#OAP101 Hashtag it!

What is your favourite hashtag to use?

Hashtags are an important part of living and dealing on social media. Whether as a way of joining or starting a conversation, they help your posts (and therefore, you) to be seen.

Improper use of hashtags however can do more harm than good. For example, if you break one of the hashtag rules, you may find people skipping over your posts, and a platform like Instagram could even 'shadowban' you, making it hard for your posts to be discovered.

What are some of these Hashtag sins?
- Putting the 'hash' key in the wrong place. Always #OAP101 and not OAP101#
- Using too many hashtags. While on Instagram, you can get away with up to 30 hashtags, on Twitter and Facebook, you want to do fewer tags; maybe 1 or 2, 3 maximum.
- Putting them all over the place. While it is okay to sometimes hashtag a word in the middle of a sentence, it can make your captions look clumsy. Instead of a sentence like, 'This is the #OAP101 #blogpost for #today', write the sentence first, THEN place the hashtags below or after the caption.
See an example here.

Now that we have covered some of the sins, what makes for a great use of a hashtag?

1. Unique hashtags
You need a unique hashtag for your brand, like how we have #OAP101. I also have #ShopTosyn and #TosynBucknorDaily.
This one is simply for your brand and you can ask your followers to use it for posts they want you to see or repost

2. Relevant hashtags
Apart from using one or two unique hashtags (if on Instagram), you also need a hashtag that is relevant to the post you have up. In this instance for example, I definitely need to include '#Hashtag' and perhaps '#SocialMedia' in my post.

3. Popular Hashtags
Be careful with how you use popular hashtags because if you use them just to get your post discovered, it can actually be worse for you. If people feel you're using hashtags indiscriminately, they can ask for your post to be removed from that particular hashtag, and like I mentioned above, some platforms will penalise you for it.
Popular hashtags vary from region to region so a quick Google search can show you top hashtags to use.

Another tip is to place your hashtag correctly.
For Facebook and Twitter, write your caption, then place 1 to 3 hashtags at the end of the caption.
On Instagram, to make it neater, write your caption then leave some space before including your hashtags as shown above. You can also simply put your hashtags as a comment on your post.

I hope these tips help.

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#OAP101 Answering your questions on becoming a Sports Journalist and Monetising Content

This week's podcast is out and you can listen below.
I tackled two questions we got via our Instagram page on if media world has room for Sports OAPS, and How to Monetise Content.
To summarise
- Is there Room in the Industry for Sports OAPS?
The quickest response is YES.
Niche journalism is actually interesting and some niche content creators make more money or impact. If you want to be a Sports OAP, have a good grasp of Sports in general and one or two sports (like tennis and football or formula 1).
There's a world of content to explore including previews and predictions, team news, transfer undates and post game reviews!

- How to Monetise Content
What is the content? Where is it aired? These are some of the first questions to ask.
Having said that, there are 3 broad ways to monetise content
. Using the platform you are on
. Sponsorships
. Hypes and Promoted Posts.

Listen to the Podcast for the full gist on each one and don't forget to keep the questions and contributions going in our comments below!

#OAP101 Branding yourself as a media personality; Part 1

Hi all
I am back with the OAP 101 podcasts and here is this week's podcast.

Listen-

To summarise,
I spoke about branding yourself and why you need to, plus three things to remember.

- Be yourself

As an individual, you have a combination of nature and nurture that makes you different. This is what draws us to you.

- Decide what you want
When your name is mentioned, what do you want people to see? Much as if i were to mention Beyonce, Kaylah, even Gala (lol). What comes to your mind when these names are mentioned? In the same way you have a clear audio-visual identity for these names, you want the same for yourself.

A little exercise- write down the top 5 words you want people to think of when they hear your name.

- Consistently communicate this identity

Now that you have your five words, it is time to communicate this to us. From your show, to your social media, to your presence, etc, let us see who you are.

EXERCISE: Can you think of three people and what you associate them with? Tell us below. Thanks.

#OAP101 Find out why 1 post a day brings followers your way!

Whether you like social media or not, chances are, as an on air personality, you will have to use it.

Whenever i train or consult for on air personalities and it comes to social media, the one tip i s.h.a.r.e is- POST AT LEAST ONE THING DAILY.

This is the simplest must-do if you want your social media popping because one of the reasons people follow or like posts is because of consistency. We want to know that when we come to your page, we see something new so give us something new daily.

When you first start with that one post a day, you can then increase your number of posts. I like to do 3 on facebook, instagram and google plus with a little more on twitter.

Don't forget to follow OAP 101 on instagram and twitter for more tips!