Are you aware of hashtags when posting on Instagram? Being aware and using the right Instagram hashtags can help you attract your audience, increase brand awareness and get followers. To get these benefits, you need to adopt a special strategy.
Hashtags are one of the annoying parts because it’s difficult to recognize trends and patterns. And one hashtag strategy doesn’t work alone. For those who are trying to do something about themselves, it can cause more confusion.
In this article, we’ll look at effective hashtag strategies for your Instagram account, including hashtag research, how to implement and deploy hashtag strategies, and specific hashtags to add to your business goal-based list. I would like to share it with you.
Table of Contents
Instagram hashtags can be attached to posts to make phrases a topic. You can make any word or phrase a hashtag by just typing “#” at the beginning. Please be careful not to put “# (sharp)” here.
When the user clicks on the hashtag, they go to that feed and see all the public content on the feed. Users can click and search for hashtags of interest to find content on Instagram.
Hashtags are used with the intent of “finding content,” so incorporating the right hashtags can increase your exposure to previously untouched audiences. Recognizing the importance of hashtags on the platform, Instagram has expanded its functionality. At present, the brand is a clickable hashtag and their profile can be added.
Instagram Stories also has a hashtag sticker feature. You can use it to paste hashtags into Stories. When the user clicks on the sticker, they will be taken to the hashtag screen, similar to the one on the post.
Instagram users can also follow hashtags of interest. That way, posts originating from the hashtags you follow will appear regularly on your feed screen.
There are a lot of things to think about in order to use Instagram hashtags effectively. First of all, let’s prepare the starting point firmly. The following is a summary of hashtags by category in English and Japanese. Please use it for the process of embodying the hashtag strategy.
Note: These hashtags are used by new Instagram users who like and follow each other and do not guarantee the quality of their followers or likes.
To develop a good hashtag strategy to maximize reach and increase engagement, it’s important to have a good understanding of which hashtags to use. There are different types of hashtags, each serving a different purpose. A good strategy is a good combination of them.
Hashtags with brand names are specific to one shop and should be displayed in your company profile. In addition to being able to be used to build brand awareness, it can also be used to attach brand hashtags to user-created content for sharing. For example, #weareallbirds from Allbirds, #shwoodshop from Shwood Eyewear, and #swlfamily from So Worth Loving.
Regional hashtags aren’t suitable for all users, but they can be useful if you’re dealing with products that your local audience is interested in. For example, if you run an apparel store in Harajuku, use hashtags such as #Harajuku Fashion and #harajukustyle to connect with your local audience.
Event-related hashtags are used not to grow the audience, but to develop relationships with existing audiences. These phrases have little to do with the brand itself and are often associated with a particular occasion in a post. In the example below, hashtags that focus on the event content, such as #shopitlikeithot and #getitgirl, are used.
A commonly accepted hashtag is a regular hashtag that can be applied to any post. That is, it indicates a hashtag that is not only frequently used, but also searched many times. These hashtags greatly increase the reach of a post and make it appear on the feed screen of your existing audience. Examples include #instagood and #lovelife.
It’s also a good idea to tell your followers, “Let’s do our best on #caseSiOmondays,” or “Thank you for #summerrain.” Timely hashtags are associated with a particular holiday, time of year, or a particular time of the day. Users prefer timely content and tend to look for content, especially about vacations and seasons. Below is an example of applying the timely hashtag #sunsout (sunny outside) to products such as sunglasses to reach out to audiences who are interested in sunglasses.
Hashtags, like clothing styles and slang, are things that go up and down. Trend hashtags are hashtags that are particularly popular at some point in time, and for some reason, their popularity has skyrocketed. In many cases, the latest news, etc. seems to be related.
For example, when Apple announces a new version of the iPhone, trending hashtags will come out. These hashtags don’t always give you effective search results, but they can get a lot of people’s attention if used properly.
Depending on the product, there may be an audience who is interested in a particular area. For example, a person who buys a VR system for himself will be interested in all the other latest technologies. Also, health-conscious people will often search for phrases such as #organic and #eating green. In this way, in order to connect with an audience that matches the product, it is recommended to use hashtags that are specific to a specific field.
As you can see in the example below, Bremont’s posts cleverly incorporate niche hashtags. Hashtags that focus on specific areas increase exposure to the target audience, so we use niche hashtags such as #luxury and #watch0047day.
Hashtags act like signs to inform users about special events to be held at the shop. For example, if you’re planning to host a contest, you can use a hashtag like #contestalert to get your audience interested. Similarly, hashtags such as #flashsale and #BOGO (Buy One Get One) can be used to find bargain-seeking users or specialize to followers online. You can send sale notifications.
Not all e-commerce businesses can benefit from any kind of hashtag.
For example, merchants with national or international reach may have no reason to use regional hashtags. Also, business-to-business merchants who adhere to the business tone will not use hashtags with a light tone. But that’s fine. The important thing is to get the most effective hashtags for your brand and audience.
On Instagram, you can use up to 30 hashtags per post. However, this is the answer to the question “how many can I use?” And not the question “how many should I use?”
There are many investigations and findings on this subject. A relatively consistent answer is that you should always use several hashtags in a single post. According to a survey by Agorapulse, Instagram posts with hashtags have received over 70% more likes.
The data on the exact number of hashtags best to use is incomplete. Some marketers say that you only need two hashtags, while others say you should use all 30. In reality, the most effective numbers may be the ones you should find yourself while testing.
Whether you have 6 or 30 hashtags, it takes time to enter that many characters. Especially when the AutoCorrect function is not available. Even for the staff of social media companies, it’s not an easy task.
Fortunately, some tools can simplify the process. Recommended tools are:
For those who don’t want to invest in tools for this purpose, there is a more familiar way than using common social media tools. Save documents with different hashtags for use on social media scheduling software such as Agorapulse, Hootsuite, and Sprout Social. First, create a post on your desktop and copy and paste the hashtags and their groupings into the captions as appropriate. These tools allow you to post directly to Instagram, which can save you a few steps.
Hashtag surveys play an important role in Instagram distribution. It identifies the most performing and popular hashtags, gives you new ideas for hashtags that you never thought of, and identifies the trending hashtags.
Hashtag research has several different strategies. If you want to increase your list of hashtags or search for new trending topics, take a look at each separately.
If you want to find out which hashtags and topics are currently trending, you can use Twitter. Twitter has a section that shows trending, where you can see what people are sharing and more.
One thing to keep in mind here is that Instagram and Twitter use hashtags differently, and Twitter is more focused on news and more. With that in mind, use Twitter information for research purposes, rather than just copying it to Instagram.
There is nothing wrong with referring to the marketing strategies of competitors. This is also the case with hashtag strategies. Observing trends such as hashtags used by competitors may come up with ideas such as phrases you want to add to your post.
Including micro-influencer influencers to its name attached to it there is a strong reason. Influencers have an existing audience, and people seek advice and inspiration from them, relying on the professional opinions of influencers. Influencers are probably well-versed in hashtag tactics and using the most effective phrases. Take a look at the influencer’s Instagram and borrow some of your favorite words.
All of the hashtag surveys introduced so far are done manually. Hashtag research tools can help you identify the trending and always effective hashtags that will benefit your business the most.
A good hashtag research tool is essential because it provides detailed feedback on a particular hashtag that no other tool can.
The tools below will help you get started with hashtag research:
No one wants to read to the end, even with 6 hashtags aside from 30 just to get to the content. A chunk of letters that is awkward to read is also visually unattractive.
As a result, many brands strategically hide a collection of hashtags under “read more tags. Some brands take it one step further and have a large margin outside of“ read more ”. It seems that the hashtag block may be deleted from the viewpoint of aesthetics. Other brands may add the hashtag as a separate comment, but this method has the effect of the hashtag. You may lose it.
The best option for most brands would be to hide the hashtag at least one line from the caption and under “ Read more ”. By doing so, you can increase the frequency of reading while focusing on the caption, and the post will look cleaner visually.
The exception is when using one or two hashtags for brand enhancement or event purposes. In that case, please leave the hashtag on the top of the page as appropriate and display it at the beginning of the sentence or on the same line as the body. Doing so will increase the likelihood that the user will read those captions.
As you may often see, there is no particular reason why you should have at least one line between the caption and the hashtag. If the user clicks “Read more” and has to scroll all the way to the comment section, there is a possibility that he will leave without writing anything even though he tried to comment. Scroll.
Did you know that Instagram actually has hashtags that are banned? It cannot be used for obscene content, discriminatory language, or words that are too general.
Also, hashtags that are regularly detected and “banned” on Instagram are attached to some sort of illegal content. For example, there is clearly inappropriate content such as #nasty, and harmless content such as #fitnessgirls and #tgif (Thank God It’s Friday). Instagram will not post new content to the banned hashtag feed, even if it exists.
Hashtags can be banned permanently or provisionally. If you use a forbidden hashtag, the post may be shadow-banged (that is, not publicly published). Shadowbanged posts don’t appear in your follower’s feed. Also, if a user searches for other hashtags attached alongside a banned hashtag, those posts may not appear in the search results. After all, using even one forbidden hashtag means that all the effort you put into that post can be wasted.
Therefore, when compiling a list of hashtags, be sure to check the hashtags that are prohibited on Instagram.
All marketing efforts, including hashtag strategies, should always be evaluated as well as possible. However, it can be difficult to evaluate hashtags yourself. Because we use all sorts of posts, it’s not easy to see which ones are working, which ones aren’t doing their part properly, and so on. Fortunately, there are several ways to evaluate the outcome of a strategy.
First, check the overall growth of your distribution channel. This can be checked on Instagram analytics. You can also find out more details on other external SNS management platforms.
Then check to see if your impressions, reach, and likes are up on your profile and posts. For example, you should be able to see some increase compared to the previous month, such as how much reach you have gained through the “Discovery” route and how much has changed since you adopted the new strategy. If you can’t, it means you should adopt a new strategy.
It’s also important to use hashtag research tools to evaluate hashtags in use on a regular basis. Make sure that the hashtag’s popularity is trending rather than diminishing. You can also use tools like Keyhole to track branded hashtags and see overall usage from reach, impressions, and other profiles. This is useful for assessing how well-branded hashtags are working, how much traction they get from natural search, and more.
External tools also provide data on hashtag usage and results. Sprout Social, for example, has good hashtag data, identifies the hashtags that work best, and tells you which hashtags are the most frequently used.
Hashtags are an integral part of Instagram marketing. However, without a good strategy, you may not be able to reach your full potential on Instagram. Take advantage of the tools and hashtag suggestions presented here to put together a high-performance hashtag that suits you, expands your reach, and attracts your audience. And don’t forget to improve your hashtags based on analysis and evaluation for the best results.
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