Guide To Winning Hashtag Strategy For Your Brand In 2023
Instagram has approximately 2 billion active users per month, making it one of the most popular social networking sites. That’s a TONNE of potential consumers that are checking their feeds every day, making it a great place for businesses to advertise.
But how can you get your material in front of your intended audience when there are so many people using the platform? The solution is straightforward: hashtags.
Using hashtags is a fantastic method of finding and following new individuals who share your interests. With over 500 million used daily, though, hashtags must be utilised with care.
In this article, we’ll discuss the best practises for developing a successful Instagram hashtag strategy in 2023.
A definition of Hashtags
Hashtags, such as “#TGIF,” are strings of text that begin with the hash sign (#). In marketing, hashtags are used to classify information and increase its discoverability on the web.
You may also click on hashtags. Any Instagram user may view all posts using a certain hashtag by clicking on the hashtag or searching for it.
Hashtags are a great way to stay up-to-date on a topic, find exactly what you’re looking for, or discover what’s popular.
Is It Necessary to Have a Hashtag Strategy for Instagram?
Instagram’s “magic ingredient” is hashtags. Instagram has more than 800 million active users, and the greatest method to get your content seen by this massive audience is to use hashtags (properly).
A successful Instagram hashtag campaign doesn’t just attract more followers; it attracts the kind of followers most likely to become paying customers.
Instagram claims that using hashtags properly can aid in the organisation of search results. More people will see you in searches if you have better hashtags (and captions, bios, and material in general).
You may compare hashtags on Instagram to search terms on Google. They don’t cost anything and don’t take much time, but they can bring in readers who are interested in what you have to say. That’s why it’s important to plan out your hashtag usage in advance to ensure that your social media marketing efforts are successful.
So, as promised, here are seven of the most effective ways to discover relevant hashtags on Instagram and increase your following and activity:
Pay Attention to Search Engine Optimisation and Keywords
As we said, Instagram is beginning to shift towards becoming more search engine optimisation and keyword oriented, hence the term FIRST SEO.
This bodes well for the future discoverability of both you and your content on Google. In addition to hashtags, the app also supports keyword searches, much to how you would conduct a keyword search on Pinterest.
Use Hashtags That Are Appropriate To Your Content’s Topic
Don’t be vague. The best way to reach your target audience is to utilise hashtags that accurately describe the content of your post. Photos captioned “5 tips for the best Instagram hashtag strategy” should not use hashtags such as “#coffee,” “#instagramreels,” or “#youtuber” since they are extraneous to the topic at hand.
Instead, include relevant hashtags that facilitate content discovery for your followers. Make your own own hashtags if you like.
Blend popular and obscure hashtags to increase your reach
If you switch up your hashtags, you can attract more people from different backgrounds. If you own a sailboat rental business, it’s in your best interest to connect with people who are interested in both #sailing and #sailboats.
Or, if you’re want a more niche following, hashtags based on area might help you find them. You can track which hashtags lead to the most comments and likes by trying out a variety of them in your posts.
Find your sweet spot and put your Instagram hashtag strategy to the test
The most popular businesses often employ between one and three hashtags every post, leading many to believe that this is the optimal range for all users. No, really; this isn’t always the situation. In fact, campaigns using less than twenty hashtags have been effective for several firms.
No single approach is guaranteed to be successful for all individuals. The idea is that you won’t know how many hashtags to use until you experiment. Finding a good number might take some people a few months. Use between seven and thirty hashtags during the test time.
Allow room for mistakes in your approach.
Include Instagram Hashtags in Your Stories
You should employ your own unique hashtag when tagging your articles. Why? As a result of tapping that hashtag, all posts containing that hashtag will be shown. In this way, people will be more likely to read your postings than those of any other user.
Except when you’re at a live event or hosting a time-sensitive Instagram contest. Because people are only searching for it within that time frame, using a more particular hashtag for that event, venue, or contest will help your cause.
Remember Who You’re Writing For
Think about your customer base while deciding on the best hashtags for your company’s social media posts. What do they talk about?
This knowledge will help you come up with hashtags that will appeal to your target audience.
Stay away from too generalised hashtags
Hashtags should be specific enough to be useful but not so general that they’re meaningless. Since millions of postings already have the hashtag #socialmedia, utilising it is probably not going to be particularly helpful. As a result, it’s probable that your message will be lost in the crowd.
The easiest approach to avoid being associated with this is to tailor your Instagram hashtag strategy to your specific field or organisation.