Get Best Results with Instagram hashtag – follow these 11 Hashtag Tips to Improve your Engagement!
In my previous post we have learnt the importance of Hashtags. I am sharing a few more strategies to help you achieve your Instagram goals.
-
Don’t use irrelevant hashtags
Stuffing irrelevant hashtags onto posts is spammy behavior. It will annoy people who follow those hashtags and they will likely tell Instagram to “Don’t Show for this Hashtag.”
Hashtags must be used strategically. You will only increase engagement if you give the audience what they’re looking for, i.e., quality content that speaks to their interests.
-
Use the right amount of hashtags
According to an analysis by TrackMaven, posts with nine hashtags receive the most engagement. But that doesn’t mean you should tag every post with a lot of hashtags. Again, they must be relevant to the content. Using a popular hashtag like #followmeback might get you a few new followers, but they’ll likely be the wrong kind—spammers or people looking to inflate their own follower count. These people will not engage with your brand.
The content of your posts must inform what and how many hashtags you use.
-
Use specific or niche hashtags
The more specific the hashtag, the more targeted your audience will be. And a targeted audience means a higher chance of quality engagement.
If you’re after Volkswagen lovers, for example, the hashtag #vwvan will get you in front of a higher converting audience than something more broad like #van. (But make sure your picture is actually of a Volkswagen van.)
-
Don’t swear off popular hashtags entirely
As long as they’re relevant to the post and used sparingly, popular hashtags can help expand your reach without making you seem desperate or spammy.
-
Make sure that hashtag means what you think it means
You don’t want to inadvertently attach your brand to a raunchy or nefarious campaign. When you combine two or three words together, does it spell out something else? Before using any hashtag, be sure to browse through the hashtag page to ensure the associated content is appropriate.
-
Save hashtags for future use
If you often use the same hashtags for every post, you can save them in a note to save time. (Note: use this trick sparingly. Remember, every hashtag you put on a post must fit with the content and should not be too repetitive.)
How to do it:
- Create a new note in your notes app
- Add all of your most-used captions to a running list
- Whenever you’re uploading a post, navigate from Instagram to the notes app, copy your text, and then paste it in the caption
-
Hide hashtags
Don’t clutter your content. Keep the reader focused on what’s important: your compelling caption.
- How to do it in a comment:
- Upload your content as usual but leave out the hashtags in the caption box
- Once your post is published, simply click the speech bubble icon under your post to leave a comment
- Now write out or paste the hashtags you want to include in the “Add a comment…” box and tap Post
- Once your photo or video gets more comments, your hashtags won’t be visible unless a users taps the “View all comments” button
-
Add a hashtag to a post you’ve already published
If you want to add hashtags to a post you’ve already uploaded, tap the three dots in the top right corner of your screen and select Edit to add to the caption.
Again, you can also add hashtags post-publishing by tapping the speech bubble under the photo and typing the hashtags in as a comment.
-
Consider using brand hashtags
A brand (or branded, if you prefer) hashtag is one that’s unique to your company or campaign. It could be as simple as your business name, tagline, or name of one of your products.
If you’re running an Instagram campaign, having a brand hashtag will help drive participation and engagement. It will also organize all the posts that are tagged with it on a hashtag page. This is helpful if you’re using the hashtag to collect entries for a promotion or contest submissions.
-
Keep your brand hashtags short and easy to remember
That way your fans and customers can easily remember it. You want to be specific, but something like #SanFranciscoLuxuryCarEnthusiasts for a high-end auto show won’t catch on because it has too many characters. “#SFCarLovers” makes more sense in this case.
-
Experiment with emoji hashtags
In addition to numbers and letters, emoji can be include in hashtags (spaces and special characters, such as % or $, don’t work). These animated icons are eye-catching and, because they can stand in for entire words, will keep your hashtags short.
Conclusion:
Be thoughtful about how and which hashtags you use. Like any type of content you share on social media, it’s all about the audience.
I hope this helped 🙂