Are you finding it an uphill struggle to find new followers or increase engagement on Instagram? It could be time to level up your hashtag game.
Hashtags are one of the easiest ways to unlock new followers and get better engagement on Instagram. If you’re not using targeted hashtags, you could be missing out on a real opportunity to grow your following! According to Later.com, posts with at least one hashtag have an average 12.6% more engagement than those that don’t. Do hashtags right, and you could get a real edge on your competitors.
The more targeted your hashtags are, the more chance you have of being discovered by new audiences. It can also be a great way of finding your loyal ‘tribe’ – they may not be customers, but they’re the people that are passionate about your industry, niche, product and service that will like, comment and save your posts – giving your content a valuable boost in engagement.
So what is a hashtag and how do they work? Instagram hashtags work by organising and categorising photo and video content that you post. Hashtags are searchable, so you should aim to have a mix of these in your posts, your bio and your stories.
There are several different types of hashtags.
- Branded hashtags. These are the hashtags that are unique to your business or brand, and are a great way to access content that your customers are posting about you, for example, #sephoramakeup
- Community hashtags. These connect like-minded users. For example #yogalife.
- Descriptive hashtags. These cover your location, industry and what you’re posting about, for example #christchurchfood.
- Campaign hashtags. These are connected to a new product launch, campaign or partnership. For example The Body Shop’s #foreveragainstanimaltesting.
Instagram has also rolled out the ability to follow hashtags which means that instead of a user having to search for an Instagram hashtag and scroll through an endless feed to (hopefully) find your content, your posts could potentially show up automatically in the feeds of potential new followers. This is why using the right hashtags for your industry, and the content you are posting, is more important than ever!
So where do you start?
First, spend some time doing hashtag research. Go to the ‘search’ function in Instagram, and start typing in a hashtag. You’ll then be able to see how many other images are tagged with that hashtag, along with other suggestions.
Next, start to make a list of hashtags that you could use. Pick hashtags that fall into the general category (500k – 1m), specific category (100k – 500k) and niche category (100 – 100k). Try not to select hashtags that have more than 1 million like #love #dog #food, your content will just get buried and chances are, won’t be seen..
Also look at the hashtags that your competitors, industry leaders, influencers and other businesses in your city are using.
For example, if you’re a local restaurant, you may want to use hashtags like the below:
#christchurchnz #newzealandfinds #christchurchtodo #christchurcheats #christchurchfood #eatthisnow #christchurchfoodies #chcheats #christchurchfoodguide #chchfood #foodsafari #cityscapechristchurch #christchurchgourmand #christchurchfood #gourmetfood #organicnz #localproduce #spaghettisauce
Keep going until you have a list of about 50 hashtags you could use on different types of posts. We recommend using about 15 hashtags per post (although you can use up to 30), and it’s best to change up hashtags each time you post to Instagram – posting the same hashtags over and over might be seen as spam by the Instagram algorithm and could affect your post’s visibility.
Do you need to up your Instagram game? We can help!
Here at SOMO Creative, social media strategy for small business is something we love to do. We’re experts at taking your brand’s values and goals and transforming your social offering with a custom designed social media strategy that includes all the insider tools, tricks and apps you need to succeed.
We offer consultation and strategy, team training and end-to-end set up and management, so if you’re ready to leverage your social to bring in more business, talk to us today!
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