Instagram can be very effective, but you have to be smart when using it. That’s where Instagram hashtags work so well.
Hashtags help you manage and search for appropriate content on Instagram. They make it easy for your target audience to find you and add interest to your actions. An Instagram study showed that adding at least one hashtag to all of your Instagram posts will generate, on average, more than 12% more engagement.
Extend your reach
The best thing about hashtags is their ability to reach a wide range of people who may have absolutely nothing to do with your account and don’t specifically follow you on Instagram.
How do Instagram hashtags work?
Suppose a user searches for the term “gardening”. Instagram will show all the most recent posts that contain the keyword ‘gardening’. By using #gardening as a hashtag in your posts, you are telling Instagram to publish your post every time someone searches for that term.
Tag all your posts with related keywords. Use words and terms that you think Instagram users will search for. Always use the # symbol before the word, don’t use punctuation, keep it as short as possible and use letters and numbers.
The best hashtags for Instagram
Randomly throwing hashtags all over Instagram won’t work for you. You will have to carefully choose the best and most popular hashtags to reach the right audience for your business. They need to be appropriate for the keywords searched by your target market, and you will need to keep an eye on which ones work best for you.
It will take time to find the best hashtags to use. Some strategies include:
-
Review the hashtags that your competitors use regularly to market their business.
-
Try various hashtags and evaluate your results.
-
Use a hashtag idea app (like TagOMatic).
Make the most of trending hashtags
When an event occurs, a hashtag is often created. If you can associate your post with the hashtag, it is more likely to be seen by those who follow that specific story.
The key is to be aware of when a certain hashtag appears to be popular and to post content using that hashtag to take advantage of the large number of viewers the hashtag receives.
On the Instagram search engine, look for other hashtags that are comparable to your page. Use these hashtags when posting new content. This is another way to reach Instagram users who are still on the site, but aren’t following you, so they wouldn’t have seen your posts any other way.