Want to know how to use Instagram hashtags for Business? Many people wonder if having an Instagram hashtag strategy is a must in any social media strategy.
In this article, we are going to understand why Instagram hashtags play an essential role in reaching your target audience.
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What Are Instagram Hashtags?
A hashtag is a string of characters—letters, numbers, and/or emoji—that is prefixed with the # symbol.
For instance, #creativisocial.
They help organize content into categories and increase discoverability.
Anyone who clicks on an Instagram hashtag or uses the hashtag search feature on Instagram will be taken to a page that lists all the posts that have been tagged with that hashtag.
Benefits to Use Instagram Hashtags for Business
No matter what your Instagram goals are, using Instagram hashtags will get you many benefits.
1. Increases exposure
Instagram displays a gallery of the top and most recent posts that included a certain hashtag when you click on it. That translates to many people potentially discovering your content.
2. Boost audience interactions
Instagram’s users tend to comment and interact with posts with hashtags. It starts to play a great role when you use branded hashtags and encourage using them.
3. Get content ideas
Hashtags can be used to research some content ideas. What’s popular? What doesn’t work? What is overused?
4. Link Online and In-Real-Life campaigns
Nowadays, brands implement online and offline campaigns. So, we are sure you’ve been in a store and have seen a marketing campaign offering a product or service, using a #.
Types of Hashtags According to the Objective
There are a few hashtags categories with different goals:
1. Niche hashtag
Uncover niche hashtags that your target audience uses, so they can find your products or services.
2. Industry hashtag
Add industry-related hashtags to get discovered by new audiences and customers.
3. Branded hashtag
Help to promote your brand and encourage your audience to use your branded hashtags. You will reach new audiences with a user generated content strategy.
4. Location hashtag
Geo-target your audience with location hashtags. This is a strategic tactic very useful for local marketing.
5. Popular hashtag
Using popular hashtags make your chance of being discovered almost zero. And this is because these hashtags are tagged by millions of posts.
Now, with engagement, your post can be pinned among “Top Posts”.
6. Trending hashtag
Spice up your Instagram platform by using trending hashtags. Use it to support a cause, promote a seasonal campaign, or celebrate a holiday.
Hashtags Best Practices
The days when businesses used any trending hashtag they could think of, regardless of its relevance, are long gone.
Needless to say, hashtags can help your business. However, you should learn the best practices for using them in your favor.
Here are undoubtedly some best practices for hashtag usage on Instagram. Take into account the following tips:
1. Use an appropriate number of hashtags in every post
Since 2021, Instagram has officially recommended using only 3 to 5 Instagram hashtags in every post. The purpose behind this recommendation is to be concise.
Now, we’ve been testing many posts, and our conclusion is that using fewer hashtags lowers your reach.
Said that, what’s the appropriate number?
As you can use up to 30 Instagram hashtags at a time, you should stick to the ones that are relevant and related to your post.
2. Find the best hashtags for your business
You can start brainstorming some and a posteriori search for them into the Instagram search bar. When you type them, the platform also shows you the related ones.
Another way to find the best hashtags for your business is to check out the ones that your competitor, influencers, and other similar accounts are using them.
3. Make up your own hashtag
We recommend you to create your own hashtag that suits your brand. And also, you can be as creative as to make up a hashtag with your product and your brand’s name.
4. Keep hashtag lists for quick use
Time management is very important when we talk about social media. We have to make things easier.
Think about a topic category, and make a set of hashtags. Save it where you can copy them easily. For instance, Notes on your iPhone. Then, you can choose the one that fits on your post you are going to publish.
5. Follow your community or industry hashtags
This is a strategic tactic to see industry-wise posts in your feed, alongside with other posts of accounts you follow.
Related Content: How to follow Instagram Hahstags to monitor relevant content for your business
Instagram Hashtags Tools
We’ve seen how important Instagram hashtags, but to make things easier, you can use some tools to generate them or simply just tracking and analyzing them.
You can use this tool to find and analyze your hashtag strategy.
This is an awesome tool that gives you hashtag suggestions for images and texts, based on real-time hashtag engagement.
It works on desktop and mobile.
Use it to generate, create, analyze and search for the top hashtags.
Conclusion
Hashtags won’t solve your engagement or reach problems right away. However, using hashtags for Instagram effectively, your business will get their content in front of your target audience.