Guidelines to using Instagram #Hashtags
What are hashtags?
Whether you’re new to Instagram or not, you’ve seen people use the symbol hash (#) followed by words on their stories, reels, or posts. And while they’re used to labeling and categorizing content, they have multiple other uses.
In this article, we will guide you through the following:
How to use hashtags the right way?
How to find trending hashtags?
Why use hashtags
Hashtags can help you reach people who do not follow your account on Instagram but follow specific hashtags, increasing your exposure and discovery and reaching new audiences that help grow your account. This can skyrocket your business to new heights if used with a clear strategy. Using a hashtag that’s connected to an issue beyond your brand is a way to show support for a social issue. Influencers always add hashtags directly implying a sponsorship to branded posts, also known as a “social media influencer marketing strategy” where the influencer receives a payment or discounts on expensive items for supporting that brand’s product. So as fun as hashtags are, they could be used as a new marketing strategy to boost your followers, gain credibility online, and promote your business.How to use hashtags the right way?
There are things you need to do to make sure you’re using hashtags the right way otherwise, they won’t give you the results you were hoping for. For starters, for hashtags to work and reach larger numbers of audiences, your account must be public.
The best hashtags tend to be relatively short and easy to remember with no spaces, punctuation, or symbols.
Limit the number of hashtags you’re using per post, it often looks spammy when you use too many, and consider posting your hashtags as the post’s first comment, so followers can focus on the caption you’ve written instead of just all the blue hashtags. If your Instagram account is a business account, you can access Instagram Insights. Then you can see how many impressions your profile got from hashtags. This is an important tool to keep track of your progress.
The best optimal number to use is 5-10 hashtags. Stick to relevant and specific hashtags that present your product or service and would make it easier for your customers and clients to research and find.
How to find trending hashtags?
Keeping tabs on the latest hashtags and knowing how to apply them to your brand turns hashtags into a powerful tool to reach and engage your customer base. That said, it’s helpful to know what hashtag is trending on the app. But just because a hashtag is popular, doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to be helpful to you or get you the attention you need. Sometimes a trending hashtag may not be suitable or relevant for your brand image. Therefore, before you settle on the hashtag to use, research it to ensure it fits the type of conversation you want. Throwing any popular Instagram hashtags like #love, #instagood, or #followme may get you a few extra likes on your posts, but these tags are not going to work for your growth in the long run.
How to find accurate hashtags for your brand?
To gain quality followers on your posts, it’s better to use hashtags that have an engaging community and are specific to your audience to gain traction and reach new followers.How to do that?
- Think about your niche and what you post about.
- Make a list of phrases and words that describe your photos, brand, or work.
- Type them each at a time in the search bar and tap tags. Clicking on a hashtag leads to a gallery of both the top posts and the latest posts that use the hashtag.
- If the populated photos match what you post about, it’s a good sign that the hashtags are a fit for your audience.
Once you’ve found the hashtags you want to use, it’s important to dig into your analytics and test them. It’s the best way to monitor the success of your performance. Anything you can do to boost your organic visibility is critical, so continuously keep auditing your previous posts.
How to use hashtags as a marketing strategy?
If you’re managing a brand presence on Instagram, you might want to use a smart social media marketing strategy.
Come up with a hashtag of your own brand’s name and use it frequently to promote it on every product post and story to get the traffic it needs. To encourage the use of it, you can put the hashtag into your Instagram bio and pair it with a call to action. Soon, your clients and customers will be posting about your product or service and using that same hashtag you emboldened, which will easily carry over into your other social media platforms and pick up momentum quickly.
Cheerios came up with its hashtag, #GoodGoesRound, to send a message to its audience that when you eat positive energy food, you’ll feel good, you’ll do good things, and it’ll all come back around. A cycle like the shape of the cereal “O” is a smart social marketing strategy that has picked up and people love using it.
Another smart and one of many new marketing strategies is used by POPSUGAR Home. Notice how they used their brand name as a hashtag and embedded it in their bio (#popsugar), then created their hashtag for their followers to use (#popsugarmusthave), and encouraged their customers to use a specific hashtag (#POPSUGARhome) when posting about their products promising to “regram” it, meaning to share the content with that hashtag on their page, which is an effective social media digital marketing strategy that’ll get the brand’s name trending and going around.
In closing, hashtags play an important role in marketing your business. They are powerful tools for expanding market reach and supporting your brand. So if you’ve never used hashtags before, it’s time to start now.
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2 Comments
Nisreen
Good Article
abdullah
useful, thanks
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