How to Not Suck at Instagram Hashtags in 2018

We have seen a lot of people who include 30 hashtags in their posts. #likeforlie, #followback, #winter, #travelling are only few examples of what you see on your daily base. Instagram realizes their importance, and now you can follow specific hashtag. By that users discover new content that interest them. What do we gain from that, as business? You are right; they can find us easier if they are interested in our content. So how can we improve our hashtag game, in order to gain more audience for the business on this Social Media platform?

First of all, what is your goal? If you just want to increase the number of followers or likes, than post whatever you wants and put plenty of hashtags like #followforfollow. Then, tons of bots will be attracted to your account. However, it won’t change anything in your business, and it won’t you’re your brand popular and recognizable.

First of all let’s talk about some general rules. When people are scrolling through hashtag feed, they want to see only relevant posts. Therefore, be careful to use only hashtags which are related to the picture or video you post. Moreover, people scroll through thousands of pictures, so your post should capture their attention. Therefore, invest in your content, make it outstanding, and with right choice of hashtags you will gain needed attention.

Let’s talk more specifically about hashtags. First question is how much should you include? You are limited by Instagram to 30 of them. However, an analysis by Track Maven showed that 9 hashtags bring most engagements. That doesn’t mean that you should spam hashtags on every post. Remember, hashtags have to be relevant to your brand in order to gain audience of people who will engage with you brand.

How to choose right hashtags? You can go by two ways. You can use more popular and less specific hashtags or more specific and targeted once.  More popular hashtag, potentially, can raise you more attention. On the other hand, more targeted audience means a higher chance of quality engagement.

Trending hashtags can boost you a lot, if you use them right. You should post a picture which is tied in same time to your company and to the hashtag itself. For example, you can use holiday-related ones. Another hint is to research for the best versions of the same hashtags. Difference of one letter in the word, sometimes means the difference of millions people in popularity. Therefore, if you decided to post something about travelling, you should research most popular hashtag connected to it.

On later stages you can consider using brand hashtags. They are unique to your company or campaign. It will help you to attract the participation and engagement. People will be able to reach out to you by only using your hashtag. I will advise to keep it simple and short, so people can remember it easily.

My last advice is to keep track of the performance of your posts and hashtags. If you notice that posts with specific hashtag have more engagements, it can be a good idea to use it more often. By that you will be able to learn your mistakes, and to improve your hashtag game a lot for Instagram’s Social Media Marketing.