Cracked: How to Use Instagram Hashtags to Grow Your Business

There are a plethora of ways to grow your business with Instagram marketing. Using paid ads, influencer marketing, video marketing, publishing various formats and post types, and optimising your Instagram management workflows, all while trying to crack the secrets of the algorithm.

But what about hashtags?

Many wonder if having a hashtag strategy is important and if hashtags should be included in social media strategy.

I mean, they are just some words, right?

Wrong.

So, if you're not sure how to use them to your advantage, or you want to upgrade your Instagram hashtags strategy, this article is for you:

How do trending Instagram hashtags drive business results

If you're serious about growing your business with the help of social media marketing, Instagram hashtags should make the top of your list, as they are the secret sauce to success.

Searchability is possibly the most significant flaw in Instagram marketing, as you have limited chances of being found by a new audience. There are a few ways to get discovered by the target audience that is not among your followers:

• Adding location to your posts
• Using music from Instagram's library in your Stories and Reels
• Running paid ads
• Improving accessibility by adding alt-text
• Adding relevant hashtags
  

On the other hand, an Instagram hashtag can help a user find a solution for their problem, a particular product, inspiration, reviews, user-generated content, and so much more.

To sum it up, Instagram hashtags can help you drive business results by:

• Targeting the right audience
• Increasing brand awareness
• Expanding reach

But to do this, you have to be strategic about them and pay attention to a couple of rules.

How to use hashtags effectively in social media marketing

Let's review some important factors you need to count on when creating your Instagram hashtag strategy for your business profile before we cover some of the most frequently asked questions.

1. Be creative, but don't overdo it. Obscure, creative hashtags can only get you so far. And if you're not a world-famous brand, you probably won't achieve much. The only time you should get "creative" and create unique hashtags is for a contest or to encourage your followers to provide you with user-generated content. So be extra cautious when choosing small business hashtags.

Source: @statravel

2. Keep in mind the goal of hashtags. There are a few hashtag categories, and each one has a different goal:

• Branded hashtag - Use this hashtag to promote your brand and encourage users to tag you. It will help you establish a social media presence and create a library of user-generated content.
• Niche hashtag - Do hashtag research to uncover specific hashtags that your target audience uses to find products or services similar to yours. These hashtags will help you reach potential new followers (and customers) and keep track of your competitors.
• Industry hashtag - Another way to target a new audience is to add industry-related hashtags. These are usually more general and have greater coverage, so you should be mindful when adding them to your posts. Unlike niche ones, these hashtags will help other users discover your brand.
• Location hashtag - Adding a location to your Instagram post will geo-target your audience, but a location hashtag will allow you to reach those who are currently exploring it. Instead of adding a general hashtag that only includes the name of the city or location, try finding a hashtag that includes the name of the town and another word that better explains your brand, product or service.
• Trending hashtag - Seasonal and campaign posts are perfect for spicing up your social media strategy and getting more reach by using trending hashtags. Even though they're not directly related to your brand, you can use them to promote your campaign, show a different side of your brand, support a cause, celebrate a holiday, and so much more.
• Popular hashtag - Unlike trending hashtags, popular ones are there to stay all year round. These hashtags have millions of posts tagged with them. This means that the possibility of getting discovered through them is relatively small, but with the proper engagement, you might end up pinned among "Top Posts" under that hashtag, making your reach explode in the best way possible.
  

Source: @ibishotels

3. Keep your campaign hashtags short and sweet. When creating unique hashtags that encourage your audience to use them, ensure they are easy to implement. The longer the hashtag, the greater the chance of making a typo and losing valuable content.

Source: ErinnOBrienn

4. Don't use the same hashtags for each post. We're sure your social media content tells a great story, and each post promotes a different part of your business.

This is why creating social media content pillars and assigning specific hashtag lists are important. Strategically tagging your content groups will help you:

• Be sure you're using relevant hashtags
• Set measurable goals
• Keep track of hashtag performance
• Optimise your Instagram hashtag strategy

Source: RenoTahoe

Where should you put your Instagram hashtags

It's entirely up to you to position your hashtags in captions or the first comment of your Feed post. But there are some benefits to including them in the comment:

• Your captions will stay clutter-free
• You'll immediately have one comment, and this visual trick might encourage others to engage with your post and leave another comment
• If other marketers decide to embed your post in their articles as an example, they'll be able to include the entire post without taking too much space

Source: Cuba

And don't worry - social media management tools like Sendible allow you to publish that first comment automatically so that this hack won't require any additional effort from your side.

How many hashtags should you use on Instagram

You can add up to 30 hashtags under your Feed Posts and up to three to your Instagram Story.

But should you use all 30?

Not really.

It's not likely that a social media post can include 30 targeted keywords. Some articles don't have that much!

Source: Bloom_Design_Magazine

How do you find popular hashtags

There are three ways to find popular hashtags to improve the reach of your Instagram posts:

1. Manual hashtag research

Go to Instagram's Search and type in the keyword. Then go to tags and scroll down the list to see related hashtags. Pay attention to the volume, and once you've chosen the one you deem worthy of your posts, check out the top posts to see what format performs the best. This way, you'll be able to decide strategically which format to create (Instagram Carousel, Single Post, IGTV, Reel).

2. Hashtag tools

You can use a hashtag tool to find hashtags that describe your posts the best. Here are some you might want to try:

• Hashtag Expert
• Display Purposes
• Flick

Source: Mediterranean_Diary

3. Social media management tool

When choosing your social media management tool for your business or agency, you must ensure it includes hashtag suggestions. Sendible, for example, has a Hashtag Selector feature that allows you to pick the right hashtags by search volume and automatically add them to the caption or first comment under the post. This is a great way to override manual research, additional tools, copy-pasting and do everything in one place. Additionally, you can save groups of best-performing hashtags to Content Library for easy access.

How do you encourage people to use hashtags

• Use your Instagram bio to encourage your followers and first-time visitors to tag you in their photos. Here's a template you can easily adjust:

Source: TheFoodieDesigner

• You can add that same sentence to the caption of each user-generated post you add to your Feed or Story.
• Create a Highlight Story category with user-generated content. Make sure that the first story includes a brief description that invites users to use your branded hashtag to get featured on your channel.

How do you keep experimenting with hashtags