Hashtags first became popular on Twitter, or X, but they are now commonplace across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media platforms. Their main purpose is to group similar posts together to help users find content that matters to them.

As a chiropractor, social media should be a main part of your marketing strategy to drive brand awareness and engage with patients. Whether you’re new to social media or looking to improve performance, hashtags can help. 

In this article, we explain how to use hashtags across several popular social media platforms. We also provide a list of common chiropractic hashtags to include in your posts and offer tips on how to conduct research if you’re looking for more niche hashtags.

The Benefits of Using Hashtags in Social Media Posts

While hashtags make social media content easier for users to navigate, they can also benefit you from a brand perspective. Here are some of the reasons why we recommend incorporating hashtags into your social media strategy:

• Enhances content categorization: Hashtags label your social media posts. This is important because the platform’s algorithm needs to know what your posts are about to determine which users to show your content to.
• Expands brand awareness: Hashtags increase your brand’s visibility because the algorithm shows your post to users outside of your followers who might be interested in your content. Users can also find your posts by typing a hashtag into the platform’s search bar. This shows them all the posts that have used that hashtag, including yours.
• Improves post engagement: Labeling your posts with hashtags generally means they’re shown to more users—or at the very least, users who are more likely to be interested in what you’re saying. This increases your chances of getting likes, comments, shares, and other engagement.

While hashtags are beneficial in social media marketing, there is a limit to how much they can help. In fact, if you use them incorrectly, you could actually hurt your marketing efforts. For the best results, stick to a few highly relevant hashtags per post. Avoid adding too many hashtags or including hashtags that aren’t related to the post’s topic because that makes it difficult for the algorithm and users to determine what your content is about.

How Hashtags Differ by Social Media Platform

Every social media platform serves a different audience and purpose, which means hashtag usage also varies. Below are some best practices on how to use hashtags on some of the most popular platforms.

Twitter/X

Hashtags are at the core of how X operates. So much so, there is even a section that shows trending hashtags and topics. For this reason, we recommend using hashtags on X to join popular conversations. Technically, X doesn’t have a hashtag maximum, but we recommend only including one or two hashtags per tweet so that you don’t use up too much of your tweet’s 280-character limit.

Instagram

Instagram used to have a 30-hashtag limit per post, but it recently changed its policy to five hashtags and then to three hashtags. We would recommend using all three of the allowed hashtags. Most marketers make their Instagram hashtags about the topic of the post. They also use it for branding. For example, you might make one of your hashtags the name of your chiropractic practice.

Facebook

Facebook doesn’t have a hashtag limit, but hashtags are generally less popular on this social media platform than on other ones. Since they’re less common, only include one or two hashtags about the topic of the post.

TikTok

TikTok hashtags work similarly to Instagram hashtags in that they categorize content and determine who is shown what videos. TikTok also recently rolled out an update to limit hashtag usage to up to five hashtags per caption.

LinkedIn

Use LinkedIn to build a professional network to connect with other chiropractors, practices, and healthcare professionals. LinkedIn doesn’t have a hashtag limit, but our recommendation is including three to five hashtags related to the chiropractic industry in each post.

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Popular Hashtags for Chiropractic Practices

Even with the differences among social media platforms, there are some hashtags that are popular across the board. Here is a list of 20 chiropractic hashtags that you can use in any of your social media posts:

How To Research Chiropractic Hashtags

The list in the previous section contains general hashtags about chiropractic care. These tags act as a great starting point, but maybe you want to get more specific to match the topic of your post. If that’s the case, here are a few ways to research and choose your own hashtags:

• Search: Every social media platform has a search bar. Type the topic of your post into that search bar, and the platform’s algorithm will show you a list of hashtags related to that keyword and how many posts have used each hashtag.
• Competitors: Maybe you follow the American Chiropractic Association, competing chiropractors or practices, or other accounts. You can draw inspiration from the hashtags they use in their social media posts.
• Hashtag generators: There are several free websites out there that aggregate hashtag opportunities from social media platforms. A couple popular ones include all-hashtag.com and best-hashtags.com. You can input a keyword into the website to generate a list of related hashtags. Some of the websites also tell you how many posts use each hashtag and on which platforms.

Final Thoughts

Social media is an excellent way for chiropractors to build brand awareness, share chiropractic advice, and engage with followers. Hashtags play a key role in your social media presence, labeling your posts to tell the algorithm and users what your content is about. 

If you’re looking to incorporate hashtags into your practice’s social media marketing strategy, Online Chiro can help. We offer a Social Media Management service that includes regular posting on your social media pages. Contact us today for more information if you’re interested.