If you’ve been keeping up with the events of the social media world, you probably know that hashtags are one of the top marketing strategies. But you might also be wondering how to use hashtags on Instagram the “right way”.
Hashtags can be a great asset to your business marketing strategy because they help to make sure your posts get seen by the ideal users on Instagram, which can boost your follower count and your clientele. They can also connect you with businesses similar to yours and open great opportunities for you.
All in all, hashtags are a great tool to use – but it’s important that you know how to use them properly. If you’re not quite sure how to use hashtags on Instagram, don’t stress. That’s why we’re here! Keep reading to learn our tips on the best way to use hashtags.
Use Industry-Related Hashtags
Industry-related hashtags are important to use as you try to make your business known in the world of social media. It’s important to understand what hashtags are currently trending in your industry as well as which hashtags are consistently relevant in your field.
Using the optimal hashtags for your industry will boost your posts and help them to be seen by the best possible viewers. For example, if you’re in the photography industry, you’ll want to be including the same hashtags in your posts that other relevant photographers are using in theirs.
When members of the photography community on Instagram see other posts with the same hashtags as yours, they may click on the hashtags to see similar posts and then be directed to your posts. This will connect you with potential new clients and likely help you increase your number of Instagram followers as well.
Using industry-related hashtags will also help you to get connected with businesses similar to yours. By boosting your social media presence and your relevance on Instagram, you’ll be seen more by fellow business owners. This may lead to connections in the industry and create new collaborations for you, making it a great business move.
To revisit our photography example, some of the current most popular hashtags for photographers to use are #photography, #PicOfTheDay and #photogram.
To find out what the nest or most popular hashtags are for your account, you can search online or investigate accounts similar to yours that you’re looking to emulate.
Use Niche Hashtags
Using hashtags related to your industry is a great idea, but it’s also smart to take this one step further and use hashtags that are specific to your niche.
No matter what industry you’re in – food, marketing, sports, fashion, photography etc – it’s likely that your account belongs to an even more specific niche, i.e. cupcakes, marketing for realtors, baseball team management, wedding fashion, or nature photography.
Regardless of your niche, your content is unique and special. So, it’s important to make sure that your nature photography posts do not get lost in a sea of animal portraits and professional headshots. In other words, everyone has a specific group of clients that they are targeting, so it’s important to make sure these are the people viewing your posts.
In order to make sure your nature photography, for example, is seen by fellow nature photographers, you should follow our previous advice and do some research on the most popular hashtags in nature photography. Some of these include #NaturePhotography, #NatureLovers and #landscape.
Use Location Hashtags
Another genre of hashtags that should not be ignored is location hashtags. If you’re running an Instagram account for a business that targets clients in a specific region, it’s important to keep that in mind when choosing what hashtags to use. This will increase the likelihood that Instagram users in your target area will come across your posts, thereby increasing the reach of your account.
Additionally, if your account is based on any sort of travel or change in locations, it can be helpful to make note of this in your hashtags as well.
For example, if you’re posting photos from a trip to Yellowstone National Park, you would want to include #Yellowstone and #Wyoming in order to catch the attention of people whose Instagram feeds are commonly filled with national park content.
Similarly, if you own a business that’s located in Cincinnati, Ohio, you should include #Cincinnati in your posts and perhaps #SouthwestOhio as well. This will help Instagram to channel your posts toward users who commonly interact with posts based in Cincinnati or other parts of the southwest Ohio region.
Your location-based hashtags can go beyond simply including the name of a city or state, however. If you’re looking to capitalize on location hashtags, take a look at some posts from businesses in the same area. There may be some cute hashtags related to your location that would help you to promote your account even further.
Use Competitor Hashtags
Another key strategy to remember when discussing how to use hashtags on Instagram is making use of competitor hashtags. We mentioned earlier that it’s important to be aware of what hashtags are being used by accounts similar to yours, and it’s for a good reason.
Hashtags are used to categorize posts and make them seen by the Instagram users who are most likely to benefit from them or be interested in them. You want your posts to be seen by the same users who are viewing your competitors’ posts.
In order to make that happen, you should be using some of the same hashtags as your competitors. This will put your posts (and therefore your account) on the pages of people in your target market.
While researching the optimal hashtags to use for your account is a great method, there’s another option that you can employ as well. Using a hashtag generator will provide you with some hashtag suggestions that can be wonderful assets to your posts or serve as inspiration as you come up with some ideas of your own.
Use The Right Number Of Hashtags
Now that we’ve set you up with tips on some of the best kinds of hashtags to use, let’s also chat about how many hashtags you should be using per post. It’s important to have a good balance with this, but the most important thing to remember is to not use too many hashtags.
It can be easy, at times, to get carried away when we have all sorts of good ideas for hashtags to include on our posts. But, if you start using too many at once, this can have the opposite effect of what you’re hoping to achieve.
For example, using 30 hashtags in a single post can look spammy and turn users away. Instead, go for a lower number of hashtags on each post. We recommend keeping it under 15 and definitely under 20.
It’s up to you to make a judgment call for what will most likely benefit each of your posts. Different posts will work best with different hashtags, so you’ll know what is most appropriate each time. And, you’ll develop your hashtagging instincts with practice.
Check Your Hashtag Performance On Analytics
You can support your new hashtagging instincts by collecting data on which hashtags are most effective for your account. This can be done by tracking the analytics of your Instagram account.
There are many outside tools that you can use to track your account analytics, but you can also find some helpful information through the Instagram app itself. To track the effectiveness and popularity of your posts, start by opening any one of your posts and tapping the blue “view insights” button. You’ll then be met with a full break-down of how users interacted with your post.
You’ll be able to see the number of profile visits and followers garnered by your post, as well as the locations where it was popular. Under the section titled “Impressions,” there will be a number labeled “From Hashtags.” If you swipe up, you’ll see how many users found your post from the hashtags you used.
Having this information will give you the ability to understand the effectiveness of your various hashtags and then use this to select the best hashtags to include in future posts.
Time To Get Hashtagging
Now you have a better idea of how to use hashtags on Instagram in the most effective way possible. We hope that these tips will help you to improve your hashtag game and bring your Instagram account to the next level.
So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to get to work and start hashtagging. After you use our tips, please feel free to come back and let us know how it went. We would love to hear your thoughts on our hashtagging advice!