Like most of us, I do my best to practice what I preach. For work, if I’m not handling things personally for businesses I help, coaching and guiding marketing teams and leaders is the next best thing. In my personal experiences, it almost always boils down to the basics of ‘Why Marketing’ and why too, or not too, participate with specific marketing tools, campaigns, etc. Everything else in between becomes very clear and easy to understand once we polish up and recognize the basics. And with a keen eye to refine along the way, while working with acceptable folks who are willing to learn, we begin taking action together on achieving their business goals, all by focusing on the basics.

At this point you’re probably wondering why I have yet to mention anything about Hashtags, especially since the title is about hashtagging. It’s because one of my favorite ‘Basics’ in social media is all about the intention of a message. It’s that good’ol phrase ‘It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.’ and when it comes to Hashtags, there are too many posts that have way more hashtags than necessary. I gave a few examples in an older article ‘Hashtag Etiquette 101‘, but the bottomline is this….if your message has more hashtags than message, then you’re intentions are poor and sharing your message in the first place wasn’t about Respecting Your Audience.

There may just be too many things for a business (or personality type) to think about when they decide to show up on social media and speak to an audience. What’s nice though, is when they remember the basics I’ve taught them, they begin to share quality content with good and respectful intentions. And when I’m on the team, those basics are quickly sharpened and the efforts and coaching begin to quickly prove worthy. As always, if you enjoyed this article and are looking for help with your business’s marketing on any level, give me a call at 408.250.8066 and let’s get to work.

Written by Carl Foisy