More than 500 million people are using Instagram on a daily basis. Now, how does one reach them for their social outreach? The answer is quite simple. With the correct Instagram strategy. Goes without saying that the most important part of your strategy is to search for hashtags on Instagram!
How do you search for hashtags on Instagram?
An Insta post accompanied by hashtags has 12.6% more visibility and better results than a post without them.
Ever since it came into being, #thngs have certainly changed on Instagram but what remained constant are the #. Using the right hashtags enables you to reach a new and wider audience resulting in better engagement. It is the best way to have better results organically. But how do you search for hashtags that match the content you post on Instagram? Here is what you do.
1. What your competitors are doing
See what hashtags your competitors and fellow Instagrammers (in the same genre) are using and what’s working for them. Surely you don’t have to compete on the same hashtags but you now know what the audience finds interesting and hence use hashtags related to that.
2. Know your industry leaders
Find out who are the Instagram leaders of your genre/ industry and see if they have a target audience similar to yours. Try finding out what’s helping them to be on the top of the competition and incorporate something similar in your Instagram strategy.
3. Look for related Hashtags
The best way to find hashtags for your content is to look for the related ones. Just put the generic hashtag in the search bar on Instagram and you’ll get a whole list of hashtags related to it. Look for the ones that seem relevant to your post and brand and there you go!
4. Analyze your insights
Instagram has introduced this wonderful change in the post insights that lets you know your engagement on the post. It also tells you if the hashtags you used worked well or they didn’t. Just try different hashtags in different posts and keep an eye on your insights to know which hashtags worked the best for you!
5. Use hashtags with small densities
It’s not that the hashtags with the most number of posts will get you higher reach and engagement. The hashtag should be relevant and not necessarily the most searched one. Try to find niche hashtags related to your genre.
The most relevant posts appear as the top ones to the users in the Explore section. If you are a fashion blogger, instead of using generic hashtags like #fashion which has 666 million posts related to it, use hashtags like #fashionblogger and #fashionindia so as to get much more relevant audience and engagement.
The right way to use the searched hashtags on Instagram
Now that you know how to search the right hashtags for your content, next comes the how of using these hashtags correctly.
Although you can use up to 30 hashtags in each of your posts, experts say that the posts with 9-12 hashtags get the highest engagement.
1. Branded hashtag in the bio
One good thing about Instagram is that it allows you to add clickable links and tags in your profile’s bio. Adding the right hashtag and the website link allows people to have a quick look at it. Don’t forget to add any other campaign or contest hashtags in your bio that are the most relevant ones to your business.
2. Check your hashtags
You don’t want your content to be a part of the spammy one. There are a few hashtags that may have been used in a lot of posts and have higher density but are associated with irrelevant and spammy content. Check the hashtags and the posts associated with them before incorporating them in your posts.
3. Don’t use repetitive hashtags
What if you search for a hashtag on Instagram and get to see all similar posts by one brand itself? Seems boring and useless right? Keep changing the hashtags for your Instagram content. Use similar ones to what’s working for your business.
4. Instagram Stories
It’s true that the Instagram stories have much more reach and visibility than the feed posts.. People generally have a quick look at the stories as soon as they open Instagram. Stories are the best platform for businesses to reach and engage with the audience.
Instagram now allows the users and businesses alike to add hashtags to their stories in either of the ways – manual typing or in sticker format. You can add up to 10 hashtags to each story. Hashtags not only increase your content visibility but also, people get to see your stories when they are searching for that particular hashtag.
5. Request people to follow your hashtag
Instagram till last year allowed users to follow the businesses or users, but most recently, it has a new feature to follow the hashtags. People can now follow the hashtags that are relevant to their interests and the related content is hence displayed in their feeds.
You can invite your followers and the users to follow your brand hashtag. This lets your content be displayed twice in their feed:
- because they’re following your page
- because they’re following your hashtag
This results in higher reach and engagement of your content and brand.
Hence, amidst more than 100 million photos and videos shared each day over the platform, it’s easy to search and use the right and relevant hashtags for your business on Instagram and be the Insta leader of your industry.
So why wait! Start planning your Instagram strategy to compete and lead.
