Why use hashtags on Instagram?
This week I’d thought I’d chat about hashtags. Because this always comes up when I tell people I’m a social media manager at networking events. The other business owners always say things like, I use Instagram but I just don’t get hashtags.
So if that’s you too, here are 5 great reasons to use hashtags.
- They increase your account visibility, by helping your content reach more people beyond your current followers
- They help you target your idea client. Think about hashtags your ideal client might follow and add them to your posts
- Using hashtags is completely free. Just pop some at the end of your post and see what happens.
- Hashtags help those mysterious algorithms understand what your post is about, thus it will help them show your post to the right people.
- Research shows that posts with hashtags get more engagement. Which of course is a result both you and the algorithms want too
So if you’re not really doing anything with hashtags at the moment, try these tips:
- Be curious, see what people are using for hashtags and start following some hashtags. In fact this is a great way to get more variety on your feed.
- Try adding some hashtags to the bottom of your posts. See what happens. Do you start to get comments from people you don’t even know?
- From my experience, using hashtags is most powerful on Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. So try them out there first.
If you’re really stuck on hashtags, I’ve designed an online course to help people learn more about hashtags, how to research them and find the best ones to reach their ideal client. You can find out more here: Online Hashtag Course