What is a hashtag? Let's figure out how to use it!
Every Internet user is faced with the concept of a hashtag, especially for fans of social networks. But not everyone thought about what a hashtag is and why is it needed at all?
If you literally translate the term from English, you get hash - a lattice (symbol) and tag - a label. Thus, the fusion of two words gives a new concept, which some refer to as "distribution mark".
The essence of the term
What is a hashtagToday? This concept is understood as a combination of the # symbol with any word or a combination of several words written without a space or through an underscore. For example, #countryIT or #country_IT.
In social networks, this combination is automatically transformed into an internal link, thus making it possible to divide posts and photos into categories corresponding to specific tags. This makes it easier for others to search later on to find pictures or posts related to a particular topic.
In order for others to be able to find a post, you need to tag it with a hashtag. Otherwise, the publication will remain the property of only you and your friends. It is not necessary to select only one tag, there can be several hashtags, but you should not get carried away otherwise it may be regarded as spam.
How to use it
Most often, hashtags are used to promote a brand or trademark. Thus, you can designate a label as a tool for the work of marketers and webmasters. Or other specialists involved in SMM. At the same time, it doesn’t matter what exactly needs to be promoted: a product, event, service or something else, with the help of a hashtag, anything can be made public.
With the help of separating marks, it is possible to combine information from different sources corresponding to one attribute. Thanks to tags, a network user does not have to spend a long time searching for information on a given topic; using a hashtag, you can get a selection of all available materials, sorted by popularity or publication date.
There is nothing difficult in this. It is enough to define the subject of the publication in one or two words and put a bar in front of them. 
There are some rules to follow.
- The hashtag can be written in both Russian and English letters, while one hashtag can contain letters of two alphabets. This approach is relevant only for the Russian-speaking network segment; in the English-speaking network, such labels will be more than useless.
- When writing a label, you cannot use punctuation marks and other characters, except for the underscore, which is allowed to separate words.
- The hashtag begins strictly with the # sign, after which the text denoting the category is indicated without spaces. Several words of the same label are not separated by a space, for this only the “_” sign is allowed, and you should not confuse it with a simple hyphen, this is exactly the underscore. For example, people who do not fully understand, can write as follows #country IT, in this case, the publication will be displayed as a result of the search for the tag "country", and IT will drop out of it.
- Two hashtags following each other must be separated by a space. For example, #country #IT is two different labels, but #countryIT is one, since there is no space and no extra hash sign.
In order for a hashtag to become trending, it needs to be supported by as many people as possible. The following tags are currently relevant on the Internet:
- #follow4follow;
- #photo;
- #beauty;
- #life is Beautiful.
You can list popular tags for a long time, anyone who figured it outwill be able to select the desired category for their publication.
If tags are used specifically for promotion on the network, then it’s worth spending time and assigning a thematic hashtag to the publication. Only in this case it will bring the desired result. Tags that are not related to the content will not give the desired effect.
What is a social media hashtag
First found out by social media users. It was there that the widespread use of tags began to make it easier to find publications that correspond to a particular topic. The first social the network that introduced it was Twitter, although the label was invented much earlier and was used in IRC. Today, the hashtag is most associated with Instagram, but is actually used everywhere.
Instagram is a natural medium for hashtags. Within this network, their use is not only fully justified, but also desirable. They fully ensure the interaction of users of this network. 
- They allow you to get subscribers and likes, and it’s completely free.
- Bloggers have the opportunity to catch the attention of larger colleagues or brands and get a chance to be published in their public, for this it is worth putting their hashtag.
- A unique hashtag promotes a particular brand.
- Provides navigation in an account with a large number of publications, allows you to divide them into thematic categories.
- They allow you to track information on promotions, contests and other events.
- With the right approach, they allow you to organize sales, just ask those who want to put the appropriate hashtag and track potential buyers using it.
This is not a complete list of features and uses.hashtags on Instagram.If you choose the right tags and put no more than 30 hashtags under the post, you can see that these tags can work wonders within a particular network.
Twitter
It is almost impossible to get the attention of subscribers and other users in this network without using a hashtag. But it is worth remembering that the tags must be relevant and do not use overly popular hashtags. In this case, there is a high risk of getting lost in the extensive search result, which is updated every second.
On Facebook, hashtags were accepted with a "Hurrah". Users began to actively use tags to segment their posts, and optimizers began to develop theories regarding the optimal number of hashtags for maximum results.
Facebook encourages users to do more than just click on a link to get search results. You can also type facebook.com/hashtag/countryIT in the address bar and get the same result. 
For the best result, if you need to show the publication to the maximum number of people, you should assign several hashtags corresponding to the topic to the post.
In contact with
Users also know. The resource rules allow up to 5 relevant tags to be inserted into each post so that users can find it. A larger number is also acceptable, but in this case there is a risk of being regarded as a spammer.
VKontakte allows you to carry out not only a large-scale search using a hashtag, but also within a specific community or profile. To do this, you need to add the @ sign and the address of the group or profile to the label.
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