Hashtags on Instagram remain to be an effective method of getting more eyes on, and people engaging with, your posts on this social media network. According to statistics, a post that has at least one hashtag averages 12.6% more engagement as opposed to posts that don’t have a hashtag. This means that it really is worth it to create a hashtag strategy for your brand if you want to grow you Instagram account.
This sounds easy in principle but, in reality, is it?
Instagram hashtags are everywhere but not many brands know how the correct way to use hashtags on Instagram in order to get the most value out of them. If you don’t have a keen understanding of Instagram hashtags, as well as how these work, they can become overkill pretty quickly. However, if you include the correct Instagram hashtags on your posts, you will probably see higher engagement as opposed to if you didn’t have any present.
The importance of hashtags on Instagram
Hashtags — which are a combination of letters, numbers as well as emojis that are preceded by the # symbol (e.g. #NoFilter, #WorldCup) — function to categorise content and, most importantly, make it more discoverable. Any person who clicks on a hashtag, or does a search for it, will see a page with all the posts tagged with it. Hashtags may not seem like too much of a high priority on surface however these remain to be one of the most important aspects of promoting your Instagram account.
So, the burning question which you probably want to ask right about now is: “If hashtags on Instagram are so important, how can I use these correctly for my business?”
Make your hashtags relevant
Instagram has put in place the ability for users to follow hashtags. This means that rather than a user needing to search for an Instagram hashtag, and then scroll through an neverending feed in order to land on your content the posts that you make could now automatically show up in the feeds of potential new followers of your company.
While Instagram’s algorithm has always favoured using specific as well as relevant hashtags, this feature makes the use of hashtags, which make sense, an even bigger deal as users now have the power to mark your hashtagged content as something they don’t want to see.
What’s the correct amount of hashtags?
There’s a lot of contradictory information regarding what number of Instagram hashtags is the correct. Unfortunately, there’s no consensus on this as yet.
Our advice is to make use of the maximum number of hashtags which is allowed by Instagram. (In case you didn’t know, Instagram allows a maximum of 30 hashtags on each post.) While 30 may seem like a lot, using the maximum number of Instagram hashtags will gives you more opportunities to be discovered.
Vary your hashtags
The most important thing to keep at the forefront of your mind when making the choice about which hashtags to use is be intentional. In other words, use hashtags which your target audience is actually searching for and following. It’s vital to switch up your Instagram hashtags in every post so that you avoid being “spammy.
Instagram is a supremely powerful tool for your business and, if used correctly, can bring in a lot of leads. However, this is only if you use it correctly.
Get in touch with the Digital School of Marketing
To learn more about how to use Instagram, as well as other social media networks, for your business you should really consider doing a social media marketing course such as the one that we offer. More information can be found here.
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