Curate an Effective Instagram Hashtag Strategy

The hashtags you use on Instagram are crucial to your marketing strategy. If you utilize them correctly, you'll be able to draw attention to your product or brand. However, using the wrong approach can adversely affect your Instagram account, from annoying potential followers to being penalized by Instagram's algorithm. To create an effective Instagram hashtag strategy, you need to know the best practices. Here's how to choose the best hashtags to use on Instagram.

The Optimal Number of Hashtags for Instagram?

There is a limit of thirty hashtags per regular post. A comment or caption that contains more will not be posted. Don't overuse hashtags just because you can. The correct number of hashtags for a post by one business is different from another. A good starting point would be about 11 hashtags. To determine what works best for your business, you'll need to conduct some testing.

The Best Hashtags to Use on Instagram

Unfortunately, Instagram does not share a list of trending hashtags like Twitter does. You can, however, find out how many posts include a hashtag on Instagram by searching for it. Along with the post counts, you'll also find a list of similar Instagram hashtags. Knowing how to choose your hashtags is the most important. You want to choose hashtags that are relevant to your business and have a lot of impressions. So head to the Instagram search bar, start researching, and curate a list of potential hashtags.

Build Your Instagram Hashtag Strategy

After you have collected your hashtags, you will need to group them into four sets. Follow this formula to create each set:

Branded Hashtags — these hashtags are specially created for a brand and are used to increase brand awareness. It's usually the company name. Since their purpose is to link together all of your social media under one-two hashtags, there will be little to no impressions from those on Instagram. Ex: #KPKreative

Local Hashtags — local tags can target a smaller area but are more likely to gain impressions as they reach the people in that area. The research would consist of finding out what local tags perform best and implementing those. The impressions would be higher in large cities and lower in small ones. Ex: #FortLauderdaleMarketing

General Industry Hashtags — these hashtags describe topics, events, and ideas within an industry. Since this is a generalized group, the impressions should be between 10k-200k for each hashtag. Ex: #DigitalMarketing

Campaign or Product-Specific Hashtags — these hashtags are short-term hashtags to promote a particular campaign or product. Ex: #HashtagResearch

Keeping the different categories in mind can be a valuable source of inspiration and guide your strategy, even though there is no formula for how many of each hashtag you should use.

Contact Us for Help on Your Instagram Hashtag Strategy

Still not sure how to choose the best hashtags to use on Instagram? Let KP Kreative assist you. Click here to connect with us. However, don't wait too long — social media waits for no one!

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