The first association about hashtags is a bunch of stacked words that people put in their post description behind the famous # symbol. But do you know how beneficial they can be to your Instagram account? Better yet, do you know how to pick the right ones? As simple as it seems to just add any hashtag, the complex world of digital marketing demands that you put some more effort into it. That is if you want to boost your Instagram business account.
Hashtags have become a widely known marketing phenomenon, which is why Instagram generates around 95 million photos posted on this platform each day. Before you head adding hashtags to your posts, here are a few things you must know.
What Can Hashtags Bring to Your Account?
The advantages of using hashtags are undeniable. But unless we address them head-on, you won’t be able to grasp their value in the Instagram community. So, this is what hashtags can bring to your business:
- Improve your brand’s online presence
- Get discovered by random Instagram users
- Increase the number of followers
- Get help with the branding
- Power up your promotion
- Generate more engagement
- Localize your posts
Where to Use Hashtags on Instagram?
There are several possibilities for using hashtags on Instagram. The options are:
- Bio
- Post’s description
- Instagram Story
If you decide to use a hashtag in your bio, it needs to be depictive of your brand and present your general message, aim, or moto. Let’s turn to one of the most successful and famous brands for example:
In their bio, Nike only featured one distinctive hashtag – #justdoit.
When it comes to your post’s description that is where you can let loose. Use hashtags that brand your business as well as more general hashtags that will help with posts’ discoverability.
Lastly, for highly popular Instagram Stories, there are hashtag stickers that enable you to use hashtags. If you use your branding hashtag, users can click on it and discover more posts with that hashtag. Meaning that they’ll look through all of your posts with that hashtag.
Find the Balance for the Number of Hashtags
Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags per post. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you have to pile them up till you get to the limit.
On the other hand, using just one or two hashtags, won’t be as effective as using more. The reason why is that it narrows down the posts’ visibility and discovery rate. The solution is simple – find the balance.
Apparently, Instagram posts with 11+ hashtags have the highest interaction. In case when engagement is your aim, feel free to use this number of hashtags.
However, the fact is that 91% of brands use seven or fewer hashtags per post. Using fewer hashtags makes the post description more clear and readable.
To pick the right amount of hashtags you can follow the following principle:
- Use more hashtags for posts without text description (11+)
- Use fewer hashtags for posts with text description (under 7)
Do Research
Instead of just using the first hashtag that comes to your mind, let’s make this process a bit more professional. The more thought you put into picking the right hashtags, the better the results will be.
Hashtags can also serve as your helpers during the search. By using hashtags that are characteristic for your line of business, you can find competitors’ posts and check out their hashtags.
For example, if you sell women’s sustainable clothing try out #sustainableclothes, #sustainableclothesLA #womenssustainableclothes, etc.
Besides checking out the competition through hashtags, you can turn to helpful tools that will improve your strategy. All Hashtag is a tool that works for Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. It helps you to analyze and find the best Instagram hashtags.
Start by typing in one hashtag and choose the type of hashtag you want to check out. The tools will show you everything from the most popular hashtags to random ones. You’ll get recommendations for the best hashtag for your brand. While Hashtag Analytics allows you to study hashtags in depth.
Get Creative
To accumulate user-generated content it is best to create a unique hashtag that will categorize the posts.
Instead of using a general hashtag such as #feelingblessed that has an endless number of posts, set a new hashtag that will single out your satisfied customers.
American Eagle stated their hashtag in the bio so if you type in their unique hashtag in the search or click on it you can see lots of posts by people who love this brand.
Unique hashtags are a great branding opportunity. If you manage to create a hashtag that is characteristic of your business, it will be your path to differentiation from the competition.
The important thing is that you break the monotony of using the same basic hashtags with something unique.
Depending on your brand’s voice, you can come up with humorous and quirky hashtags that will lure a smile on the users’ faces. Such hashtags will bring more followers to your account because they’ll look forward to your next creative idea.
If you want to create an entertaining post description to go along your fun hashtag, check out reviews of companies who offer writing services and team up with the best one.
Use Geo-Targeting Hashtags
If your brand is location-based, you simply can’t miss out on geo-targeting hangtags.
Geographical tags help you to reach a local, state, regional, and national audience. You just need to use hashtags that define your neighborhood, city, or state.
Even if your business is an e-commerce store, location hashtags will attract the users from countries to which you ship.
Geo-targeting hashtags can pray an important role in local marketing. They are the best way to get your brand discovered on Instagram, increase the number of targeted followers, and increase your customer base.
On Instagram Stories, you have location tags that easily signify where the photo is taken. Based on that the users will know where to find you.
Keep the Continuity
Lastly, what you must remember throughout this process is that a successful hashtag Instagram strategy demands continuity. Using a few hashtags every once in a while won’t bring you the results. The above-mentioned tips will help you choose the right hashtags but it is up to you to keep adding them and maintain their efficiency.