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Q. Hashtags still confuse me. I read your article about hashtags and know I should use them on Twitter but I don’t know which ones to use. How can I find out which hashtags will be the best ones for me? I really don’t want to spend hours researching hashtags.
A. Great question. You’re wise to want to use hashtags effectively. According to Twitter, “Tweets with hashtags (the # symbol, immediately followed by the subject or keyword related to the Tweet) can increase engagement almost 100% (2x) for individuals and 50% (1.5x) for brands.”
But hashtags can be very confusing and you don’t want to spend a lot of time analyzing which ones are the best for you to use. A service called RiteTag has introduced hashtag grading to give you instant grading of hashtags, as well as other features such as scheduling your tweets and analyzing your use of hashtags.
RiteTag is free to use, including hashtag grading, with extra features included for users who pay for a premium plan.
I first wrote about RiteTag in Tag! You’re It! All About #Hashtags and since then the company has introduced many new features to help you make the most of Twitter. One of my favorites is their automatic hashtag grading system. When you use their Chrome or Firefox extension, your hashtags are graded with color-coding:
- Gray – Unused
- Blue – Good
- Green – Great
- Red – Overused
The good news is that you can see the grades of your hashtags from within the tweet you’re composing, you don’t need to go to a separate website. You can either use the extension, a Tweet button, the RiteTag website or the Twitter website to draft your tweet. If you pay for a premium RiteTag plan, you can even use Hashtag Grading within third-party Twitter services such as Buffer.
➤ See, Buffer: The Twitter Tool You Should Be Using
How To Use RiteTag Hashtag Grading
To use RiteTag Hashtag Grading:
1. Sign up for an account at ritetag.com.
2. Download the RiteTag Chrome Extension.
3. Begin writing your tweet. You can write your tweet using the:
- RiteTag extension
- Tweet button on an article
- Twitter website
- RiteTag website
RiteTag will give you real-time grading of a hashtag you want to use.
When you’re writing your tweet using the RiteTag website or extension, click the #✓ to see the grades of the hashtags you want to use.
No need to go to a different website or conduct a separate search, you can test different hashtags within a tweet to see which one should give you the best results.
For example, if you wanted to send a tweet about the recent article Waterlogue Transforms Your Photos into Beautiful Watercolors! at The Wonder of Tech, you may be unsure which hashtag to use. This image shows how you can use RiteTag to guide you to the most effective one:
Instead of researching whether #photos or #photography is the more effective hashtag, you can automatically see which is better within the tweet as you’re writing it.
Related Hashtags
You can also get suggestions for related hashtags in the extension or on the RiteTag website. Enter a word in the search box on the right and click the magnifying glass/search icon. RiteTag will give you a list of ten hashtags commonly associated with your search term and show you the color-coded grading for each one.
Analytics
RiteTag Analytics can also help you determine which hashtags have been most effective for you, regardless of their grades. Go to the RiteTag Stats page to see the top performing hashtags for your Twitter account. You can also see them from within the extension by clicking on My Top Performing Tags. You can view the:
- Number of times a hashtag was used by you
- Average number of clicks
- Average number of retweets
- Average number of favorites
Clicking on a category heading will rank your hashtags in order. You may find that a low-graded hashtag actually gives your tweets good results. For example, when I use the hashtag #Shopping, which is graded red, I get the highest average number of clicks on links in my tweets.
Scheduling Your Tweets
You can also use RiteTag to schedule your tweets to be sent out at regular intervals or at scheduled times. Using the RiteTag Extension, you can click on Auto-schedule, Tweet Now or Schedule to determine the time and day you want your tweet to be posted.
Premium Plans
RiteTag is free to use for up to five tweets per day. With the free plan you can also get hashtag grading, tweet scheduling, browser extensions, analytics and other features.
Paid plans are available to give you other features, including more tweets per day and hashtag grading in third-party Twitter tools such as:
- Buffer
- Hootsuite
- Tweetdeck
- SocialOomph
- SproutSocial
A chart of the different plans, including pricing and features, is available at the RiteTag Pricing page.
To learn more about RiteTag, including Hashtag Alerts, check out RiteTag’s Hashtag Academy.
Summary
To make the most of your tweets, check out RiteTag. You can see which hashtags are the most effective and which work best for you. Schedule tweets to be sent at optimal times within the RiteTag Extension or on their website.
Your Thoughts
Do you research which hashtags are the best to use? Have you used RiteTag to grade your hashtags or schedule tweets? Have you looked at your hashtag analytics to see which hashtags are the most effective for you? Let us know in the Comments section below!
Hi Carolyn,
I must make more of an effort to use Twitter effectively. I never really think about it. I just post links to my blog automatically. I am quite good at hashtags when I do tweet something though. I’m taking photos of seedlings growing and doing some gardening now. This could be my new subject! I think there will be a mass of flowers lining the river next weekend and I have a new monopod to steady my camera. This will be my first year photographing spring with a DSLR, so I hope I get better pictures. The trees are covered in blossom too, which isn’t good for hay fever! There are bluebells in my garden so I think the woods wll have lots too. I’m looking forward to summer this year and will be photographing some events like the carnival. I’ll have to tweet the pictures more!
Hi Mike, I thought of you as I created the example of hashtag grading. Did you know that your tweet is more likely to be found if you use the hashtag #photos instead of #photography? I didn’t, but RiteTag tells me this information from within the tweet as I write it. Very helpful!
I do miss the bluebells in England. I look forward to seeing your photos, Mike!
I’ve never yet used a hashtag checker, haven’t scheduled tweets other than through triberr, don’t know which hashtags are most appropriate for what I share. Doh!…I am so technonot, so thanks for always providing food for thought, options for consideration and easy to read and understand posts. Cheers! Kaarina
Hi Kaarina, Yes, if you’re going to use Twitter, you may as well use it effectively by adding hashtags. What better way to choose hashtags than to see how useful they will be when you add them. Some people spend a lot of time researching hashtags but you really don’t need to.
That’s why I’m so excited to share RiteTag here, because it’s such a helpful tool, both to find the best hashtags and to schedule tweets. It’s very easy to use, even for technonots, Kaarina! Let me know if you need any help setting it up.
Thanks!
You’re very welcome, Kaarina!
Hello,
Great post Carolyn, I guess ritetag is really useful for twitter users who usually use it for marketing and also blogging. I never used any tool for twitter and seems like this one would be my first tool.
Thanks
Hi Samir, Yes, you’re right, marketers and bloggers will find RiteTag useful but pretty much anyone who is using Twitter and wants their tweets to be discovered should be using RiteTag. Like the reader who asked the question, most people struggle to know which hashtags to use. RiteTag can help guide you to the ones that are best for you.
Always love what I find at your page, Carolyn! Have already loaded this extension on my Chrome browser. This will make my use of Twitter so much more effective. I had the same issue as your reader. I have twitter but don’t use it very consistently. This tool will really help. 🙂
Thanks so much for sharing this (and the step-by-step) to get it set up.
Hi Steve, Yes, I get this question frequently, hashtags seem to confuse many people. But RiteTag does make finding the right hashtag much easier, especially with the hashtag grading within the tweet.
I’m so glad you’re giving RiteTag a try, Steve. I think you’ll soon be wondering how you tweeted without it!
Hi Carolyn,
Honestly, I’ve never done the research to create a hashtag. I just use the appropriate hashtag to the topic of my post and I know, it does not have the maximum results.
This is the first time I heard about RiteTag. I never knew that there was a tool for the hashtag. This is good information, indeed 🙂
Thanks for sharing this informative post, Carolyn.
Nice share!
Nanda
Hi Nanda, Yes, if you’re going to take the time to post a tweet, why not make the most of it? By using RiteTag you don’t have to take any more time to find the best hashtag to use. The instant color coding means you don’t have to spend any extra time researching hashtags. How cool is that?
I think you’re really going to find RiteTag useful for you, Nanda. Unless, of course, you don’t want your tweet to be found. 😉
Many thanks for doing this, Carolyn! Brilliant details on… well, the features I use most myself!
While I’m here, let me add that hashtag scans are responsive, embeddable, and 2,000,000+ are searchable to all – even non-RiteTaggers.
What’s more, just this week we released our API which lets developers integrate the color-grading system in mobile and tablet applications as well as websites: http://ritetag.com/rest-api
Hi Saul, Congratulations on building such an incredibly useful tool for Twitter! This article covers the features I use the most, but you’re right, there are plenty of other features available to RiteTag users to help them make the most of their tweets.
RiteTag is a very powerful Twitter tool and you keep adding great features to make it better. The color coded hashtag grading will save loads of time for those who do hashtag research and opens up a new world for those who don’t bother to research hashtags.
I hope that Twitter users and developers will check out RiteTag so that everyone can use Twitter more effectively! :-bd
Had a quick look and installed the chrome plugin and signed up for a free account. It looks great for those with a single twitter acct, but if you’re managing multiple accounts or accounts for clients, I’m going to stick with HootSuite for composing and scheduling my tweets.
One feature I did find interesting… “audit” another users feed, rejigger the content with optimal hashtags, and get more exposure than they did.
Hi Ross, Great question about multiple Twitter accounts. I didn’t investigate that aspect of RiteTag but the paid plans do allow you to integrate your RiteTag account with your HootSuite account.
You’re right, Hashtag Audits are another great feature of RiteTag that could be very useful to you even if you don’t tweet using RiteTag.
Thanks for the “push” Ross. Actually PR agencies have asked for this as well: we’ll get on the multiple Twitter account thing, the “Agency tier” as soon as possible. For now, if you get the Pro plan, while you wont get RiteTag “top-performing tags” or Stats on these tweets, you’ll see hashtags graded for discovery in Hootsuite, Buffer, Tweetdeck, SocialOomph and SproutSocial.
Hopefully in May/June we’ll intergrate multiple accounts.
Another great lesson for me Carolyn!
I don’t use Twitter as much as I “should”…. I do share content there all the time, check in and say thank you and put a few pictures up, but that’s about it. I’ve Hashtaged a few times, but didn’t pay much attention to it.
Now with this handy tool, I can track what the heck I’m doing with hashtags. Every time I try to “get it together” on Twitter, I wader off. But with all the information you have been giving and this little tool to track. It does inspire me.
Learning these days that twitter is a great platform for marketing, so I need to get my act together over there. And this will help.
Thanks so much!
-Donna
Hi Donna, You’re not alone. We all want our tweets to be discovered and the best way to do that is to use hashtags effectively. But who has the time to research each and every hashtag you want to use?
RiteTag really does make hashtag research easy and fast. You can see the color coding as you draft your tweets. Being able to schedule your tweets through RiteTag is another helpful feature.
I hope you enjoy using RiteTag, Donna!
What a great idea! Just the other day I used a hash tag on Instagram. I’ve never used a hash tag on anything before. I don’t know why I decided to use one this time. Normally I hardly ever get any comments or likes on my photos. This time, just because I used the #flowers I got about a dozen in a matter of hours!
This is something that everybody, including me, should look into.
Hi Peter, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Lol, when I first read your comment, I thought you got a dozen flowers in a half hour. 🙂
Great point, hashtags can be used effectively on social media sites other than Twitter. Your example is an effective illustration of how hashtags can be used to help people find your posts. Thanks for stopping by and sharing your experiences here, Peter!
Hey Carolyn,
yeah that would have been great wouldn’t it? I’d have lots of flowers for Mothers Day 😉
I took your advice and have even installed the Chrome plugin. It didn’t work at first which meant accessing their website. An extra step I wasn’t happy to do. I hate unnecessary steps lol. Just lazy that way.
Happy to say the Chrome extension is working fine now and I am so happy for finding this post.
Hi Peter, That’s great news that you got the browser extension to work. I agree, using the extension is much handier than visiting the RiteTag website. I started using RiteTag before the browser extension was available and was delighted when the extension was launched.
I hope you continue to use and enjoy RiteTag, Peter!
Hey Carolyn,
Saul is so smart and he shared this with us when he first came out with it. I’ve got a confession to make though, I can’t get the darn thing to work right for me.
I unloaded the extension but all it does is generate forever. It never finds the hashtags when you put your information in. I obviously must be doing something wrong but I was following instructions so I finally just gave up. I know I should pay more attention to which ones I should use for my posts but I go with the topic that I’m writing about instead and hope for the best. Really smart move right!
Thanks for clarifying this more and I might “try” and give it another spin. Hey, I never claimed to be the sharpest tool in the shed! LOL!!!
You always share awesome information with us so thank you again for this one.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, I’m sorry you’re having difficulty with the extension. You should definitely let Saul know, he is very committed to making RiteTag work well.
Even if you don’t use the extension to tweet, you still may be able to see the hashtag grading when you use the Tweet button on articles. I’m not sure because I’m not having that problem.
Yes, my understanding of which hashtags are the best to use has really improved with RiteTag. Hey, who knew that #photos was a better hashtag than #photography?
Hi Adrienne,
I’d love to help you sort out any issues you may be having using RiteTag. I can add you on google+ or skype and can help you sort through any issues that may be occurring via hangouts. I work with Saul and the RiteTag crew, so if we come across any bugs, I can even help nudge our engineers to get to them pronto.
-Joeleen
Hi Joeleen, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Thanks so much for visiting and coming to Adrienne’s aid. Adrienne is a frequent tweeter and she could make great use of RiteTag. :-bd
Hey Carolyn and Joeleen,
Saul is in one of my tribes on Triberr so he had told us about Ritetag early on. I’ll admit that I’ve not been a big hashtag user but was really trying my best to implement that more into my tweets. I decided to give Ritetag a go but as I mentioned it just seemed to generate forever and then when it did finally came up it would say that it hadn’t found any to fit my tweet. After trying that numerous times I just gave up on it and decided to use my own.
I appreciate your offer Joeleen and if I give this another go and can’t seem to get it to work I’ll be sure to let you know. It might just be me because I admit probably not using it properly so thank you for your offer.
~Adrienne
Hi Carolyn,
I’ve been testing RiteTag for about a week and it’s a great tool. Thank you so much for telling me about it. I have almost never been using hashtags, now, with RiteTag it was very easy to find relevant hashtags that works.
I hope you’re enjoying your Friday 🙂
-Jens
Hi Jens, I’m so glad you’re trying RiteTag. When you wrote your article about trying to find the best service for scheduling tweet, I immediately thought of RiteTag because you get both scheduling and hashtag grading. You can save time with both and do them more effectively.
Have a super weekend, Jens!
Hi Carolyn,
I decided to stop by your blog when you so graciously dropped by mine and boy am I glad I did.
I have never gotten the hang of hashtags but this tools will help me see what’s good and give me an instant idea of what to use. That’s awesome!
I usually do schedule tweets with Socialoomph but I’ve been looking for something less complicated so this was a great source of info for me.
Thanks. Love getting info I can use instantly.
Take care,
Barbara
Hi Barbara, It’s always great to have you visit The Wonder of Tech, but it’s especially great when you discover such a useful tool here. I know you will really enjoy using RiteTag, it can help you save time researching hashtags and make your tweets easier to find!
Hi Carolyn,
Ya know, I’m not good at using hashtags. The only place I am consistent in using them is Instagram. I’ll have to check out rite tag. It sounds like it would be much help for me. I had no idea it existed, so thank you for explaining how it works. 🙂 Lisa
Hi Lisa, I think you may notice a big change in the popularity of your tweets if you start using hashtags effectively. RiteTag can make that happen. You can use the color coding and the individual analytics to make sure you’re using the best hashtags for your audience.
Have fun with RiteTag, Lisa!
I usually go to the hashtag venue and observe how active it is. For instance if I write about a space mission, I’ll look at #science and #spaceflight to determine which would be the best to use. One factor I look at, is how long the most recent tweets have been there. If they’ve been there for days, that’s of value because yours will also, and the more time your tweet is at the top end of the page the better.
Hi Joe, Yes, yours is a great example of how you can do hashtag research to learn more about the effectiveness of hashtags. Those who want to save time with hashtag research can do so with RiteTag.
Hello Carolyn,
It’s always nice to learn about something new that actually helps with social media.
So I am delighted to find out about RiteTag and the proper arrangements of hashtags.
I had not placed that much importance on hashtags because it is my understanding that Twitter indexes every word. But I’m always willing to learn.
I’m sharing this too!
Kind Regards,
Bill
Hi Bill, Yes, when people use hashtags on Twitter and other social media sites it makes their tags easier to find. Many people search using hashtags to clear out the clutter for their search results. So if you didn’t use a hashtag with your keyword, someone searching for that keyword with a hashtag in front of their search term would miss your post.
I just checked Twitter and all of the top five trending keywords had hashtags.
It makes sense to use hashtags to make your tweets easier to find and it does make sense to use RiteTag to make sure you’re using those tags effectively. I’m glad you’re going to be giving RiteTag a try, Bill. The more people who discover your inspirational articles at your blog the better place the world will be. :-bd
Hi Carolyn,
Cool stuff. I’ve installed the app, now it’s all about learning how to use it, but hopefully that’s self explanatory 🙂
At time it’s not easy to find the right hashtag, so this should help, right?
Thanks for another great tip!
Hi Sylviane, Yes, the extension is extremely easy to use. But if you encounter any difficulties, feel free to reach out to me or Joeleen (a RiteTag employee who commented above) and we would be very pleased to help guide you through it.
Yes, the color-coded hashtag grading and related hashtag suggestions really will help you find the best tweets for you. RiteTag will also show you hashtag analytics so you can see which ones produce the best results for you.
I hope you do give RiteTag a try, Sylviane!
Hi Carolyn,
I have read about RiteTag but honestly, I have not given it much serious thought so far. Perhaps because my browsers are already slow and I did not want to add one more extension to make it slow down further…
I would have loved to see if they would have had an App instead of a web browser extension. However, I am thinking perhaps to get their premium version since I see the value and use it alongside HootSuite.
Have you used it like that? Do you think it’s worth the investment?
Regards,
Kumar
Hi Kumar, You could try adding the extension to your browser to see if it has an impact on the load speeds. If you don’t want to use the extension, you can certainly use the RiteTag website to compose your tweets and see the hashtag grading and analytics.
RiteTag has many levels of paid accounts, Kumar, so you might find one that best fits your needs with RiteTag. I don’t have a paid account because RiteTag fits my needs right now. I don’t use a 3rd party Twitter service very often and I don’t need to send more than the free tweets using RiteTag.
Is a premium RiteTag account worth the money? Only you can answer that, Kumar, but I do think the service is extremely valuable and helpful to those who are active on Twitter.
Hey carolyn,
Social media really plays an important role in promoting our blog but I am totally agree with you that using correct hashtags is really very confusing task. I never heard about Ritetag but after reading this post, it really seems interesting and helpful and I am surely gonna give it a try. Thanks for sharing this post with us.
Hi Sudipto, Yes, you’re right, when you want to get the word out about your blog (or anything else), using hashtags is a great way of getting attention. But choosing the right one can be confusing.
I think if you give RiteTag a try you will be very pleased with how easily you can choose the best hashtags for you. I hope you enjoy RiteTag, Sudipto!