“The everlasting debate about hashtags and whether they work or not has been proved and debunked many times”
Game Industry Marketeers
Ever since I started in the Influencer Industry and even after when I started in the Games Industry, hashtags have always been an important role in handling both my own and our client social media.
However, with many platform changes and with a lot of industry people either praising or praying it’s downfall, you have to consider if they’re worth it.
Since Twitter became X, X Business mentions that you should only put 2 hashtags in your tweet to find your relevant audience, and the open source code mentions the more you put in, the more you get a deboosted.
While I do always voice what a company says about their own business, I also voice that you should try it out yourself. I did try it out on multiple occasions where the results were very different. It also depends on your content and the relevance and how many people are ‘boosting’ it with their replies, retweets and likes. It’s very hard to get a clear answer on this.
Another thing I dislike about what is being said, is that hashtags scare away users. I’ve never been scared away by hashtag usage, but I must say that I have been scared away with people trying to come up with their own hashtags.
For example, what if we put hashtagbottledtastearticle with a tweet about this article? That will not get a lot of views and traction to the post as it’s not something people use.
Oh well, the above is my experience, but this blog is about Game Dev!
So let’s talk about hashtag gamedev after we show you our own host post:
What does your post add to the trend?
If you work in Game Dev yourself, you must already know the standard hashtags like #gamedev, #indiedev #indiegame and of course the hashtag of the days; #meetupmonday, #trailertuesday, #wishlistwednesday, #throwbackthursday, #followfriday, #screenshotsaturday #selfpromosunday….
Yes, it is a list and while you can argue if it’s effective or not, there are other things to worry about when you participate in themed hashtags. Before you post something under a hashtag host post, be sure to check if the person is doing this to further themselves (i.e. get more followers and/or growth) or does this person actually interacts with your content?
While we do use our own agenda at Game Taste, where we can find new indie games that might need help with their marketing, we do interact with the posts nonetheless. We think of it as a platform where new game developers can share their games and get something small out of it.
And while seeing that more experienced marketeers and self made marketeers (aka gamedevs that need to do their own marketing, we see you!) know about some of the following ‘guidelines’, we want to make sure that you are not getting shadow banned and hidden under posts by doing something that seems to be saving time, but works counterproductive to what you want to achieve.
- Make a main post; making a main post means that you do get your own growth as well as the host getting potential growth, you can always put the link to your tweet in any replies. The main post can also already have the hashtags of the theme you are going with.
- Don't copy + paste your messaging; Twitter (now X, don't like saying that), has a ridiculous filter where if you post a tweet more than once, it will mark you down as spam. The more you post the same tweet or reply, the more chance you end up in the hidden replies, somewhere down at the bottom, where no-one looks.
- Change up your messaging to the host; Try to see who is hosting and adjust your message to that. I.e. want to share your game to the above hosting of Game Taste? Interact by asking for marketing tips!
- Watch out to not get lost in the sauce; There are so many host posts out there, some with an agenda, and some with a great network. Always try to see if you can get at least a connection out of it. Don't post just to get something, try to give something as well.
Hope we could help you with some of your doubts and/or questions of using hashtags on social media. A last thing we want to mention is to always make unique content about your game, that speaks to people either way, this will already put you forward in a lot of ways with your players.
There are of course other hashtags that you want to use related to your game, if you are making a #RPG game, it’s great to put that hashtag in your post, just be sure to have it at the bottom most of the time so your post reads better.
Platforms also differently go about with hashtags.
At Twitter you can just type them out or paste them.
At TikTok, you need to write # with the first letter to click it, pasting doesn’t work and actually tag it.
At META Business (Facebook + Instagram), you have a handy hashtag manager of previously used hashtags you can put, pasting also works. You can select up to 30 hashtags on META.
Hashtag do or hashtag don’t, just hashtag always stay true to your game and try to play into trends when you think your game fits in it, happy hashtagging!
Bram Steenhuis
Editor-In-Chief
Bram has been in the Influencer Industry since 2018 and joined the Games industry since 2020. With his experience in playtesting, operations and marketing he has the pieces to your games puzzle.