Takeaway: too many hashtags lowers engagement.
Posts with 1 or 2 hashtags averaged 593 interactions
Posts with 3 to 5 hashtags averaged 416 interactions
Posts with 6 to 10 hashtags averaged 307 interactions
Posts with more than 10 hashtags averaged 188 interactions
So going from 2 to 3 hashtags caused a significant drop in engagement!
Does this mean too many hashtags bad for business?
A business should use hashtags if they are used correctly. It’s completely pointless adding loads of hashtags for the sake of it or adding hashtags that no one is going to monitor or care about.
Use hashtags (1 or 2 only) when they make sense and when you use something relevant that people can filter on to find more relevant conversation. If I wanted to create conversation around social media tools I would start including a hashtag #socialmediatools and then I’d encourage conversation around this.
Facebook creates a unique URL for the hashtags used so I can point people to the conversation to encourage more people to use the hashtag and create more relevant conversation. So please don’t hashtag #everything (example of a pointless hashtag).
Use them wisely in the way they were designed i.e. to help create and continue and conversation around relevant topics.
MEWS is a full service web development Internet marketing company and technology integrator founded in 2003, by leading industry consultants with previous technology experience.MEWS is an Internet services and solutions company with interests in website development – Mobile applications– domain name registrations - web hosting.