Instagram is a social media platform which has helped thousands of businesses build an online following and grow their sales without having to reach too deep into their pockets. Thanks to the many features the app offers to its users, attracting an online audience can be much simpler than you might think.
Hashtags are one of the things you can use to your advantage in order to reach out to the right people easily. In order to make them work in your advantage though, you will need to know a few tips and tricks which will help you make the most out of their use. Here are some great tips and tricks to help you achieve just that.
Why are hashtags so useful for businesses online?
Hashtags are one of the easiest ways for you to make your content easily discoverable on Instagram. This gives you the opportunity to come in contact with users who will truly be interested in what you have to share. Even if you don’t exactly know which your target audience should be, you could get a better idea of the people you need to attract through your hashtags on your posts.
On top of that, hashtags will help you create more visibility for your online campaigns and allow you to make them more popular in the online communities you are trying to reach out to. Lastly, hashtags are also a very economical way to get recognition for your brand without spending valuable resources.
1. Pick trending hashtags for each post
Depending on each individual post you are preparing to upload, your hashtags can change significantly. While your business might belong in a certain niche, the things you post can vary depending on the content of your images and the people who are shown in them.
You can easily find different trending hashtags by either searching for certain keywords in the search bar or by using online hashtag generator tools such as All-Hashtag. The good thing about using trending hashtags on each post is that they are usually followed by a lot of people so your posts will be able to gain more popularity as they will regularly be displayed on the newsfeed of your target audience.
2. Participate in industry trends
Industry trends usually help generate different hashtags which are used by various people in the field in order to cover certain events and help those participating to get more attention to their posts. While most people try to firstly create a social media post and then find the right hashtags to accompany it, industry trends can help you turn this process around.
By taking into consideration the niche your business belongs in, you should be able to easily keep up with trends which are becoming popular with the audience you are trying to attract. These trends will most likely have hashtags which are short and to the point and simply contain the name of the said trend.
For example, a big trend in the nail industry at this moment is jelly nails. With a simple search of this keyword on the Instagram search bar, you will be able to come across thousands of results.
You can use these trends in your advantage and look up the right keywords for each trend before you start creating a certain post. Depending on the popularity of each trend, you can then pick some of the most popular hashtags and specifically create posts to target the demographics which follow them.
3. Create a unique hashtag for your brand
Branded hashtags are a big thing on Instagram with thousands of brands sharing their online content through them. There are different types of branded hashtags you can use in order to promote your business and here are some of them:
● A hashtag with the name of your brand
While this might not sound all that original and unique, a simple hashtag containing the name of your business will motivate your audience to use it more frequently in their posts regarding your brand. This will help you go through your audience’s posts easier and also it will help them get more likes and comments from other fellow supporters of your business who will find their posts through your hashtag.
● Catchy slogans for promoting new products
Promoting new products can be made a lot more simple if you manage to come up with a catchy slogan involving their name. Slogans are very memorable by your audience and they will be used a lot more easily than any other hashtag and therefore help you connect better with your online audience.
● The names of your new campaigns
Last but not least, apart from the catchy slogans used specifically for certain products you are trying to promote, you can also create specific hashtags for each of your promotional campaigns. Whether you are introducing a new line of products or having a big sell-out on your website, the right hashtag will help you inform your audience about it a lot easier and faster.
Even if you are trying to localise the hashtags for your new campaigns or products, you can always do that by using the help of certain online tools such as Google Translate or the companies you can find on PickWriters in order to find the right translations for your hashtags.
4. Use your hashtags for giveaways
Working with influencers on Instagram is a very popular way of increasing your sales and attracting more people to your brand. The best way to make sure that a giveaway will bring the newest followers and potential customers is through using the right hashtag to spread the word.
The rules of this are simple. All you have to do is create a social media post where you or the influencer you will be working with will show the products you are intending to giveaway to a lucky winner. Below the post, you will let your audience know that in order to be able to participate in the giveaway they will have to like the post, follow your accounts, tag some of their friends and also share the picture on their social media pages using the hashtag you have created for the giveaway.
By following all of these steps, they will be able to have a chance to win whatever you are offering. You will be able to use the hashtag as a means to pick the winner for the giveaway by scrolling through the posts and picking an image at random, which will lead you to the winning account.
5. Don’t be afraid to use many hashtags
Using more than just a couple hashtags is normal for every user that wishes to promote their content in many different niches. In some cases, the hashtags can also be slightly unrelated to the content of the image but they can still be used since they are ranking high on the results of the platform.
For example, #love is one of the most popular hashtags on Instagram with over 1.5 billion results and on it, you can find all sorts of posts from people and businesses of completely different backgrounds.
Apart from such popular yet unspecific to your industry hashtags, you can also go ahead and use up to 30 hashtags which are relevant to your posts. While you don’t have to use these many hashtags, this comes to show that you can still use a bigger variety of them in order to cover all aspects of the posts you choose to share with your audience.
Making the most out of Instagram hashtags
Instagram hashtags are a great, simple and easy way for you to get more popularity on your posts and to attract the target audience you are after. There are many ways for you to use hashtags to your advantage and depending on the goals you have set for your business, you can easily achieve them by reaching out to other Instagram through the right hashtags.
Do you have any tips to offer of creating and using hashtags on Instagram? If so, let us know in the comments down below!
