[author: Natalie Moe]

Hashtags are at the core of many law firm’s strategy to expand their social media page’s presence and reach. Hashtags are one of the simplest things a firm can do to help get their posts in front of more eyes and form more connections with a wider audience. But not all hashtags are created equal. All too often, firms ruin their chances of leveraging hashtags to their fullest potential by simply using the wrong ones. This is where hashtag research comes in. By conducting hashtag research, law firms can ensure they’re using hashtags that fit their niche areas of practice, are followed by their ideal prospects, and that have the best potential at allowing their post to rank in the algorithm.

What Is Hashtag Research?

Hashtag research is the act of analyzing data to determine which hashtags will help your firm’s social media performance the most. This analysis can assist law firms in being able to estimate which niche hashtags and popular hashtags will be best at increasing engagement and helping them reach more people.

Related: Advanced Social Media Strategies for Law Firms [A Complimentary eBook]

How to Conduct Hashtag Research

As you research hashtags, keep track of which ones you’d like to use in a sheet or excel. Take note of the hashtag, its volume and a description of what types of posts it’s used for.  

Here are some ideas of how to find relevant hashtags for your firm:

1. Review the performance of your existing hashtags- take a look at which of your posts performed best and worst. Identify any hashtags you used that were out of the ordinary. This will help you make note of which hashtags may be worth your time and which should be forgotten.
2. Look at your followers- Review of your followers. What hashtags are they using? How do their posts perform when they use some hashtags versus others?
3. Look at competitors- Take a look at your competitors’ pages and determine which hashtags they use and how they perform. Make note of any hashtags that are relevant to your firm and its practice areas.
4. Search industry keywords- Search some industry keywords like your practice areas or location + law firm and see what posts come up. Take note of the hashtags being used by the top performing posts.
5. Look at what’s trending- Use your social media’s explore page or simply scroll through your feed to see what’s trending. Of course, you don’t want to only use hashtags that have millions of posts, but every once in a while it’s good to hop on trending hashtags.
6. Look at broad hashtags- You’ve probably been using some hashtags already but are now realizing they’re pretty broad, or too broad for your posts to get found. Search posts under these hashtags and look at what other hashtags they are using in their posts.

Using Hashtags

Now that you have a comprehensive list of hashtags, it’s time to put them to good use. Remember these conventions for each platform:

• LinkedIn and Facebook: use 3 hashtags
• Twitter: use 2 hashtags
• Instagram: use a multitude of hashtags but hide them in the comments or after white space in the caption

Remember, as you create your post use a mix of broader hashtags and more niche hashtags.

Takeaway:

Hashtags are an important part of any social media marketing strategy, but just posting any hashtags isn’t enough to use them effectively. The savviest of law firms will research hashtags in advance and develop a well-thought-out strategy for how they will use hashtags on each platform.