If you are posting content on social media (particularly Instagram or Twitter) then using hashtags as part of your content strategy is crucial. Hashtags are a powerful and critical tool in helping your content and posts be seen by as many people as possible but also by the right people. In this post I will be focussing on how they are used within Instagram.
So, what is a hashtag?
A hashtag is a label for content. It helps users on social media platforms quickly find the content they want on a particular topic. Hashtags originally started on Twitter, but they are now used on other social platforms such as, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+. If you are sharing content on a specific topic then make sure you add a hashtag that is relevant to the message of your content so that others searching for that topic are more likely to find your post.
Why use hashtags in Instagram?
A useful fact to bear in mind, a post with at least one Instagram hashtag receives 12.6% more engagement than posts without any at all. Hashtagging is effective because it helps categorise similar content and make it easier for users to find your content, this is why hashtagged posts get so much more engagement than those without any at all.
Top hashtag tips
Do your research - while its good practice to include hashtags in your posts, just putting any old hashtag in may not be beneficial, if you use the wrong hashtags it can actually hamper your content's success in terms of reach and engagement. There are many online tools you can use to help you find the right hashtags, hashtag generators such as All Hashtag, Sistrix or Ingramer will generate relevant hashtags and give you data on what hashtags are popular.
Also see what your competition is doing, I'm not saying copy exactly what they post, but getting inspiration from other accounts can be really helpful to gain an understanding of what hashtags are trending.
On Instagram you can use up to 30 hashtags per post, (and up to 10 on Instagram stories). But while it might be tempting to max out your hashtag allowance on each post, it isn’t good to go overboard on hashtags. When it comes to having more of an impact with your hashtag game, it can actually pay off more to be picky about which hashtags you use. Research has found that the optimal number of hashtags to use per post is 11. So use your time to research the most effective hashtags rather than just thinking of 30 that are slightly relevant to your post.
Create your own hashtags. You aren't just limited to using hashtags that have already been created or used by other users. You can build an effective campaign by creating your own branded hashtag. This can prove really successful for brands if done in a creative and engaging way.
Instagram hashtags really can be an effective way to grow your following and engagement, but the best practices within the platform are constantly changing. Look at the performance of your previous hashtags in the analytics section within Instagram (post insights). This will tell you which ones got more reach and engagement against the more poor performing ones for that type of post. You can then make a note to use those better performing ones for that type of post in the future. But don't forget that the landscape of social media is constantly changing, and with that the rules too so its good to keep researching, learning and adapting with the changing 'playing field' of the platform.
If you are looking to obtain more detail on individual hashtag performance, you could invest in a reporting tool that digs further into the details, like Sprout Social. This social reporting tool allows you to generate Instagram hashtag performance reports to compare your most used Instagram hashtags, see how other branded hashtags perform compared to more broad hashtags and produce this as a report that you can download and use as part of your social media strategy.
How do you use your hashtags on your social media? Do you find it easy to identify the ones that work best for your brand? Share your suggestions below in the comments.
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