5 Tips on How to Use Hashtag on Instagram

For people who unaware of hashtag, it is this symbol ‘#’ and normally accompanied by a word or sentences in popular social media platform such as Instagram. For example the usage of hashtag is like this; #socialmedia #socialmediamarketing. Hashtag originated from Twitter but have now become a common tool used by most of the social media users in various social media platform.

So, how does hashtag works?

Hashtag act as the global internet indexer. Each time you hashtag a post with a certain keyword, you are actually allowing other people to see your post or images by typing that specific hashtag. It allows you to expand your reach. So, basically all the images and post that have the same hashtag will be compiled together and be seen by the internet community.

One general rule for using hashtag is that the post must be set public. Therefore, if you have a private account for your social media, using hashtag will not make any differences and can only be seen by your close contact. For example, if you create a public post on certain events such as the celebration of the New Year eve for example and create a hashtag #Newyeareve2017.

If people who are in Instagram who wants to see any post related to new year eve celebration, they can just type the #Newyeareve2017 and all the posts and images people post with that hashtag will be seen.

Hashtag It is an effective tool to share your post to crowd outside your circle of friend. It is also a mean to participate in the internet global conversation on certain theme or topics.Studies have also shown that a post with hashtag in Instagram gets more reaction compared to a post without hashtag.

Here in this article, we list down the top 5 tips on how to use hashtag for Instagram and social media marketing.

1. COMBINE NICHE HASHTAGS WITH POPULAR HASHTAGS

Using hashtag especially popular hashtag does allow your post to be seen by many people. However, it is also a good practice to use a combination of popular hashtag and a much more niche hashtag so that your post will be seen by a targeted group of people.

Based on Instagram, some of the popular hashtag are #love, #instagood, #cute, #follow, #followme, #photooftheday, #selfie. However, you can also use the popular hashtag but niche down to your related post such #selfiefortoday #cuteandsmall for example.

2. DO NOT OVERUSE HASHTAGS

Using hashtag can make your post seen by many people but do not overuse it. Overusing hashtag in a post will make your post less attractive and also can be seen as a spamming effort. Keep hashtag is only related to your post.

The objective of hashtag is that you want the right audience to your post. Putting hashtag that does not relate to your post will only expose your post to audience that is not interested with your content or message. So, do not overuse the hashtag and keep it clean so that it will not crowd your original post.

3. FOLLOW THE TRENDS

In twitter, the Hashtag will allow certain events or topic to be trending. This depends on how many people are tweeting and using the same hashtag. As a user of Instagram, you can capitalize this trending and use it in your post to get the most attention and exposure at that time. All you need to do is visit Twitter and look at the trending hashtag there.

Use the trending hashtag twitter and incorporate it into your post so that your post will be included in the global indexing of that popular topic. More views equals more exposure for your post.

4. USE HASHTAG TO TARGET A COMMUNITY

Hashtag can also be used to deliver messages and content to a certain community. This way your post will be seen by relevant target audience that will have higher chance of interacting or liking your post. You can actually use Instagram to see which Hashtag is popular and most being used.

For example, if you are targeting the digital marketer’s community, a quick search in Instagram, the most hashtag used is #digitalmarketerlife. So, it is better that you used this as a hashtag in your post as well.

5. HIDE YOUR INSTAGRAM HASHTAGS

If you prefer to have a clean post but in the same time want to use the Hashtag function, you can actually do this by creating a space in your post. You can put all of your hashtag at the bottom of your post. This way people will only see your message but the hashtag will remain in the bottom and can be seen if they scroll down your post. You will also get a more clean post and attract more reaction and likes to your post.

So, there you have it. 5 tips on using Hashtag in your Instagram post. Check also our previous articles on the Top 5 Instagram Tips and Tricks.