Who would have imagined that hashtags would become a “must-have” for doing business effectively on Instagram today? Ten years ago, that would only have been laughed at. But not today. I’m not saying that without the use of hashtags, a strategy for effective business growth won’t come off and you won’t get great results. But if you use hashtags wisely and know which ones are important to your profile, you’ll benefit.
OK, so if hashtags are more important than ever before, how do you use them properly so that they make a difference?
See below for practical tips on hashtags leveraging: a hashtag creator usage (like All Hashtag, Sistrix, Bigbangram, MetaHashtags generators) to look for relevant hashtags, proper implementation of hashtags in your content, researching competitors’ and Influencers’ hashtags, and a few more essential tips for “the grid” usage.
1. Look up RELEVANT hashtags
What are relevant hashtags? These are the hashtags that most accurately describe your post or Story and are trending at the same time.
Therefore, using the best Instagram hashtags or, so to say, corresponding ones can draw in a targeted audience to your account. In turn, attracting a targeted audience is crucial to the success of a business
To come across such hashtags, you may try to use an online Instagram hashtag creator tool. There are plenty of them on the Internet. They may assist you in finding the most corresponding hashtags according to keywords you’re entered (some may find according to the image or even post you’ve attached).
2. Research your competitor’s hashtags
Identify at least one Influencer and/or a worthy competitor whose content is, of course, related to your topic. Observe the trend in using hashtags to highlight the most effective ones and implement them into your hashtag strategy.
Your competitor’s or Influencer’s audience can also find your account using the hashtags of those profiles.
NB: this way is also suitable for those looking for relevant hashtags but doesn’t prefer to use a web hashtag creator. Of course, finding relevant hashtags in such a way is much more time-consuming, but it also has a place since the influencers’ posts are a source of trendy hashtags.
3. Use analytics to find out helpful hashtags
If you’re already seriously using hashtags for your posts or Stories, then an analysis of their effectiveness should also be considered.
With a business account on Instagram, you already have access to Insights that demonstrate to you which hashtag you’ve used in your posts and Stories are most efficient. For a deeper analysis of hashtag potency in your account, you can use additional third-party applications (tools for Instagram account analytics).
4. No banned hashtags
Banned hashtags are those that do not “meet Instagram’s community guidelines”. If you click on a tag like this, you will only see the top posts but no recent ones or corresponding Stories. So using such hashtags is entirely pointless because they won’t bring you a new audience as they’re not “clickable”.
There’s also a subtle point: avoid hashtags associated with “following” (although they’re not illegal): @follow4follow, @followme, etc.
The point is that they only attract spammers and bots and nobody else. And that’s not your target audience. Besides, using such hashtags may seem too cheap a trick for promotion in the eyes of your audience.
A complete list of banned IG hashtags 2021 is available on the Internet.
5. Include hashtags not only under posts
“The grid” in Stories is another chance to get noticed. Users today are more likely to browse Stories rather than a news feed with posts. So there’s a good chance that a user (and, maybe, a future subscriber) will click on a corresponding hashtag to see what Stories include it and come across your Story.
To include a hg into your Story, you may use a “#hashtag” sticker or type # and words in an ordinary way like you type under a post.
If you don’t like how the Story with the hashtag looks and want to hide the hg you have used from view (in terms of aesthetics), you could put a sticker over it.
6. Create a branded hashtag
A branded hashtag is created individually to promote a specific product or service. Using this hashtag by your audience will help make your account more trendy, and therefore your product more recognizable on Instagram.
But the key is to convince your audience to use it and, of course, to follow it on a hashtag page. So that subscribers not only follow your profile but also to your hashtag, and that’s a double bonus: audience engagement will be 2x!
More: include in the hashtag those words that best express your brand, show it from its individual side; it should be understandable to the average user, and of course, make it more concise so that it is easy to remember.
7. Run contests
To make the branded hashtag go off, reward your audience with prizes for using the hashtag in their posts or Stories. In addition, organize a weekly giveaway, for example, in exchange for their attention and participation. These engagement tactics are critical at the beginning of an “advancement”, as your subscribers base can help you promote your profile with their interest in your business.
One more important Tip
Be reasonable in your use of hashtags: a maximum of 30 in a post and 10 in a Story. But it’s better not to try to “cram” all 30 or 10 because, firstly, this is not aesthetically beautiful; secondly, the audience likes quality, and your apparent desire to only promote with the hashtags will be noticed immediately, which discourages.
The most appropriate number of hashtags is 7-10 in a post and a maximum of 3 in a Story, and for sure, they should be relevant and the hottest ones.
