So you all probably know hashtags. Those keywords that are used in almost all social media to catalogue and categorize content.

I do like them as they make it easy to find stuff and follow content. You can even set up alarms to monitor certain things.

Let’s take #SpringCleanChallenge2024 for example. You may have painted a #Viking for #Saga and #AgeOfVikings (not sure if that exists just pretend it does). Now anybody who looks for any of those tags will be able to find your creation.

Personally I find using 3 – 5 tags the most is best. Because if you start using more and more tags you start to dilute your audience and may even get filtered. I find if very annoying when I see something (hobby related) that is a picture (or series of pictures) followed by 10 words describing what it is and then a wall of 20’ish tags. That just looks silly plus it will not make your content be seen by more.

What to use as a hashtag? I’d say “KIS”. Keep it simple. What is it you’re showing, what game system is it for and is it a painted miniature or a scratchbuild building? Of course there are also “generic” tags one can use (#Wargaming #MiniaturePainting #ScratchBuild) and at times those are your best option when you are doing stuff that works for more than one purpose.

Bonus level and extra karma: I capitalize my hashtags. Because #SpringCleanChallenge2024 is easier to read than #springcleanchallenge2024. Especially if your audience has some issue where they are either visually impaired/challenged and use a screen reader or have a hard time reading altogether.

So how about you? Do you use hashtags when posting online? Do you utilize them to search for stuff? Do you even care?

Discuss!