#Hashtags!! While we have to thank the social media behemoth TWITTER for the birth of this sensation, INSTAGRAM is the real platform that drew hashtags to the point where they are today…, ruling over the entire social media network. Now it’s even hard for us to remember what social media was like a few years back without them! Even if this is the case, does your brand really know how to use hashtags on Instagram the right way to make the most value out of them? Do you believe if we say just a single hashtag can raise your post engagement by nearly 12.6%? That is certainly not a number you can ignore, right! Well, these days, Instagram hashtags not only categorize and make your content discoverable by the audience, but let you get more followers, and extend the reach and brand awareness. So, if you wish to tap into the potential of Instagram to reach a huge audience, elevating your #hashtaggame is the way to go! Once you dig into employing hashtags on Instagram, you are likely to run into loads of questions: “Which hashtags can drive followers to my page? What are the most prevalent tags in my domain? How many hashtags do I tack on a standard post?” Without a well-honed knowledge of employing Instagram hashtags, they can become #destruction very soon! So, here is all you should know about using hashtags on Instagram to improve your branding and marketing. There is no obvious answer here, but here are different ideas on hashtags to help serve as a point of beginning:
1. Industry-specific Hashtags
The best hashtags to use are the ones that deliver your clients’ language. Putting to ease, these are the tags that are popular to get used, at the same time aren’t so common that your posts won’t get lost in the shuffle. For example, consider a fitness brand with a predominantly female demographic. We know that #fitness is a widely adopted hashtag. But the brand may find more benefit with tags like #femalefitness than #fitness.
2. Branded Hashtags
Create your own central business tag that you and your customers can use anytime on the social site. They don’t have to be rocket science, though! You can use your:
- Company name (#Swatch)
- Company tagline (#AlwaysDifferentAlwaysNew) or
- Brand name variations (#MySwatch)
3. General Hashtags
These are trendy tags that are perfect for boosting your probability of engagement. That’s why applying general hashtags like #love (the most prevalent tag as of 2019) is said to be a fair game! With a better idea of which hashtags you should use, let’s talk about the numbers now.
How Many Hashtags Are Best To Use?
Instagram lets you add 30 hashtags on any post. That doesn’t imply you should always, though. Doing so may look like keyword stuffing and akin to spammy. Still, a lot of debates are going on over the number of Instagram hashtags that are optimal for engagement. However, several most celebrated brands follow a “LESS IS MORE” approach instead of obsessing over that “right” number of hashtags. Next, we will share some best practices to keep in the back of your mind while working with Insta hashtags.
1. SHORT Is Sweet!
Short, catchy hashtags – that’ll go viral easily! So, try out the simplest ones with merely your domain name (say #DentalCare), a slogan (#FlossItOut), or cutest emoji tags (# ?).
2. Apply CREATIVITY
A hashtag that is creative and unique is about to stay with the reader, and he himself is more likely to use it. Nothing more to say – just think how the trendy #ThrowBackThrusday (#TBT) hashtag reached over 428M posts on Instagram!
3. Dare To ATTEMPT!
Popular hashtags will arrive in the search results for a short span, as they are used in a large number of posts. Although, specific hashtags reach out to the true connoisseurs. Hence, strike a balance between widely known as well as unique hashtags. Experiment and identify which are the most successful ones.
4. Don’t Be Too IRRELEVANT
Are you aware that viewers have an option to choose ‘Don’t show for this hashtag’ if they find your post unrelated to the tag? There are cases where Instagram too, had blocked posts due to spammy behavior. Make sure that you use relevant hashtags, and not shoving some.
5. ANALYZE & Improve Your Hashtags
Follow your hashtags to view the kind of posts which show up. You can then modify yours’ accordingly (if needed).
6. Go For Automation Platforms
Utilize tools like Brand24 or Hootsuite to examine and engage the people your tag receives, measure performance, and apply the most suitable tags combination. Figure out what goes most competent for you, and implement that in your works.
7. Combine The Best
You can combine and use any of these to extend your posts’ reach:
- Content hashtags – that articulate a product.
- Industry hashtags – that co-relating to the industry.
- Niche hashtags – that give away the location of the posts.
- Branded hashtags – that showcase your brand.
8. Use Hashtags in Stories
Use Instagram stories to disclose your business events, important meets, and other milestones. You can use up to ten hashtags in a single story. There is no perfect time like the present to plan your tactics and look out for the most popular social media marketing hashtags. If you want to learn more or need assistance in creating and popularising tags for your brand, join for a discussion with our digital marketing experts now!
