This seemingly meaningless piece of modern media silliness is anything but.

As of 2014 the number of people utilizing social media platforms has grown to a point where it can no longer be avoided as a marketing resource.

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According to Digital Marketing Ramblings these are the current number of users on the following platforms.

FACEBOOK 1.3+ Billion

INSTAGRAM 300+ Million

TWITTER 288+ Million

PINTERST 70+ Million

LINKEDIN 347+ Million

So – what is a hashtag and why does it matter?

Hashtags are used across most social media platforms as a means to spread the reach of your message and to help your audience categorize and filter the information they are seeing. With the number of users on social media, the sheer volume of information being shared is overwhelming. Hashtags are a means to filter and separate this information so that the user sees only what they are interested in.

Consider utilizing a hashtag analysis tool, like the one at https://keyhole.co to find the best hashtags to use for your audience. This tool will also provide you with information on the demographic following those hashtags and the other hashtags where the same demographic has shown interest. Hashtags work differently across each platform. Take a look at this helpful study done by #sociallystacked for more information on how to best utilize hashtags on each platform.