Published on January 22nd, 2019 | by Sunit Nandi

Hashtags Mean Business in 2019

People have strong feelings about hashtags. There are significant discussions on where to place them, how many to use, and whether or not they’re annoying. The bottom line is that strategically using Instagram hashtags will raise the number of followers on your account and increase likes on your posts. You need to implement an effective hashtag strategy to boost the reach of your Instagram marketing campaigns.

Hashtags are big business

Instagram hashtags organize and categorize photos and videos. Take advantage of the real estate on every post by writing clever captions and adding up to 30 hashtags. The hashtags you choose will help people discover your content organically. With a targeted campaign, you can buy Instagram followers who will have a real business impact. The result is that your account is exposed to engaged followers who are actually interested in your account.

Whether you love or hate them, learning to use Instagram hashtags can increase your post engagement. Adding at least one Instagram hashtag gives your post almost 13% more engagement than posts without any.

Choose an effective hashtag

It’s best to choose hashtags ones that are specific to your audience or industry that also have an engaged and active community. For example, a video game blogger might post a picture of a Nintendo Switch game, and then use the hashtags #geek and #NintendoSwitch when it’s uploaded to Instagram. Surveying the trends that are relevant to a potential hashtag is an easy and effective way to grow your community.

Research the industry leaders, influencers, and your closest competition with a similar target audience and go to their profiles to see what hashtags those accounts follow. Look at the hashtags used and followed by accounts with high engagement and strong social indicators.

If you prefer a mathematical approach, take advantage of Instagram’s related hashtags tool which automatically highlights related hashtags on the fly, including their usage volume, when you choose one. Enter any hashtag in the Instagram search field and select tags. You’ll see a list of related hashtags, organized by popularity. Assuming your original hashtag choice was on target, these are the best possible choices to increase your post reach. These are also ones you should consider monitoring and using for further engagement. You can also use a 3rd party tool like Task Ant to automate the process of finding best hashtags from Instagram.

Instagram users can follow a hashtag

Instagram now allows you to follow hashtags related to your interests so you can keep up with various important and trending topics. It’s the same concept as following a user’s profile. When you find a hashtag to follow, open the hashtag page and select the Follow button. With a business account, you can expand your audience with a branded hashtag. These hashtags are unique to your company or brand identity.

Add a hashtag to your Bio and Story

Add links to profile usernames and hashtags in your Instagram bio. By including # or @ in your bio, it will automatically become a hotlink that users can click on to see other content. This feature makes your bio much more functional for highlighting branded content because the feature adds anything you tag to the Search & Explore page. If you add a hashtag to your bio or Stories, it can end up featured to anyone who searches for that term.

Use Instagram post insights to see results

After you’ve implemented all of the tips, it’s important to see how your investments are paying off. Check to see if your strategic use of Instagram hashtags increased likes and followers. Instagram allows business profiles to analyze how effective hashtags are by tracking the views and impressions of your posts. You can view this on any open post by selecting View Insights. Swipe up for more information including reach, impressions, and where viewers found you.

Tags: 2019, hashtags, instagram, twitter

About the Author

Sunit Nandi I'm the leader of Techno FAQ. Also an engineering college student with immense interest in science and technology. Other interests include literature, coin collecting, gardening and photography. Always wish to live life like there's no tomorrow.