Are you using the right hashtag for your Instagram business or brand? Are these hashtags relevant to your brand? Find here.
We live in an era of change, so we all have to master the art of marketing a business.
We need to stay updated with the latest methods rather than follow the same old traditional methods.
Today, businesses have been choosing online promotional methods not because they are cheap but because they have the potential to reach the masses.
Today, let’s explore Instagram, the least spoken and discussed social media channel, and understand how using hashtags can drive more traffic and sales for your business.
It’s observed that Instagram is generally used by business people who need to communicate more with images to sell their products, such as E-commerce, photographers, and travellers.
However, it can be used in many creative ways to get your business Branded.
A study shows that Instagram has 2 billion active users as of 2024 following brands they like or care about.
Brands are leveraging this portal to promote new and upcoming products and engage their users, especially youth.
So, How You Can Use Instagram for Your Business/Brand?
Before you start with it, you should set your goals, i.e.-
- Are you looking to get more business, or
- Do you want more traffic, or
- Are you working to create awareness for your Brand, or
- Do You want to make your Brand hashtag popular?
Whatever your goal is, predefine it and then make your social media marketing plan.
Like,
- How many posts will you make
- What kind of post do you want to promote
- Hashtag that you will use, etc.
The next step is to research about your competitor, that is
- How often do they post
- What kind of images are getting more likes and comments
- Are they following specific patterns to post, like infographics, quotes, or random ideas about their business model?
Your research will help you in evaluating how you can be better or different.
Once your primary foundation is set up with all this information, it is time for the next step.
How to Find Relevant Hashtags for Your Instagram Business?
Creating Your Business Profile:
Add your business logo and description, which will help the user understand what you stand for.
Do not forget to add your business website link or your social profile link, as Instagram grants this place as a clickable link for users to connect and shop on your site.
The same thing happens if you are using Instagram for your branding.
Find Your Contacts To Connect:
Once you have updated your profile, it’s time to get followers and follow people. Suppose you are already in an existing business.
In that case, you can import your existing Facebook account friends or email contacts to invite them to Instagram or follow them.
You can also use the search option (a magnifying glass) next to the home icon on Instagram to discover or explore featured people or groups, follow people based on common interests by suffixing their name or tags in the search, and join the same expanding clan as yours.
Creating Content:
It’s time for action now. We need to start posting content according to our defined social marketing plan for our audiences to ensure they enjoy and follow every post we make.
For starters, you can also test content with relevant hashtags to evaluate which time your users are more responsive, when they are more active and what kind of content is driving attention.
Points to Remember While Creating Content For Instagram
1. Make Use of An Impacting Call to Action in Your Post With Hashtags
You can add a strong call to action button/ icon in your post to enable the readers to either share/like/buy your product.
Let the impact of your post inject something within itself that can do wonders for your brand by simply adding words “#like”, “#share”, “#comment,” or buy, etc. and see the difference or #followus #followme #photooftheday #instalike #instadaily, etc. are few more examples.
2. Choose the Right Colors for Your Post Relevant to Your Content
Well, as we all know, colours in branding play a vital role in every brand.
Posts with subtle colours, such as green, blue, grey, etc., received more attention than those with gaudy shades of yellow, orange, and pink.
3. Good Quality Images
Remember to keep your photos crystal clear, which means choosing an image with good-quality pixels rather than a poor-quality image that can turn viewers off.
You can later start building content similar to their interests.
Your analytics will help you evaluate whether they are visiting your site for more information.
4. Engage With Your Followers
To keep the traction going, you must start engaging with followers who are following you. We generally like to do,
- Start following the user who is following you.
- Add likes or comments to their photo to show them we equally love and care for them.
Remember, do not spam your profile; promote only and only about you in their social channels. But instead, focus on building relationships.
“The more you care, the more they share” It’s all about caring and sharing!”
How to Use Hashtags for Your Brand Instagram Marketing?
We have been using the hashtag on many of our social accounts, such as Facebook and Twitter.
However, hashtags have become a more popular and important tool for using Instagram.
The Hashtag helps you organize and categorize your posts and videos so that people can find them when they’re looking for specific information.
Business owners generally do not know how many hashtags to use on a post and sometimes use irrelevant hashtags.
Instagram has mentioned that we can only use up to 30 hashtags in one post, but it is ideal not to use more than 3 or 4 tags.
We tend to use popular hashtags like #marketing, #business, and #brand, but when checked, there may be more than 100 million searches for these tags.
If these hashtags are relevant to your business, it’s fine, but if not, my advice is not to use them, as sometimes hashtags are reported as spam, and chances are high of getting your account blacklisted.
How Are Companies Using Hashtags?
A famous food supply company, Taco Bell, uses one or two hashtags to describe their products or events.
For example, Taco Bell attracts its users per day.
They post daily event photos with the hashtag #tacobellmonday #tacabelltuesday.
This way, they are giving their users fresh content each day with curiosity to look forward to the next post.
Starbucks uses 3-4 hashtags for its promotions.
Some of their hashtags are not related to their business, but they use them to publicise and get user attention.
How Do You Strategize Your Hashtag?
Once you have followed all the above steps, it is time to understand how to execute it.
1. Kind of Hashtag To Use:
The most important thing to follow while using hashtags would be to:
- Maintain relevance with each defined word.
- Not to overuse hashtags.
- It should relate to your industrial niche.
- Keep the target audience in the hashtag.
- Don’t use someone else’s hashtag; it can create a wrong impression.
- The most important thing is to create your brand-specific hashtag like #sotc #makekytrip. Just keep in mind your hashtags can be easy to remember and should work as brand recall.
2. Use a Combination Of Hashtags:
Instead of using only #marketing as your hashtag, you can use #marketingtip, #marketingidea, etc.
This way, you can reach a broad audience instead of using just one.
3. Research on Your Hashtag:
As discussed earlier, do thorough research before starting an Instagram account.
Find out what tags your competitors are using.
Make a list of all those, add some creativity to your tag, and then you are ready to go.
You can also use apps like Icon Square to find popular hashtags in your niche.
Quick Links:
- How to Search Multiple Hashtags on Instagram? (Boost Your Engagement Now)
- Must Read Before Starting an Instagram Account
- Effective Social Media Tips to Increase Your Blog & Traffic by 200%
- Why Your Facebook Brand Page Looks Like a Deserted Town And How To Fix It
Conclusion: Bonus Tips to Use Instagram to Drive Sales
- Share only POSITIVE images.
- Let your passion be reflected in the post you share. For example, if you are a shopaholic and run a business supplying different types of shoes, then post about anything and everything that you feel will connect with your followers.
- Add tags to the related user. This will help you gain their attention and possibly their follower’s attention.
- Mix your share of the business post with some entertaining posts. Something that your follower doesn’t feel you’re only talking about business.
- Make cross-promotion – Always share others’ posts or give them likes and comments on their post. This will help you in building a relationship.
- Connect social media like Facebook, Twitter, and some more with your Instagram account. This way, you can update your fans and followers everywhere.
To conclude,
Instagram, when used with the right hashtag, can make your brand reach the right audience and make you drive sales to your business.
