Best TikTok hashtags in 2022
Written by Merle Andringa
Digital Marketing & Design
Making a TikTok is the starting point, but of course every business wants its TikTok to go on to get plenty of reach and engagement. But with more than 1 billion monthly users on the platform, it is easy to get lost in the crowd. Your secret weapon? The hashtag.
Using TikTok hashtags?
Although many marketers consider hashtags an afterthought, they are super important for engagement, visibility and discoverability. Even if you are not running a large-scale hashtag campaign, they should be part of your overall TikTok strategy. Here we discuss the benefits of using TikTok hashtags, go over best practices for using them and find out which types of hashtags are most popular on the platform.
Like Instagram and Twitter, TikTok uses hashtags to group content around a particular topic so that people can easily find videos that interest them. The hashtag "formula" consists of a hash sign (#) followed by a topic (for example, art, travel, fashion, sport, etc.). The best hashtags are usually relatively short, concise and easy to remember.
Businesses can use hashtags to build brand awareness, increase social engagement and drive conversions. To go a step further, they can also sponsor a hashtag – known as a branded hashtag – to encourage TikTokers to create content around it. The most popular branded hashtags have gathered millions of views and thousands of response videos.
Let's now dive deeper into the importance of TikTok hashtags and go over best practices for using them.
What are TikTok hashtags?
Why are TikTok hashtags so important?
Hashtags have the power to extend your reach beyond your current audience. Let's look at the benefits in more detail:
- They provide context.
First, hashtags provide a layer of context for your TikTok videos. For example, if you upload a video of yourself playing a video game, you can add the hashtag #gaming. The TikTok algorithm then decides who would be most interested in seeing your video in their feed.
- Discoverability and engagement.
Hashtags categorise videos under particular topics – such as #gaming – so that users can easily find content they are interested in. This gives your content a better chance of being discovered, even if someone does not follow your brand.
With more eyes on your content, you have a higher chance of engagement. After all, users can only like and comment on videos when they appear on their timeline. So more reach translates into higher engagement.
- Building a community.
Hashtags are a great tool for building a community. Branded hashtags, for instance, are an effective way to encourage users to get involved with your brand and make videos around a sponsored hashtag.
When Nissan Australia wanted to promote its new sports car, the JUKE, for example, it turned to TikTok. It created a branded hashtag – #improvisewithJUKE – and challenged users to create their own car commercial voice-over, with the winner getting a role in a future JUKE commercial.
The result? 129.4 million videos viewed worldwide and more than 34,000 submitted videos, which led to a 92% increase in brand awareness of the JUKE.
How to use hashtags on TikTok
Hashtags on TikTok work just like on Instagram and other social platforms. When you upload a video, you have the option to write a caption, and this is where you want to include your hashtags. Although this sounds simple, here are a few best practices to keep in mind:
- Find the best hashtags for your content.
It is essential to research hashtags that are relevant to your brand, your industry and your audience. One way to do this is to look at the competition, as there is likely an overlap in audience. See which hashtags they use and which generate the most views and engagement.
You can also find inspiration on the app's Discover page. Here you can browse popular hashtags and sounds. Discover also shows popular videos that use these hashtags to help you find inspiration.
- Combine niche hashtags with popular hashtags.
This may sound counterintuitive, but focusing only on popular hashtags can be ineffective. Although they have a larger audience, they are also highly competitive. Instead, it is better to have a mix of both niche and popular hashtags.
Niche hashtags have fewer people searching for them, but those who do are highly engaged and interested. For example, #food is a popular TikTok hashtag with millions of impressions, but #cakedecorating is more niche with a fraction of the audience. By incorporating both, you reach two different audiences.
- Keep the character limit in mind.
TikTok limits captions to 300 characters. Although you can cram as many hashtags into your caption as possible, a long string of hashtags can confuse your audience and is a poor way to explain your video. Instead, experts suggest 3 to 5 hashtags as the optimal number.
Popular TikTok hashtags
According to a recent study, TikTok sees the most hashtag views for entertainment content (535 billion views, to be precise). This matches another study by HubSpot, which reports that funny and entertaining content has the highest engagement and ROI compared to any other type of content.
Social media ROI
The second most popular category on TikTok is dance with 181 billion hashtag views, followed by humour, fitness and sports content, home renovations and beauty and skincare.
To find the most popular hashtags in real time, visit the Trend Discovery page on TikTok. Here you will find a comprehensive list of trending hashtags, songs and creators.
In conclusion
Once you have made a TikTok video, your work is not done yet. Now you need to position your content for your audience. One of the best ways to do this is with hashtags. Start with the tips in this article and always keep searching for hashtags that relate to your brand or audience. Would you like support with content or TikTok? BE Digital has already helped many brands and businesses to generate organic and paid traffic via TikTok!