THE HASHTAG GUIDE FOR YOUR BRAND ON INSTAGRAM

The good news is that you can have your niche audience follow you on Instagram. The bad news is  that if you don't use hashtags you will find great difficulty in building your following. Here are some tips on how to use hashtags within your posts:
 
Use Hashtags Within Your Comments
While you do have the opportunity to use 2200 characters in your caption, it looks cleaner to separate the hashtags out. Use the Caption area to get your message across.

Choosing Your Hashtags - You can use up to 30 hashtags and they can be industry, niche, branded, community, location, event and celebration day.

• Industry Hashtags are general words for the type of business you are in. #makeup #fashion.

 

• Niche Hashtags are your specialty hashtags and have 2 or more words in your hashtag group. #brandphotography #smallbusinessmarketing.

 

• Branded Hashtags are usually used by large companies such as @nike#JustDoIt  and @Homesensecanada #MyHomesense. You can build your followers by using brand hashtags of popular Instagram accounts. Make sure though that they are within your niche market. It could lead you to being featured by the brand. You can also search branded hashtags to connect and follow others in your niche. REAL followers will follow you back.

 

• Community Hashtags are a great way to show that you are part of a tribe.  #girlboss #muaofinst

 

• Location Hashtags are wonderful for local business, area of focus and travelling accounts. You can go with just location such as #toronto #newyork. Or you can get extremely specific by adding your niche #torontophotographer #torontofashionblogger


• Event and Celebration Hashtags allow you to be part of major events happening in your community or even around the world. #mothersday #christmas2017 #worldseries #donutday 

 

• Hashtag Density will determine how many people will see ... or not see your post. Personally I am a fan of using medium and low density hashtags. High density hashtags have over 500k Instagram posts. It's easy to get lost in the shuffle and not build true followers who will engage with your brand. Low density have posts of 20k or less and are easier to rank within. I find success mixing medium and low hashtags on Instagram. Medium density examples: #fashionphotos 42k, #fashionphotographers 17k. Low density examples #torontophotographers 19k #businessphotography 12k.
• Did You Know that when an Instagram post is shared on another platform the hashtags are published along with it? So for example, if shared on Facebook posts become searchable on the platform. That is great exposure for businesses!

• More Facts About Hashtags can be read on this link I found on Social Media Examiner. It has great information about growing your Instagram reach with hashtags.
  

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​What is your process for crafting hashtags?