This past weekend was an exciting time for the US women’s national soccer team; they played (and beat) Japan’s team in the FIFA Women’s World Cup. And whenever something exciting like that happens, Twitter is a great place to go to get real-time results and opinions on what’s going on. The main way to keep tabs on something like that is through a hashtag related to the topic or event.

Hashtags are ways of categorising your social media posts with a keyword, so that people interested in the topic can easily find related content. The way you create a hashtag is by sticking a # in front of your keyword. For example, someone interested in cookies might look for social media posts with the hashtag #cookies.

Hashtags are incredibly easy to use, which makes them incredibly easy to misuse.

In the case of Sunday’s game, Tweeps (Twitter users) employed a variety of hashtags in order to interact with each other and share excitement (or chagrin, depending upon who you were cheering for). One of the hashtags was the obvious #USAvsJPN. Another was a racial slur which I’m not going to repeat but I’m sure you can figure it out.

There were probably numerous Tweeps, perhaps of a younger generation, that thought they were simply abbreviating the word Japan. I’m not here to discuss what their intention was behind using that particular term as a hashtag and why it was wrong (although I do hope they are now more enlightened). What I do want to talk about is the importance of doing your due diligence before including any hashtags in your social media posts.

For those of you who are clients of mine, or have attended any of my talks or webinars, you know that I have a few “Do’s and Don’ts” when it comes to writing social media content. I also have some rules for choosing and using the right hashtag:

1. Don’t Hijack a Hashtag Just Because it’s Trending

You want to encourage people to engage with you by having meaningful conversations and interactions with them. To avoid that, you want to make sure that you have something relevant to contribute to a hashtag’s topic. You wouldn’t interrupt two people you don’t know who are clearly having a discussion about how passionately they feel about their choice to be vegan by saying “Hey, I’m a butcher, wanna buy a steak?” in real life, so why would you do it online?

If you’re vegan, too, then hey – by all means, join the conversation! Sharing a common interest with your audience is a great way to build a relationship with them that could potentially turn into new business for you.

2. Make Sure the Hashtag is in Line With Your Strategy and Your Brand

Deciding which hashtags to use should be strategic. It should align with your overall messaging and your brand. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of using a trending hashtag and watching your post go viral. It’s a mistake that even I’ve made.

So before you decide on a hashtag, research it a little. Click on the hashtag you’re considering to find out who else is using it and ask yourself:

• Is it being used by your target market?
• What are other people saying in posts with the same hashtag?
• Could it be easily confused with something else?
• Is it overused (too broad) or underused (too specific)?

A great tool to help you figure out the answer to the last question is RiteTag. As for the others, remember that you, your business, and your brand is going to be nestled in amongst all kinds of other posts with that hashtag. Would you want those posts associated with that?

And of course, research the keyword you want to use as a hashtag. Could it be construed as anything other than what you’re intending? If you’re trying to shorten a word, make sure to look into whether there are any existing connotations to the abbreviation. Just because you’re not aware of it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist! The last thing you want is to accidentally end up with a PR nightmare because you didn’t do your due diligence.

3. Don’t Spam

Different have platforms slightly different “best practices” over the use of hashtags in a post, but a good rule of thumb is to limit yourself to no more than three hashtags in a post. Using more than three starts to put you in the realm of spam. Less is more, so if you don’t need three hashtags, don’t use them!

The other ways to avoid hashtag spamming are by not having more hashtags than words, and #by #not #hashtagging #every #single #word #in #your #post. To get an idea of how annoying that is, watch this video:

Have you had a hashtag go haywire on you? How’d you handle it? Let me know in the comments!

Katy Standen is the President and Chief Delegating Officer of SBT Virtual. She and her team work with entrepreneurs who are frustrated and overwhelmed by Social Media. By delegating their Social Media Management, SBT Virtual’s clients are able to focus on growing their businesses, working with their own clients, and making more money. Does Social Media make you want to tear your hair out?