Hashtags

Tips & Tricks

28 Jul

You see them everywhere on social media - usually at the end of a post caption or within a comment. But, what do hashtags do?

Instagram Hashtags are an effective way to get more eyes and engagement on your posts and profile. A post with a least ONE hashtag gets 12.6% more engagement than posts without a hashtag. So having a strategy to use hashtags is worth it if you want to increase your account.

Instagram has been through a lot of changes since its arrival in 2010 - but the one that has remained consistent is Hashtags. It’s remained one of the best strategies for being discovered by new audiences. Hashtags work by organising photos and videos based on the hashtag used within the post. Kind of like a phonebook - except the family surnames you’re searching for all start with # instead of a letter of the alphabet.

Different types of Hashtags

Hashtags are broken up into 3 categories.

Community Hashtags
Branded Hashtags
Campaign Hashtags

Community Hashtags

These hashtags are used to connect with like-minded individuals around specific subjects. A good method to gain followers.

Community hashtags to use could:-

indicate your product or service i.e. #nzblog
indicate your niche in your industry i.e. #nzmumblogger #businessblogger
Instagram communities in your industry i.e. #bloggersofinstagram
Special seasons or events i.e. #nzchristmas #nzwinter
locations i.e. #madeinnz
Daily hashtags i.e. #fridayflashbacks #mondaymotivation #tuesdaytruths #thursdaythoughts #fridayfacts
acronyms i.e. #OOTD (outfit of the day)
phrases relevant to what you do i.e. #freelancer #creative #nzmumtrepreneur

Branded Hashtags

A branded hashtag is one unique to your business. It can be your company name, business motto or tagline, or relevant to your brand identity. They are designed to connect themes for you and your audience.

Myself - I use #todonenz as my branded hashtag as well as #nzmumtrepreneur #supportingsmallbusinesses and #virtualassistant as it’s relevant to what I do and who I am.

Campaign Hashtags

Campaign hashtags are for things that are short term because they are usually tied to something like a giveaway, product launch, special event. These are great for building up a lot of engagement in a short period of time, i.e. #lockdown2020 #matariki #websitecoming

Finding the best hashtags for you

Instagram hashtags can help you grow your reach if you use them in the right way.

It’s understandable to think that the hashtags the autogenerate when you start typing yours in, are the best ones to use as they have been used the most. That’s not 100% true.
It’s better to use hashtags that are smaller, more niche and have engaged audiences that relate to your industry.

But how would you know which ones have the most engagement?! GO STALKING!
Check out your competitors, leaders in your industry, and even those in your audience with who you want to connect, relate, work and engage.

Check out your audience

Look at your follower’s posts and see what hashtags they might be using. You want your hashtags to be relevant and contain words they are regularly searching for and following, so you’re constantly showing up in their feeds and the feeds of like-minded individuals.

Check out your competition

If your competitors have great engagement - they’re doing something right. Check out posts with amazing engagement, check out the hashtags they are using and look at which ones would be valuable for you to use.

Checkout leaders in your industry

Another great way is to find leaders and influencers in your industry and see what hashtags they are using, as their audience actively engage in their posts. Again look for hashtags that match your audience and your business and use their posts as inspiration.

A few things to remember with hashtags.

You can use up to 30 hashtags on a post and 10 on Instagram Stories and use them as often as possible.
When people with private profiles tag posts, they won’t appear publicly on hashtag pages

Numbers and emojis are allowed in hashtags. However, spaces and special characters, like $ or %, won’t work.
Use hashtags that are related to your business, your niche audience, and what your target audience may be searching for.

You can use up to 30 hashtags on a post and 10 on Instagram Stories. Think of these as opportunities to CONNECT!

It’s all about having fun while using hashtags to get more followers, improve your engagement rate, and build a community around your business. Sometimes the smallest detail creates the biggest impact.

If you love Instagram but prefer to invest your time in other areas, or want someone else to do it on your behalf - let us know. We’d love to help you.