If you’ve seen any ad lately, chances are there’s something hashtagged in it. 

Hashtags have become a standard part of marketing campaigns. They’re a quick and simple way to maximize the reach of a piece of content.

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Log into any social media platform and you’ll see them -- hashtags. 

To the untrained or unfamiliar eye, words preceded by a hashtag may just seem like something done for emphasis or to be funny. In actuality, hashtags are part of a much larger world within the social media universe and are absolutely critical to social media advertising.

Social media is everywhere you turn and the number of platforms can be overwhelming to choose from. Do you choose the most popular social media? The trendiest? Or targeted channels specific to the medical tech industry? 

Let’s face it, most manufacturing Facebook business pages are easy to ignore, and it’s not hard to see why. They’re bland. They look like other industry pages. They don’t offer a lot of unique value to prospective customers.

Quick: What’s the difference between a Facebook profile, group, and business page? If you don’t know, you’re in danger of missing your target audience. Creating a Facebook business page is NOT the same thing as making a profile or starting a group.

At the end of 2016, unsavory things are coming to light about social media advertising - Facebook in particular. Over the last few months, Facebook has come out saying some of its metrics were miscalculated. This leads publishers and advertisers to ask a few questions:

If you're alive in the 21st century, you've seen the impact social media can have on businesses. Dollar Shave Club made their name on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

At this point, it's common knowledge that Facebook tracks all of your activity. Every like and share is used as data for advertisers. Even a simple Google search or online shopping spree makes related ads immediately pop up on Facebook. According to USA Today, online tracking and targeted advertising helped Internet advertisers bring in $49.5 billion in 2014.

According to many sources, it's only going to get worse.

Have you started a video campaign yet? We'll admit it, creating video is probably the most intimidating form of inbound marketing for the un-initiated. With that said it's also one of the most rewarding! YouTube has long been the king when it comes to web video, but now with Facebook moving up the ranks you have even more incentive to get started with a video campaign for your small business and its service or product.