Social Media Best Practices

Handle vs Hashtag

A social media handle is a unique identifier for you and/or your brand. It is distinguished by the “@” symbol, and when used directly links your message to the user. On Twitter and Instagram, you simply use the “@” name of the company. But on Facebook, you need to type in the name and it will provide you a dropdown menu. Select the company.

Best Use: Use handles when you want a company to see your message. This is great when you are sharing a blog post or an image.

A social media hashtag is identified by the “#” symbol. Think of a hashtag as a search term you would use on Google. It is a term or phrase that adds your message to the conversation. It allows other of similar interest to see what you have to say on the topic as well.

Best Use: Use hashtags when you want others to see what you have to say on a topic. This is also great when you share a blog or image about something in particular.

Composing Your Message

When promoting your content to a company, it is best to keep your posts clean. The cleaner your post, the more likely they will share and interact with you. Here are a few pointers:

Facebook:
If the Facebook Handle does not work with your message in sentence structure, do NOT add it at the end of your messages. Instead, use the tagging feature that is part of Facebook. By using the tagging feature you are notifying the company of your message but your post still looks clean and professional.

Twitter:
There are a few options with cleaning up your tweets and utilizing the most of your 140 characters.
- If you include an image, tag the handles in the image so that you have extra characters to share your message.
- Include handles when it works best for your message. Like with Facebook, don’t tack it on the end. Try to limit the number of handles you use on message.
- Hashtags can be used as much as you’d like.

Instagram:
The best practice for Instagram is to include the handle and one or two hashtags in the body of the caption. If you’d like to use other hashtags or handles to join the conversation, add it as a comment. This keeps your images and messages clean if others want to share them.