Utilizing Instagram Hashtags For A Successful Marketing Strategy

In case you are not aware yet, Instagram hashtags can make or break your marketing strategy. If you use them properly and strategically, more people will see the post you are trying to promote. However, if you do not have a good strategy for using hashtags on Instagram, your marketing efforts have a great chance. Using the wrong hashtags can also get you penalized by Instagram’s algorithm.

If you want to utilize Instagram hashtags to your advantage properly, you must understand how they work fully. Also, you need to make a solid strategy. 

Everything You Need to Understand About Instagram

Hashtags

A hashtag is basically a combination of numbers, letters, and emojis, with the symbol # in front. Their main role is to categorize your Instagram content and make it more discoverable for your target audience.  

Moreover, all the hashtags that you will use are clickable. By clicking on hashtags, users will be automatically redirected to search results and see all the posts that used the hashtag they clicked on. 

Why Should You Use Instagram Hashtags?

Hashtags play a vital role in expanding your following audience on Instagram. Using a hashtag will make your post appear on the search results for people looking for that hashtag. For instance, if you add a hashtag on your story, it will appear on the hashtag page, allowing you to have a bigger audience for your story.

Instagram users can follow the hashtags they want. This means that your posts– which carry the same hashtag that they follow– will appear on their newsfeed even if they do not follow your profile yet.

Moreover, the maximum number of hashtags that you can use for a single post is 30. If you are using hashtags for a story, you can use up to 10. Trying to include more than these limits will prevent your caption from posting successfully.

However, just because you can use many Instagram, hashtags do not mean you should. Most commonly, about one to three hashtags are used for Instagram posts. But a good number to start with is about 11 hashtags. 

But before using hashtags, you will need to do some testing to know what hashtags work best for your business. 

How to Utilize the Best Hashtags for Your Business

Check your brand’s competition

Checking how your competitors are using hashtags does not mean that you have to copy their strategy. However, looking at the hashtags they use will help you determine which ones work for other businesses in your industry.

There is also a great chance for you to discover new and useful hashtags to add to your use. On the other hand, you can decide if you do not want to compete with your competitors. In this case, you can search for some alternative hashtags that you can use. 

Find out what hashtags your target audience are using

If your audience is using a particular hashtag, then there is a great chance that other people are using it, as well. Looking for these existing communities on Instagram is one excellent way to widen your reach and audience. This is because you will find people who are likely to be interested in your brand.

Also, it would be best if you kept an eye on your top followers. This will help you find out the hashtags that they are often using. Instagram also has a search tool that can help you see what hashtags are used by your target audience.

When conducting a hashtag search on Instagram, the search tool will allow you to see if anyone follows that hashtag. However, one thing worth noting is that this feature only works on the mobile version of the app.

Create a branded hashtag for your business

The best hashtag that you can use in promoting your brand is the ones that you created yourself. A branded hashtag is a tag that you create for your own brand or business.

After creating your own hashtag, let your audience know about it by including it in your Instagram bio. You can also highlight it in your Instagram stories and captions. 

Moreover, to further create awareness, you can also host a contest with that branded hashtag to popularize it. Doing this will also allow you to collect user-generated content.

You also have to make sure that you follow your branded hashtag on Instagram and your social media dashboard. This will help you monitor how your target audience is using the hashtag you created.

Use hashtags on your Instagram stories

There are two different ways that you can use an Instagram hashtag in your story. The first one is by using the hashtag sticker. 

On the other hand, you can also use the text tool and type out the hashtag you want to use.

Integrating hashtags to your Instagram stories is a great way to reach a larger number of audiences. Besides, the audience that you will reach by using hashtags is undoubtedly relevant to your brand. This is because they are the ones who try to look for a particular thing in your industry by searching for tags. 

Avoid using spammy and banned hashtags

Whenever inappropriate posts become associated with a particular hashtag, there is a possibility that Instagram will ban that hashtag.

However, this does not mean that you can no longer use that hashtag at all. Rather, it means that you will only see top posts when you click on the hashtag. You will not be able to view recent posts, and your Stories will not be associated with that hashtag.

To know if a hashtag is banned, you have to search for that hashtag. If it is indeed banned, you will see a message saying that posts containing that hashtag are banned because it did not meet Instagram’s community guidelines.

Date: October 13, 2020 / Categories: Marketing, / Author: Joy P