Instagram hashtags are a great way to boost sales and brand awareness.
According to an article by Later, "A post with at least one Instagram hashtag averages 12.6% more engagement than posts without a hashtag." That being said, creating a hashtag strategy for your brand is a good idea!
How do hashtags work? Instagram hashtags organize and categorize photos and videos. If you have a public Instagram account and add a hashtag to a post, that post will be visible on the corresponding hashtag page. It’s practically a directory of all the photos and videos that were tagged with that hashtag.
There are a few different ways you can use hashtags:
1) Community Hashtags, i.e., connecting like-minded users around a specific subject
Some hashtags that we use that are relevant to our industry:
- Product tags: #vases #wallartdecor #babytoys #necklaceoftheday
- Niche tags: #giftgiving #giftshops
- Community tags: #dogmomsofinstagram #momsofinsta
- Holiday, season or event tags: #nationalpuppyday #springdecor #babyshowergifts
- Location tags: #shoplocalkc
- Daily hashtags: #mondaymotivation #sundaysnuggles
2) Branded Hashtags, i.e., unique to your company, such as a tagline, product names or simply just your company's name
For example: #DEMDACO #LiftTheSpirit #GivingBear
3) Campaign Hashtags, i.e., intended for a shorter-term use, such as the length of a campaign
For example a Mother’s Day campaign. You could create something around #30DaysofMom and share gifts for mom, stories about customers’ moms, etc.
Finding the style hashtag that's right for your company is important. Don't just use the trending, most popular tags, instead use hashtags that are smaller and have an engaged audience that’s relevant to your company.
Be thoughtful of the number and placement of your tags.
The maximum number of hashtags you can use is 30. Make sure they’re all relevant to what you’re posting!
Also put careful thought into where to place your tags: either in your caption (put most of them at the very end, so they don’t distract from your caption!) or in the first comment on your post.
According to Boosted, a recent study examined 650,000 Instagram posts to see how hashtag usage affected the posts' performances. What they found was this: "...overall, posts with seven or 30 hashtags hidden in the caption got the most engagement. However, they found that the number, placement and visibility of hashtags for optimal performance varied according to the profile size. Here are their profile-size-specific recommendations:"
Next Steps
1. Tailor the amount of tags you use, as well as the placement of your hashtags.
2. Research hashtags relevant to your industry and brand.
3. Get organized: keep a list of the tags you’re using and plan to use different hashtags for each post (remember to combine popular hashtags with smaller niche hashtags).
4. Check your Insights regularly to see how well your strategy is working. Within your Post Insights, you can see how many Post Impressions came from the hashtags you used.
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