What the devil are they?
Firstly, why are hashtags important? Because they’re basically Instagram’s sorting process and are a better way to categorise your posts. They help you to reach a target audience and more importantly, they help your target audience find you.
82% of marketers leverage hashtags as part of their Instagram strategy.
There’s different types!
Hashtags are powerful little things and can make your account more visible, think of different hashtag types depending on your business.
- Product or services
- Industry niche hashtags
- Branded hashtags
- Campaign hashtags
- User-generated content
- Instagram community hashtags for industry
How to use them
When you post your content on Instagram simply include the # sign and then type the keyword which is relevant to your business or what you’re trying to promote.
So as not to squish your posts up, I generally use a full stop on each line then return down, I would do this around 6 times and then start to enter your hashtags. I just do this so the hashtags aren’t included in your actual text and are separated a bit (just looks a bit neater!).
37% of marketers say using popular hashtags has been most effective when posting on Instagram.
How many should you use?
You can include up to 30 hashtags on a regular post, however, that doesn’t mean you should. Think of hashtags that are relevant to your business or product/service and don’t just put random popular hashtags on there, it doesn’t look great and will just annoy people.
Which ones should you use?
If you’re attending a certain event, make sure you know the official hashtag in advance and use this prior to, on the day and after the event. This will ensure you are found by people searching for the specific hashtag and should get you more engagement. Remember to also search and follow the hashtag yourself too and engage with other people’s posts, it’s not all about you remember.
As an example, a client of mine attended the Offshore Wind NE conference last year and we used the hashtag #OWNE on all of our social posts prior to the event and also on the day. We also used associated hashtags on the post such as #OffshoreWind #RenewableEnergy etc – words which are associated and relevant to the topic but may not be the ‘official’ hashtag. You get the idea.
If you’re looking to promote a certain product, why not create a simple Excel spreadsheet and input all of the keywords you should be using. There are some great keyword search tools on the internet which are free (including Google Keyword Planner), these are a great way of finding keywords relevant to your business. Also, try being a bit niche, not too much so people can’t find you but so you’re not appearing with another 100,000 people.
I hope this gives you a brief idea of how to use hashtags on Instagram, however, if you’re a bit stuck and just want a bit of advice, feel free to contact me or visit my web page all about my social media services.
