In the vast landscape of social media, TikTok has emerged as a powerhouse platform, captivating billions of users worldwide with its addictive and creative content. Its rise in popularity mirrors the increased preference for bite-sized content propelling short-form video platforms into the spotlight.

So, businesses and marketers are constantly striving to tap into and understand this dynamic space. This is because although the platform encourages creativity - It presents the challenge of crafting compelling videos that resonate and captivate the minds of communities united by specific hashtag-driven conversations.

Hashtags play a significant role in TikTok. By effectively leveraging hashtags, businesses can navigate the dynamic TikTok landscape and establish a strong presence on the platform.

Only by monitoring trending hashtags can businesses understand the pulse of their target audience, identify popular topics, and tailor their content strategies.

In this blog, we'll dive into practical tips and strategies that businesses can use to monitor trending hashtags on TikTok effectively. But first things first:

1. What is a hashtag?
2. What are the benefits of monitoring TikTok hashtags?
3. How to find trending TikTok hashtags relevant to your business?
4. Steps to experiment with hashtags
5. Ideas and examples of popular hashtag campaigns
6. Conclusion

A hashtag is a keyword preceded by a "#" symbol used on social media platforms, including TikTok, to categorize and organize content. It turns the word or phrase into a clickable tag, allowing users to discover and explore related posts and discussions. 

Hashtags serve as a way to label and group content based on common themes, topics, or events. They enable users to search for specific content, participate in trends, and join conversations surrounding a particular subject. Hashtags have become essential for content discovery, engagement, and community building on social media especially TikTok.

Monitoring or finding trending hashtags on TikTok offers several benefits, like:

• Increased Visibility and Reach: Incorporating popular hashtags into content strategy increases the chance of video discovery by TikTok users actively following or searching for those hashtags.

• Enhanced Engagement: TikTok's algorithm favors content with high engagement. By using trending hashtags, businesses can tap into the existing conversations and trends that resonate with TikTok users. It also provides an opportunity to receive valuable feedback, insights, and user-generated content.

• Capitalize on Viral Trends: By monitoring trending hashtags, businesses can discover new content ideas, participate in trending conversations, and align their brand messaging with what's capturing the attention of their target audience.

• Content Inspiration: Trending hashtags provide a wealth of content inspiration. Watching popular hashtags can help you identify emerging trends and viral concepts. It helps to generate fresh, engaging content ideas that resonate with your audience, keeping your TikTok presence dynamic and exciting.

• Competitive Advantage: By identifying emerging or trending hashtags before others, brands can showcase their innovation, adaptability, and relevance. It helps them to gain a competitive edge on TikTok and position their brand as a trendsetter within the industry.

• Audience Targeting Insights: Hashtag monitoring provides valuable insights into audience preferences, interests, and behavior. By analyzing the performance of specific hashtags and the associated content, businesses can better understand their target audience's sentiments, the trends they resonate with, and the type of content that drives engagement. These help to refine content strategy, tailor brand messaging, and effectively target the right audience on TikTok.

Want to discover and monitor relevant TikTok keywords and hashtags? Try these steps -

1. Research your Industry

Starting out, you probably have a guess which keywords and hashtags are relevant for your industry, but are they in use currently?

One of the biggest mistakes brands make on TikTok or any social media is hypothesizing brand-related keywords without checking their relevancy. 

Before narrowing down on specific keywords, try to understand the popular topics and hashtags relevant to your brand or content. Luckily with Exolyt, you can do this in a single click.

2. Explore TikTok's Search

If your business has a social media manager or you are one, don’t ignore the potential of TikTok’s search bar, which appears as a magnifying glass on the top right of the app.

The search option allows users to explore various content, including trending videos, popular hashtags, and trending sounds - Type in a keyword relevant to your business, and you can find related topics in your niche or business category.

3. Leverage TikTok's For You Page

Spend time on the TikTok For You Page (FYP) to discover trending content and hashtags. Pay attention to the hashtags commonly used and trending on the FYP. These hashtags indicate popular topics and can be valuable for your TikTok strategy.

4. Analyze Competitor Content

Study the content of your competitors or other influencers within your industry. Take note of the keywords and hashtags they use in their captions and descriptions. This can help you identify popular keywords and relevant hashtags to incorporate into your content.

With Exolyt, you can also check the hashtags most relevant to your competitor and explore what’s working for them over a certain period.

Let’s explore Nike for example in this regard -

Source: Exolyt

5. Track Hashtags that matter the most

Suppose you are a business operating on multiple niches or work with several creators, campaigns, and influencers simultaneously, or you are hoping to identify emerging trends. In that case, you must keep a tab on the hashtags that matter most to you.

With Exolyt folder management and tracking solutions, you can do that quickly and fuel your content strategy with data-driven insights.

6. Monitor User Comments and Mentions

Monitoring comments on TikTok isn't just a mundane task; it's a golden opportunity to learn, engage and thrive in the realm of social media, as it offers a direct glimpse into the minds and hearts of your audience.

With the rise in the immense volume of conversations on social media, it can be challenging for businesses to keep track of what is being said about their brand, products, or services.

Exolyt helps to uncover these market perceptions through comment monitoring.

Keeping track of the comments is essential because users and customers often mention relevant keywords or hashtags in their interactions with your content. This can provide industry niche topics and relatable audience lingo associated with your brand or content. It also keeps a check on brand reputation management.

7. Stay Updated and Experiment

TikTok trends and popular hashtags can change rapidly. So, experiment with different keywords and hashtags to identify what resonates best with your target audience.

Remember, finding the right combination of hashtags may require time and experimentation. By analyzing the performance data and adapting your strategy accordingly, you can optimize your hashtag usage and maximize the visibility and engagement of your TikTok content.

As a business, dedicating time to thorough research is essential to understand your target audience's interests and preferences to craft a compelling and engaging campaign. Investing in this groundwork ensures that your efforts align with what resonates with your audience and maximizes the potential for success.

So, once you have identified the first set of hashtags within your niche or industry, you will already have a pool of potential hashtags to experiment with.

1. Mix and Match: Try using a mix of broad and specific hashtags to reach different audience segments. For example, use a popular hashtag like #foryou or #tiktokviral, along with niche-specific hashtags related to your content.

1. Analyze and Iterate: Analyze the performance data and identify patterns or trends among the hashtags that consistently perform well. Iterate and refine your hashtag strategy based on these insights. Use hashtags that generate higher engagement and align with your content goals.

1. Stay Relevant and Current: Monitor trending hashtags on TikTok and adapt your content strategy accordingly. Incorporate relevant trending hashtags into your content to capitalize on viral trends and increase your chances of reaching a wider audience.

1. Test and Learn: Treat hashtag experimentation as an ongoing process. Feel free to try new hashtags, observe the results, and learn from them. Stay open to adjusting your hashtag strategy based on audience feedback and evolving trends.

1. Hashtag Challenges

One of the most popular hashtag campaigns across social media is hashtag challenges, where users are invited to participate by creating and sharing videos based on a particular theme or prompt. The challenge is typically associated with a unique hashtag.

Participants are encouraged to put their creative spin on the challenge, showcasing their talents, humor, or unique perspectives. 

They are designed to inspire user-generated content, encourage engagement, and create a sense of community and fun on the platform. The success of a hashtag challenge depends on its appeal, ease of participation, and ability to generate widespread interest and engagement.

Example: Doritos x Super Bowl LVII 2023 event

While most companies advertised commercials during Super Bowl’s national airtime, Doritos took it a level further. It launched a TikTok dance contest, which challenged users to post a video of themselves dancing with the hashtag #DoritosTriangleTryout for the opportunity to appear in its game day commercial.

The challenge garnered over 14B hashtag views, driving user-generated content, which the brand monitored for their game time commercial feature.

Source: Exolyt displaying the spike in the campaign during promotion period to current running average

Read more about the Doritos commercial contest here.

2. User Testimonials

You can also build a hashtag campaign to collect user testimonials and experiences related to your brand or products. Ask TikTok users to share their stories, reviews, or creative content showcasing their favorable experiences with your brand. This builds trust, social proof, and credibility for your business.

3. Influencer Collaborations

Brands often launch hashtag campaigns with influencers to leverage their reach and influence to amplify brand messages and engage with their followers. 

Example: Walwart

The retail giant launched its first hashtag campaign as a challenge called #SavingsShuffle inviting users to share their emotions evoked by the savings they experience at the store. They collaborated with 6 influencers to promote the challenge.

Adam Waheed one of the influencers Walmart collaborated with shared the following video with his enthusiastic fan-base and it garnered 158.6K likes and 2847 shares.

4. Behind-the-Scenes

Give your audience a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes aspects of your brand, such as production processes, team dynamics, or events. Encourage users to share their behind-the-scenes moments related to your brand. This fosters transparency, authenticity, and a deeper connection with your audience.

5. Branded Hashtags

Create a unique hashtag that represents your brand or campaign. Encourage TikTok users to incorporate the hashtag in their videos when interacting with your brand or sharing related content. This helps to build awareness, gather user-generated content, and track engagement specific to your campaign.

Example: Nike

Globally popular brands like Nike have taken it one step further by using branded hashtags to create user-generated content (UGC). The hashtags not only help the company to monitor the brand’s online reputation but also help boost authenticity for the brand with UGC - a perfect way to leverage the best of the influencer marketing ecosystem.

Source: Exolyt - UGC from Nike’s TikTok profile showcasing branded hashtag ‘nikefitcheck’ with relevant metrics useful for brands performance monitoring.

6. Product or Service Promotion

Develop a hashtag campaign to promote a specific product or service. Encourage users to showcase how they use or benefit from your offerings creatively and engagingly. This can help generate excitement, drive sales, and highlight your products' unique features or benefits.

Example: Converse

To kick-start the "Creative All-Star Series" launch in London, Converse the footwear brand, joined forces with four prominent TikTok creators from the UK. These influencers, boasting a collective following of approximately 12 million, spearheaded the campaign. The result was a remarkable surge in user engagement and an extensive reach that captivated a wide audience.

Source: Jake Sweet, an influencer Converse collaborated with.

7. Cause-Related Hashtags

Support a social or environmental cause that aligns with your brand values. Develop a hashtag campaign that encourages TikTok users to create content related to the cause, raise awareness, or showcase their contributions. This demonstrates your brand's commitment to social responsibility and can attract like-minded individuals.

By effectively leveraging trending hashtags, businesses can enhance their brand's presence, connect with a wider audience, and ultimately drive growth and success on the platform.

So, follow these hashtag discovery and monitoring steps, campaign and experimentation ideas and continually adapt to the evolving trends, to harness the potential of TikTok hashtags and boost engagement for your business.