How to Grow Your Instagram With Hashtags

Many Business owners want to grow their audience and Business with Instagram and one of the major ways of doing this, if done strategically and properly is the use of Hashtags!

Even if you are not sure what Hashtags are for, you have most probably seen them, as they have become commonplace on various social media platforms including Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

A Hashtag is a word, phrase or a group of words preceded by the (#) hash sign.

An example would be #socialmediamarketing.

Hashtags may look simple but using them strategically is a major key in building the reach of your product or service.

The use of Hashtags on Instagram will expand the reach of your content by making you visible to, and discoverable by your target audience, which in turn, increases the chances of them engaging with your content and becoming customers.

Let’s now look at FOUR types of Hashtags that will help you Grow your Instagram and attract your Ideal Clients:

An industry hashtag is one that describes or is used to identify the line of Business you are involved with, for example, as an Instagram and Social Media Marketing expert, my industry hashtags may include: #socialmediamarketing, #digitalmarketing, #onlinemarketing and more.

If you do a search on Instagram, you will find out that Industry hashtags (such as #socialmediamarketing in the example below), usually have a large volume of content attached to them and so become highly competitive.

My recommendation is to use not more than 2-3 of such highly competitive hashtags – any hashtag with a volume of content of more than 500,000 is a competitive one, especially for small accounts of less than 10,000 followers.

A niche hashtag is one that represents or describes the specific area of your industry or market you specialise in. To use the example of a blogger, the niche area of this blogger may be “lifestyle” specifically, and so a niche #hashtag for them to use would be #lifestyleblogger.

Both the industry and niche hashtags make it possible for your target audience to discover you when they search using these hashtags on Instagram.

A community hashtag will connect your business and make you more visible to like-minded people on Instagram and will improve your reach and engagement on your Instagram.

You can find out the Hashtags for your community by doing a search on Instagram with “Keywords” relevant to your Business. For example, a blogger may search for keywords such as blogger, blogging and blog. When you do this search, Instagram will provide you with a list of “related” hashtags which may be relevant to your audience.

Make sure the community hashtags you are using are relevant to your posts, for example, again, the community hashtags for a blogger, may be #bloggerlife, #instablogger and more.

A location hashtag can be used to describe where your business operates from or the areas you serve through your Business. In the example of our blogger, let’s assume our blogger is based in London, one hashtag to use may be #londonblogger.

Making use of a location hashtag will make your posts more visible to people in the specific area and ultimately connect you with them.

Using a location hashtag may also help to reduce competition with others in your industry due to your being specific about where you are based or offer your services.

The use of a location is especially very useful for local businesses.

Would you like a list of “Hashtags to Grow Your Business on Instagram” for the next 90 days? Simply email Tobi@SocialinstaSuccess.com to order yours!