According to a study, an Instagram post that uses a single hashtag can generate engagement more than 70% than those who ignore to include one. This is the reason why hashtags became an integral part of every social media marketing and strategy. To help you fully understand how hashtags can supercharge your instagram growth, below, we will discuss how to use them effectively.
1. Build a community using branded hashtags.
While hashtags allow you to reach a broader audience, you can also use it to build a community that is focused only on your brand. However, branded hashtags are usually effective when combined with an Instagram event, such as an Instagram contest.
User-generated competition, for instance, encourages your followers to include your branded hashtag in their Instagram posts, which usually showcase your brand. With this, their followers who currently don’t know about your brand will more likely get curious and visit your profile, thus increasing your engagement in the long run.
The more you encourage your followers to use your branded hashtags, the more it improves your visibility and helps your brand awareness campaign.
It is also a good thing to remember that branded hashtags don’t necessarily focus only on your brand name. The shoe brand Nike, for example, made their slogan ‘Just Do It’ as their branded hashtag, and Instagram users have used their branded hashtag more than 12 million on the platform.
2. Include hashtags on your IG Stories.
Launched in 2016, Instagram stories or IG stories allows users to post images and short videos that vanish after 24 hours. Since then, more than 500 million users use this Instagram feature daily. You can use this feature to include your branded hashtags, promotional hashtags, and also some trending and popular hashtags that are related to your niche.
Adding hashtags to IG stories can also help improve your visibility, like how it does to your regular posts. You can either use the hashtag sticker feature or simply use the text function.
However, one should take note that putting too many hashtags on your IG story will only make it look spammy to some users. If you can’t avoid putting a lot of hashtags, you can hide them by putting another sticker above them so your post will still look nice and tidy.
3. Copy hashtags from your competitors.
Since Instagram is a vital part of social media marketing and strategy, your competitors are probably using it too. Having said that, you can use that opportunity at your advantage by looking at their hashtag campaign to get some inspiration. Also, you can use the hashtags on their trending post and benefit to their pre-existing community. However, keep in mind not to use their branded hashtags since more likely, they’ll be the ones who get the benefit more than you.
4. Includes some hashtags that your target audience use.
Another way to supercharge your Instagram growth is by using the same hashtags that your ideal Instagram followers are already using. Check out the hashtags that they usually interact with or the hashtags that they add in their post. Once you discover which hashtags they frequently engage, simply add those tags in your post, though make sure that your content is relevant to the hashtags.
To make this process a little bit easier for you, what you can do is to look for hashtags that some influencers use on their post since they’ll most likely do their hashtag research. However, just make sure that their niche is highly relevant to yours. This will drive up your visibility as well as your engagement, thanks to their huge number of followers that are niche-specific.
5. Use popular and trending hashtags.
While it is tempting to use all the popular and trending hashtags this year, you should only choose those that are relevant. It is also best to use hashtag generator tools to help you get the right hashtags on your brand. Also, most hashtag generators, like Hashtagforlikes.co, can find the most trending and popular hashtags in every niche in the market. With this, you can easily select those that suit your content and marketing campaign.
Conclusion
Hashtags are one of the best tools out there to supercharge your Instagram growth. However, make sure to follow these tips above to make the process a little bit easier on your end.
