“Instagram Hashtags are a key to boosting your brand presence on the world’s second-largest social media platform after Facebook (Excluding YouTube and WhatsApp). In this article, we will cover the role of Instagram Hashtags; why they are important, and how to use hashtags in your Instagram posts to achieve productive results.
Hashtags play a major role in your social media marketing strategy. Some of the popular social media platforms where hashtags are of supreme value are Instagram and Twitter. Though you will see people or brands using hashtags on other social platforms as well like Facebook and LinkedIn, they are not as effective as they are on the former two platforms.
What are Hashtags?
A hashtag, denoted by the number or symbol # (hash) is a tag that is used to highlight or add a label to a specific topic, content, or theme. It basically forms a category for all the content falling under a particular hashtag.
For example, in a Brazil vs Argentina Football match, you would find people using hashtags like #BRAvARG or #ARGvBRA. These hashtags will become a thread for people to have a discussion on that match.
With the latest update of Instagram, you get a maximum limit of 30 hashtags for each post. Along with that, a user can also tag 20 people in their posts.
Why Instagram Hashtags are Important in 2021?
What role do Instagram hashtags play in your marketing? How can they be an invaluable asset for your business promotion on the Instagram platform? Let’s try to find out.
1. Instagram Hashtags help to Build Brand Awareness
The most effective use of Instagram hashtags is to build brand awareness. The primary reason for setting up an Instagram business account is to make the users of that platform aware of your Brand. And to make that happen, you need to make use of hashtags and create your own brand hashtags as well. This is important because if your hashtag contains your brand name, it will appear in the search results when users are searching for something related to your brand.
2. To Increase Product Visibility
Instagram hashtags help a lot in marketing. They provide you with a wide organic reach and can help you promote your brand products in front of a huge Instagram audience, thus increasing your product visibility.
While hashtags might seem interesting, they would not be of any use if they are not relevant. Searches on Instagram are based on Hashtags only. When posting about a product, use Hashtags that you think would display your post in the search results. Think from a user’s point of view, what would they be searching that could make your post appear on the search results.
3. Instagram Hashtags Generate High User Engagement
A study suggests that Instagram posts that contain hashtags achieve 13% higher engagement than posts without hashtags. And the reason is obvious. The more people who see your post, the more interaction you will get. And with higher user engagement, you will get more followers for your Brand.
4. Instagram Hashtags can be helpful for your Marketing Campaigns
Marketing campaigns that focus on user-generated content are completely based on hashtags.
Many popular brands have utilized the power of hashtags for branding. Coca Cola launched a “Share a Coke” campaign in 2011 where they asked people to share their coke moments by using the hashtag #ShareaCoke. The campaign was a huge hit.
You can create similar campaigns for your brand and go viral overnight on the Instagram platform. No paid advertising can beat this kind of promotion.
But it isn’t as easy as it said, especially for a new brand. Prepare a roadmap on how can you make your campaign successful. Most importantly, provide some freebies or gift vouchers in return. If people are not going to get benefited, it would hardly arise their interest.
5. To be Ahead of your Competitors
Know who your competitors are, track what they are doing, what they advertise, what kind of hashtags do they use. This will give you an insight into your competitors and you can analyze their strong points and weak points to make your brand look better than them. Learn what works best for you and what doesn’t. Moreover, hashtags keep changing, so keep a check on the latest trending Instagram hashtags.
Few things that you don’t know about the hashtags
At some point, you may observe that your hashtags aren’t working. Here are some reasons why this happens:
- You are using hashtags that are irrelevant to your posts
- You’re using banned hashtags
- Maybe you are using the same hashtags every time
- You’re choosing hashtags that are too broad
- You’re using hashtags that are too competitive
Avoid making these mistakes when planning on your hashtags before making any of your next Instagram posts live.
Final Word
If you want to get noticed by the Instagram community, start using hashtags, and use them in the right way so that your content is presented in front of the right audience.
Do you know, you can fetch Instagram content on your e-commerce website as well? Yes, you heard it right. If you own an eCommerce store on the OpenCart, Magento, or Magento 2 platform, you can get this feature by using Instagram Shop Gallery.
Instagram Shop Gallery extension will add an attractive Instagram Gallery section to your website. With the help of this extension, you can display your own Instagram account images and images based on hashtags, and then you can tag or mention your store products on the fetched images, similar to Instagram Shoppable Posts. Do give this a try.
Instagram Shop Gallery extension for OpenCart
Magento Instagram Shop Gallery
Instagram Shop Gallery for Magento 2
If you have any more points to add to this article, do let me know by dropping a comment below. I would like to know your take as well on the Instagram hashtags.
For any query or assistance, reach out to us at support@knowband.com
