By Darren Gilbert

Is it really important that you include as many hashtags as you can in one posting? A sentence comprising only hashtags is a frequent occurance. But doesn’t it take away the power of a hashtag? For a brand, it’s a question that has to be weighed up whenever they decide to use one. Or three.

Hashtags have a specific purpose

“Brands shouldn’t hashtag for the sake of hashing out a tag,” says The Brand Cartel’s brand strategist and self-confessed mob mother, Renate Albrecht. “[Hashtags] have a purpose and if you aren’t using it for a specific reason, your brand could look as though it’s overdosing on hash.”

For Adele Bezuidenhout, founder and CEO of Wonder Women Media, it’s to make your content searchable. “Using a hashtag is the first step to amplifying a brand’s reach. They are the golden thread which join conversations together across a room, a city and the world.”

“For example,” says Albrecht, “Danish Design Watches are running a campaign with the hashtag #DareToBeDifferent. This watch brand are looking for followers and fans to submit photos of them sporting their Danish Design time piece doing something daring/different.”

Of course, there is no need to overdo it with the hashtags. This is especially true if you are a brand looking to engage with your customers.

The dangers of obsessive hashtaging

“When you use too many hashtags you can end up alienating your audience or worse, boring them,” says Bezuidenhout. “Your post may be perceived as annoying, desperate for interaction and reach or as bordering on being considered spam.” At the same time, it makes your posts difficult to read, which weakens your message.

Albrecht agrees: “That’s one of the reasons why you shouldn’t use too many hashtags, because it makes it difficult to read.”

Besides this thought, too many hashtags will end up weakening the impact of your message. “Used in this way consistently it can create the impression with the reader that the brand is not up to date with current trends and does not understand the platform which the user enjoys.” In short, it wastes everyone’s time.

“We’d advise our clients to only use hashtags when they want to increase awareness and engagement on a specific communication,” adds Albrecht.

So how many should you use then?

How often you should hashtag

According to data from Buddy Media, which is one of the most cited examples of the effectiveness of hashtags, one or two hashtags appears to be the maximum.

Albrecht agrees: “More than two makes it difficult to read and brands should have a clear message and theme.

For Bezuidenhout, it depends on the platform you are posting on. “A business on Facebook should use no more than one – the golden thread. Brands on Twitter can tastefully incorporate up to three hashtags per tweet, which allows them to link to conversation topics with users outside of their following.”

What are your thoughts on hashtags? Tell us below.