Do you know how to use hashtags on Instagram and drive great outcomes from that? If you are just using hashtags mindlessly for the sake of keeping up with the trend then you are missing out on the key way of increasing followers on instagram.
Adding a few popular hashtags under your post will not do the work. You will have to mindfully follow instagram hashtag strategy that works for you. From doing research on your industry, analysing your competitors and using hashtags tools you will have to do it all to find the right set of hashtags.
In 2017, instagram noted from the case study “ National Geographic: Capturing the World’s Most Stunning Imagery” that the use of hashtags on their instagram posts led to 63% increase in followers within the time period of just two months. This shows the power of hashtags.
The concept of hashtag was initially started on twitter. Where every post had a specific hashtag related to the topic being discussed. This helped in organising all data on the same topic at one place.
Gradually the concept of using hashtags on instagram started and it became the second most popular app in regards of using hashtags.
The surprising stats shows that 88% of Instagram posts include at least one hashtag. This means on gram using a hashtag is as basic as putting a normal caption. The concept of hashtag was adopted by all other platforms as well eventually.
If you are confused about how to use instagram hashtags then take a deep breath and give this blog a read as it has got you covered and will unwind all your confusions related to using instagram hashtags to grow your followers.
Instagram has over 2.5 billion active users which means a pool of content, including photos, videos, insta lives, stories and reels. Posting all the content without any symmetry can be chaotic for the one who is posting and as well as the one who needs to search for it.
Instagram hashtags help users to organise their content under a specific hashtag so whenever a person searches for that hashtag all relatable content appears.
For instance, all travel bloggers on instagram when sharing their content they use hashtags related to travel. So if someday i wish to see all travel related content from around the world i will simply write #travel in my instagram search box and a pool of travel content will appear in front of me.
Every user aims to come in the top search results when a related hashtag is searched. Well if you have a large number of followers then you can have that place very easily. Though according to the instagram the content appears on the top results based on the time it got posted but the research tells that it is impacted by the number of followers as well.
Therefore, if you are struggling in gaining a large number of followers despite the great and worth watching content you post you can simply buy real instagram followers instantly. Buying followers will make easier for you to bring your hashtag strategy in use. As your content will appear on the top of hashtag result page and more people will click on it leading to increase in your engagement to manifolds.
The content that might get lost in the pool of so many photos and videos stands out by using instagram hashtags. Anyone who is going to particularly search for a hashtag can find your content under it without even knowing about your username or identity.
The reasons are not over yet. Instagram hashtags can also be useful in measuring your content performance. There are hashtag tools that help users to find out which hashtags are getting better engagement. You can plan your content according to the ongoing hashtag trend and get better engagement and reach.
Do you know that 7 out of 10 hashtags are a part of some brand promotion. This means 70% of hashtags are used by people who want to increase the reach of their business or either by influencers or content creators who want to reach as many people as possible.
Brands and businesses have made instagram their most favourite and a go-to platform to scale themselves up. Many businesses derive their leads to the website directly through the gram.
Hashtags are a great tactic to give your social media advertising a push. Brands through Instagram marketing register their hashtags in front of billions of instagram users.
You can simply use a personalised hashtag for your service or product and whenever a user will search for that hashtag all your branded content will appear. Interesting isn’t it?
Brands also name their campaign and use it as a hashtag, that hashtag increases their brand exposure as well as builds their brand voice. The hashtag becomes a brand voice and a lot of user-generated content comes on front helping in creating brand awareness.
For instance, A famous brand Coca-Cola started a trend with hashtag #ShareACoke. People jumped on the bandwagon and started sharing their pictures while sharing a coke with their friends and loved ones with their names on them and using the trendy hashtag.
From being the photo app instagram has now become the app for multiple content formats. Reels, stories, boomerangs, videos and so on. When we search for a hashtag all different content forms appear. Sometimes you might wonder that why my reel with #fitness did not make it to the top results? Well many times it happens that instagram algorithms prefer the reels with maximum views and reach to appear on top list. If you really want to put hashtag strategy in its place but do not have enough views or your reach is being banned by some factors you can simply buy instagram reel views and get focused on instagram hashtag strategy.
Is this the question bothering you while you are staring at your screen before hitting the post button on your instagram. Well, take a back seat and continue reading.
Instagram allows its users to use a maximum of 30 hashtags.
Excess of everything is bad including the instagram hashtags. You must use a specific number of hashtags. But what is that specific number? This can only be told if we look into different stats of instagram hashtags.
Well the stats reveals that instagram posts with a minimum of 11 hashtags or more have better reach than the posts with around 10 or less hashtags. By saying more reach means that such posts have seen around more than 75% of reach which can be a game changer for many.
Whereas, another study reveals that using 20 hashtags results in better reach whereas using 30 hashtags results in better engagement.
You must know that hashtags are not a magic wand that will boost your reach or increase engagement in one go. You need to be consistent with a strategy that works for you better.
Some of the creators urge users to use between 3-5 instagram hashtags, but that number is based on their own experience which can vary on many levels.
How many kinds of instagram hashtags can we use?
This is one of the major questions asked. As users think that either specific hashtags get more reach or not.
Well the truth is that some hashtags get more reach than others and are used by a maximum number of people for instance, instagood hashtag is used in around 1 billion posts and it has shown positive results. Some common hashtags revolve around insta itself for example instagood, instamood, instalife and so on. These hashtags are considered to be general and are used in almost every post.
Hashtags must reflect your post and your idea from different angles. They can be a mismatch between different words that sound good and catchy together and are only specified for your content.
For instance a brand who has skincare products can use hashtags related to skin, nature goodness and self love. Make sure that your social media manager has a good hold on the gram and have a variety of hashtags planned accordingly.
Beside, this some of the types of instagram hashtags are:
Industry hashtags: These hashtags specify your work area for instance #photographer #cook #influencer using industry specific hashtags helps you get prominence in the specific area.
Niche Hashtags: This specifies the industry further. For instance #travelphotographer or #fashionblogger and so on.
Community Hashtags: Instagram has different communities based on similar interests using the same hashtags. For instance #mytravelgram and so on.
You can use location, events, celebrations as a hashtag. If you still feel overwhelmed with the number of options you have, you can simply look into your competitors account and try to stick to such hashtags.
There is no doubt in fact that instagram hashtags can help your post get viral globally and reach a bigger audience. Especially if someone looks for a generic hashtag your post can appear under it and reach people from different corners of the world.
But one thing that can go off is when you start using hashtags that are irrelevant and do not appear to be natural at all. They look as if you have used them forcefully rather naturally.
Well, don’t worry I have a few very easy and basic tips for you to follow and keep in mind before you use hashtags on instagram.
There are many useful social media tools that can help you find hashtags.
For example, if you are a fashion blogger, you can enter “fashion” as your keyword and the tool will generate a list of hashtags related to the fashion industry.
Hashtagify: This tool can give you the most popular hashtags related to your given keyword. The number of hashtags will be along with their popularity score.
Tagboard: This tool is great if you want to look into other apps and their trending hashtags. You can search for a particular hashtag and the content under it across all apps will appear which gives you better insight.
Sprout Social: This is a social media management tool. It can research hashtags along with their popularity score, and also recommends you relatable hashtags under it.
Hootsuite Insights: This is a little different social media management tool as it allows you to track your hashtags performance as well as monitor hashtags being used by your competitors.
Hashtags are not only limited to instagram posts or reels, in fact you can use them on your daily stories. If you post a story with a hashtag your story will appear under the section of that particular hashtag.
Instagram hashtags can make or break your gram strategy therefore make sure you do not miss a chance to optimise your every content using a hashtag.
If by any chance you think that hashtag on instagram story does not look cool or goes with your aesthetics and still you want to reach the maximum audience, here is the thing you can do. Simply shrink the hashtag by pinching it very small or covering it with an emoji or sticker.
The trending hashtags change every year but some of them are consistent. Some hashtags get popular for a short period of time. People create user-generated content using those hashtags and then the hashtag disappears over the time.
Growing followers on instagram is an ultimate goal of many users and for that they use every possible trick they know from making trendy reels on trendy sounds to using trendy as well as high volume hashtags.
Hashtags are a great way to maximise your reach and boost your content around the platform. This guide unfolds every question that any beginner might have about how to use instagram hashtags as means of scaling their personal or branded content.
