bakery might use #ArtisanBread or #GlutenFreeTreats to reach people searching for those topics.
Trending hashtags are those currently popular on social platforms like Instagram, Twitter (now X), and TikTok. While it’s important to only use trending hashtags that are relevant to your business, incorporating them can help your posts reach a wider audience and tap into new trends.
By mixing branded, niche-specific, and trending hashtags, small businesses can create a dynamic hashtag strategy that boosts online visibility, connects with the right audience, and helps their content stand out in a crowded social media landscape.
Tracking Hashtag Performance
To get the most out of your hashtag strategy, it’s crucial to track hashtag performance across all your social media platforms. Small business owners should regularly monitor how their hashtags are performing in terms of reach, impressions, engagement, and follower growth, and consider using AI tools for small business marketing and automation to streamline this analysis. This data provides helpful insights into which hashtags are driving the most interaction and which ones may need to be replaced or refined.
Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook offer built-in analytics tools—such as Instagram Insights—that allow you to see how your hashtags are contributing to post performance. Third-party analytics tools can also help you track hashtag performance across multiple platforms, giving you a comprehensive view of what’s working.
By consistently tracking these metrics, small businesses can make data-driven decisions, adjust their hashtag strategy, and focus on the right hashtags that bring in more engagement and connect with potential customers. This ongoing process ensures your social media efforts are always aligned with your business goals and audience interests.
Common Hashtag Mistakes
Even the best intentions can go awry if you fall into common hashtag traps. One frequent mistake small business owners make is using too many hashtags in a single post. While it might seem like more is better, overloading your posts with hashtags can actually look spammy and turn off your audience.
Another pitfall is relying on irrelevant or spammy hashtags just because they’re popular. If your hashtags don’t match your content or target audience, you risk damaging your business’s credibility and missing out on real engagement. Similarly, using the same hashtags over and over can make your posts feel repetitive and may even trigger social media algorithms to limit your reach.
It’s also important to avoid hashtags that are too broad (like #business) or too narrow (like #BestBakeryOnMainStreet2026). Broad hashtags get lost in the crowd, while overly specific ones may not attract enough attention. Instead, focus on a balanced mix of targeted hashtags that are relevant to your niche and audience.
By steering clear of these common mistakes, small business owners can create a more effective hashtag strategy that attracts the right audience, boosts engagement, and supports business growth.
Creating a Hashtag Calendar
Staying organized is key to a successful hashtag strategy, and that’s where a hashtag calendar comes in. A hashtag calendar helps small business owners plan and schedule which hashtags to use for each social media post across different platforms. This proactive approach ensures you’re consistently using a mix of branded hashtags, niche-specific hashtags, and trending hashtags without repeating the same hashtags too often.
With a hashtag calendar, you can map out your content in advance, making it easier to align your hashtags with upcoming events, promotions, or seasonal trends. It also helps you spot gaps in your content and ensures you’re always reaching both your niche audience and a wider audience with the right hashtags.
Creating a hashtag calendar doesn’t have to be complicated—a simple spreadsheet or digital calendar can do the trick. By planning ahead, small businesses can create more strategic, engaging social media posts that drive better results and keep their hashtag strategy fresh and effective.
Measuring Online Success
To truly understand the impact of your hashtag strategy, it’s important to measure your online success regularly. Small business owners should track key metrics like follower growth, engagement rates, website traffic, and online sales across all social media platforms. These indicators show how well your hashtags are helping you reach your business goals.
Using analytics tools—such as Instagram Insights, Facebook Analytics, or Google Analytics—can provide a clear picture of how your social media posts and hashtags are performing. By monitoring these metrics, you can see which hashtags are bringing in more engagement, more customers, and more profile visits.
Regularly measuring your online success allows you to refine your hashtag strategy, focus on what works, and stay ahead of new trends. This data-driven approach ensures your social media efforts are always aligned with your business objectives, helping your small business grow and connect with your ideal customers.
