Hello and welcome back to our weekly series about tips and tricks to marketing your business on Instagram! Today we are going to dig deeper how to use hashtags on Instagram. Hashtags are labels used in Instagram and other social media platforms that makes it easier to find post about a certain topic or theme. By using the right hashtags you can get more followers and really boost the reach and engagement on your Instagram business profile. In this post we share 5 tips on how to use hashtags for your advantage!
1. Come up with a branded hashtag
Come up with a branded hashtag that is unique to your company when posting content on your Instagram business profile. Your hashtag can be simply your company's name or slogan. You can also create own hashtags for your specific products or campaigns. You can try to think of more creative hashtags that don't have nothing to do with your company name but reflect your brand identity. Good example of this kind of creative hashtags is lululemon's hashtag #thesweatlife. You can use the branded hashtags in your posts, stories and bio.
2. Find the right hashtags for your account
The most popular hashtags on Instagram are really general like #love, #happiness or #motivation. Even thought these kinds of hashtags are popular, it is better to use more niche hashtags on your business profile that are relevant to your industry and helps your target audience to find you.
A good way to find relevant hashtags to your industry is to see what kind of hashtags your audience, competitors and other influential people in your industry are already using. Make sure to use hashtags related to the products or services you are providing. For example if you own a bakery it is natural to use general hashtag #bakery. In addition to these kind of general hashtags it is good to use more specific hashtags indicating your niche in the industry, for example #glutenfreebakery. You can also use hashtags including your location, such as #sydneybakery. There are many hashtags for different Instagram communities you might also want to include to your post, such as #bakersofinstagram.
You can find more hashtag ideas by selecting "tags" from the search bar and type in your hashtag. On the same page you can see top hashtags closely related to your own hashtag.
Via: Instagram
3. Add the hashtags to the first comment
The more hashtags you use, the more likely your audience will find your post. Instagram lets you to use up to 30 hashtags on one post. However, adding too many hashtags to your captions will make your posts looks messy and spammy. A good way to maximize your reach without the untidy look is to put your hashtags in the first comment of your post instead of the caption.
4. Track how effective your hashtags are
In business profiles it is possible to measure the effectiveness of hashtags in a post. You can access this data by selecting the post and clicking "View Insights" below the post on the left. Scroll down to see impressions, where you can see how many impressions your post got from hashtags. By tracking this data you can learn which hashtags are working for your business.
5. Check that your hashtag really means what you intended
Before you start using a hashtag it's good idea to make sure it really means what you think it means. Browse throug the hashtag and see what post comes up to make sure you don't associate your business with inappropriate content. Since Instagram doesn't allow to use spaces in hashtags, pay attention that your hashtag can't be interpreted the wrong way.
Try these tips and start to figure out what hashtags works the best for your business!
Are you loving this series as much as we are? Let us know what you want to know about Instagram in the comments!
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