Everything You Need to Know About TikTok Hashtags

Over the last few years, TikTok has become a lucrative marketing tool. However, it is necessary that you come up with well-defined TikTok hashtags to gain attention on this social platform and create profits for the product or service you offer.

Not only do hashtags increase audience reach and visibility, but they also allow you to identify potential collaborators and competitors. By using different hashtags, you can learn new content ideas to know what others are doing in the same industry.

This article will clarify everything you need to know about using trending hashtags on TikTok so that you can deliver an effective promotional campaign.

The Importance of TikTok Hashtags

There are a lot of benefits associated with using hashtags on TikTok, and this section will shed light on them.

Increase Content Reach

Hashtags have become an essential tool for social marketing campaigns, especially on TikTok. Likes, shares, and comments have always been the leading indicators of social media, and hashtags are now also an important determinant of marketing success.

First of all, a popular hashtag boosts your content visibility, making it easier for users to find the videos they are searching for. If a user wants to look for videos on a particular theme or topic, they only need to type a relevant hashtag in the search bar, and everything related will show up.

When your content includes hashtags, they enable you to reach your target audience based on their area of interest. Moreover, your videos are likely to be exposed to their news feed if they follow the same hashtags.

It means that composing hashtags every time you upload a video helps more people reach your content. As a result, you can expect to receive more likes, shares, and comments.

Define Competitors

If you want to dominate your industry, it is essential that you catch up with what others are doing by following similar hashtags. Once you check out their videos, you will have an overview of potential competitors.

As a popular hashtag lets you get in contact with channels or people you don’t know before, it is an incredible tool for marketers to identify competitors. Keeping an eye on their hashtags also provides you with an ideal source of ideas for new video content.

Attract New Followers

As mentioned above, these hashtags help your content reach more potential viewers other than your current followers. By gaining substantial attention this way, your videos will be suggested on relevant audiences’ news feed who follow the same hashtags.

In this way, if you have engaging content, you are likely to make them subscribe to your account voluntarily. That’s the reason why you have to focus on the quality of your content since TikTok only provides a platform for you to achieve your objectives.

How Do Hashtags Work On TikTok?

TikTok hashtags will spread user-generated content to more users, help them easily find and share the things they are interested in, just like on Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms.

TikTok hashtags also build a social community of same-taste users so that you can connect and extend your social circle. That is also how influencer marketing works. So interesting, right?

The most outstanding feature about TikTok hashtags is that it is pretty up to the minute and not overwhelming, especially compared to other traditional social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, etc. 

So, using suitable hashtags will help you go further and rank higher on this new platform.

It is straightforward to add hashtags to your TikTok videos. All you need to do is add text after the #, commonly known as the hashtag symbol.

 You can start adding hashtags to your videos by writing them in the caption. You need to be aware of the fact that there is no way to edit, remove, or add more hashtags once you’ve published the video.

If you wonder how to add hashtags on TikTok after posting, you need to delete the current video and upload a new one.

Generally, social media platforms like Instagram only allow a character limit of 30 hashtags for each post, but TikTok doesn’t limit the number of hashtags you use on a caption. Nevertheless, it only allows up to 150 characters for each post.

For that reason, it is crucial that you come up with the most efficient hashtags and wisely use the available space.

How to Find the Best TikTok Hashtags?

The best TikTok hashtags are one of the most effective and direct ways to grab others’ attention to your TikTok videos. It can help your content be accessible to more users and, more than that, the right targets. 

TikTok hashtags work the same way as they do on Instagram, but since the platform is relatively young compared to other social media channels, there remain certain confusing factors from the user side. 

It’s not easy to choose a suitable hashtag for your content if you don’t keep in mind the right strategy. Here are five things you need to focus on while finding perfect hashtags.

#1. Balance Niche and General Hashtags

In fact, several content creators admit that defining what kind of hashtag to use – general or niche – is the most difficult step. Even though it’s recommended that hashtags need to be specific and detailed, using too many niche hashtags is not a smart choice either.

As hashtags represent the kind of content users are looking for, it’s essential that you prioritize one question when you choose a famous hashtag to use, “What would my target audience think when they type in the search bar?”

If you don’t know what hashtags to use on TikTok, the ideal approach is to start with a general list of the hashtag, then gradually work on more niche hashtags. For example, a broad hashtag can be #socialmediaplatforms. Later on, some niche hashtags you can use for future videos are #facebook, #instagram, #twitter, #tiktok, and so on.

These sets of hashtag let you tackle every single corner of the campaign.

The underlying factor of this tip is finding the right balance between hashtags. It is inevitable that you try many different hashtags and fail because it allows you to eliminate ineffective hashtags and continue to work on the best ones.

#2. Finding popular tiktok hashtags

If you still have no idea on how to find trending hashtags on TikTok, let’s start with the “Discover” page. The best thing about this platform is that it’s simple to discover trending hashtags without doing anything.

By scrolling through the news feed, you’ll be able to identify what kinds of trends are dominating these days. Trends on TikTok only last for a short time, so it’s crucial that you keep an eye on them to avoid being outdated with your content.

Taking a look at the trending hashtag section is also a great idea as it gives you a hint of what videos other users are interested in. These ideas can help you come up with better content for your next videos.

#3. Analyze Competitors and Industry Leaders

When content creators run out of inspiration, the best source of ideas to consider is from industry leaders. By analyzing what they are doing to dominate the market, you can gain some valuable insights to prepare for your future strategies.

The tip is to watch as many videos of them as possible, take notes of the hashtags they use, then conduct an analysis of what’s suitable for your content.

The same logic applies when you analyze competitors’ hashtag strategy.

Some questions you need to answer while making the analysis are, “Are their hashtags related to the content?”, “Are the videos viral?”, “To what extent does their audience engage with the videos?”, What hashtags could I add?”, etc.

After you have the answers to the above questions, you’ll have a big idea of what you need to do to learn from their success and avoid possible failures.

#4. Search for Relevant Hashtags

You can grow your audience community effortlessly using relevant hashtags on TikTok. First of all, you need to type the target hashtag into the search bar.

Remember to eliminate the hashtag when you do the search. What you need to do is to tap the “Hashtag” button on the search page, and TikTok will sum up the number of views under that particular hashtag.

This function is helpful since it enables you to define which ones are trending and put them to use. 

#5. Test and Fail

It is essential that you put your hashtags to the test, and it is also normal if they don’t generate good results as you expect.

Remind your team to record every single hashtag that you write in the caption and monitor its performance over time.

This step is necessary because every hashtag has a different effect on a different video, so you should expect to encounter trials and errors before getting positive results. While you’re testing your hashtags, you’ll surely figure out the best choices for your content.

Make sure your hashtags are clear, searchable, and relevant to your videos, and you’ll find your videos going viral.

7 Ways To Use TikTok Hashtags To Go Viral 2021

Theoretically, using TikTok hashtags could boost your video content’s reachability and appeal to more first-time viewers to your videos. However, what should you do to make this concept come true?

Here are some popular strategies that not only you but also great creators usually utilize.

1. Use Relevant Hashtags

When browsing content from competitors or creators you love, remember to note down what hashtags they currently use the most. 

Don’t neglect their most viral TikTok posts. There must be a reason why they have become so popular, right? 

As a last resort, you can refer to a hashtag generator tool to help you find relevant yet trending TikTok hashtags linked to your content.

2. Use Hashtags: #ForYou, #ForYouPage, #FYP

Scrolling down your TikTok for a second, it’s not too strange to run into numerous #FYP, #ForYouPage, and #ForYou on most viral videos. 

These combinations of 3 famous hashtags have reached more than 6,000 billion views and use on TikTok, which is much more than #love, the most popular Instagram hashtag.

The popularity of these hashtags is based on the fact that many users believe with them, their content will attract more TikTok active users on the For You Page. 

Even though there hasn’t been any solid evidence to support that belief, you are still recommended to include these three hashtags in all your types of videos. All social media channels, including TikTok, are a test of success.

3. Use Current Trending Tiktok Hashtags

It is simple for you to discover a trending list of hashtags on TikTok. Just go to the Discover tab. Here, you can see thousands of top TikTok hashtags on trends. 

Every TikTok user knows the benefits of using trending hashtags, but you should also pay attention to the posting time and period. For example, #merrychristmas could be popular at Christmas, but there is no point in posting it in March. 

Hashtags trends also have their ups and downs, and you need to know whether the list of hashtags you want to use is still currently popular or not.

4. Minimize Popular But Diluted Hashtags And Focus On Niche-specific Ones

Once a TikTok hashtag comes into many people’s radars, it will soon be sought-after every day, every moment and quickly become known by everyone, meaning that content creators sensitive to trends will have great attention at the beginning. 

It is the biggest benefit of viral hashtags. But the drawback is, there is too much competition on the ground after a while. 

You are likely to get more attention in a smaller niche by utilizing smaller or less competitive hashtags.

The bigger the popularity of these smaller hashtags, the higher you are likely to be in the feed of the user base. That is why you should make use of the advantages by mixing both kinds of hashtags.

But how do you know which hashtag is popular or less competitive? Well, we recommend you to go specific hashtags, but never go so niche. Think of what your target audience on TikTok would type in the search bar.

Let’s start with broad hashtags, then get to more specific ones. For instance, if you are a professional in digital marketing, the former might be #marketing. 

At the same time, the latter might be #socialmediamarketing if you are focusing on social media, or even more niche, #TikTokmarketing.

It is always a challenging task, and one of the social media tips for you is to find the perfect balance. You will have to try to test until you reach your desired loyal audience.

Pro tip: Some ways to combine different types of hashtags you may want to try:

#1. Use two broad hashtags and two trending hashtags at once.

#2. Use two niche hashtags and two trending hashtags at once.

#3. Use two niche hashtags and two broad hashtags at once.

You could continuously use them in turns to get the best result.

5. Number And Frequency Of Hashtag Use

A great piece of advice for you is to use as many TikTok hashtags as you can. Do not limit to just one or two hashtags, each of which directs you to a broader audience.

There are limitless numbers of hashtags you can use on TikTok. However, as TikTok limits users’ captions to only 100 characters, it may result in another problem. 

The longer your caption is, the less space you have for your hashtags. That means you have to keep your description short of filling in as many different hashtags as possible.

You need a minimum of three characters for a hashtag, including space, a hashtag, and a letter or number. Therefore, you can fill in the maximum of 33 hashtags in your caption.

But not all single-character hashtags are useful, meaning you would have smaller sets of hashtags than expected. If your space is running short, additional hashtags in the comment is a great alternative.

Pro Tip: Do not use excessive hashtags on your every content as they might look like spam, which could cause discomfort to most users. The ideal number of hashtags for each video is around three and four. 

6. Use Hashtags At The End Of The Description

Many users prefer placing their hashtags right at the beginning of their description with the hope of catching more attention from users. But it also means that users tend to ignore your captions for videos, assuming it’s simply spam.

It depends on your priority and preference on where to put it. But research shows that hashtags at the end of the description are likely to gain more popularity.

7. Use Hashtag Challenges Or Branded Hashtags

If you are working for a brand or working on your brand, keep using branded hashtags so that potential followers can find you and your popular content. 

Fortunately, a branded hashtag on TikTok can go further than that on social media marketing. You do not even need to sponsor branded hashtags or run TikTok ads to make it viral.

Or better, you might even want to start a TikTok hashtag challenge. It is an online competition on TikTok where you challenge lots of users and even celebrities to create content, either a song or a dance, and use your hashtag on it. 

It sounds promising, and it is, as users tend to get inspired by others to create content on TikTok.

You must have seen the power of viral challenges such as #icebucketchallenge and #mannequinchallenge, which went viral on Twitter and Instagram a few years ago. There are even more viral TikTok challenges than that. 

Brands have developed multiple hashtag challenges to enhance brand awareness and create new leads on TikTok. You can refer to the #eyeslipsface challenge created by E.L.F. Cosmetics. 

The branded hashtag challenge soon catches the eyes of millions of TikTok influencers, including Jessica Alba, Ellen Degeneres, and Lizzo.

Frequently Asked Questions

There are two issues that people concern the most when it comes to TikTok hashtags. You’ll find the answers below.

1. How Many Hashtags Should I Use On TikTok?

There’s no rule about the number of hashtags on TikTok, which means you can include as many as you want. It is important, however, to remember that the longer your caption is, the more likely TikTok will obstruct your videos from views.

2. Do TikTok Hashtags In Comments Work?

They work as well as they do in the caption, but the outcome is much less effective. 

Putting everything you want in the caption is the best, but if, unfortunately, your posts go over the required characters, you should put all significant hashtags in the captions and others in the comments.

So now, you can make the most use of the best hashtags for TikTok to boost your video. Keep some important factors in mind and plan thoroughly for content; we believe you can raise your present value and have more followers. 

Conclusion

TikTok hashtags play a powerful role in creating audience engagement, boosting brand recognition, and bringing your products closer to potential customers.

There are many things you have to do to familiarize yourself with using hashtags, so this article provides almost everything you need to get started. Once you’ve understood the nature of hashtags, you’ll soon be able to create viral content.

Remember that choosing the right hashtags is just the first step because what keeps your audience staying with you is your content quality. Therefore, it should be your first priority when it comes to TikTok strategies.