Instagram, Tips & Tricks The Power of Hashtags in Instagram – How To Get More Reach with a Hashtag Strategy August 6, 20213 minutes VeronicaSocial Media Advisor It’s summer 2021 and Instagram hashtags are still one of the most effective ways to get more reach and engagement on your Instagram posts. Statistically, a post with at least one Instagram hashtag is expected to receive an average of 12.6% more engagement than one without a hashtag. So if you are wondering whether you should create a hashtag strategy for your brand, the answer is definitely “yes”. A good Instagram hashtag strategy will inevitably help you grow your account! How to start building an Instagram hashtag strategy? We believe it’s best to get back to basics here and be sure to know what Instagram hashtags are. Technically, a hashtag is a combination of letters, emojis and numbers lead by the “#” symbol, for example- #hashtag. The main functionality of a hashtag is to categorize content topics in order to make them more discoverable. Now that we know what hashtags do, let’s start building a powerful strategy to reach the right people and get as much engagement on our posts as possible. See our top 3 expert tips for building an Instagram hashtag strategy to get more reach: Find the best hashtags for you There are several ways to find the best hashtags for your brand. The easiest one is to look at your direct competitors and note which hashtags they’re already using. We highly advise you to look at how their followers engage with the content. It’s also good to note which hashtags seem to attract the most users. This is a great way to ensure whether you should use similar hashtags. You can also brainstorm various ones, related to your business and type them directly into Instagram’s search bar as shown on the image below. In the example above, #instagram is an extremely popular hashtag, however, using it may actually, result in a lot of spam comments and irrelevant engagement. Instead of using the most popular hashtags, we highly recommend scrolling further down the results to find more niche ones. Choosing less popular hashtags that are better suited for your target audience is better when you want to reach the right people. Another very easy way to find relatable hashtags is to use platforms like All Hashtag that generate related hashtags based on a topic of your choice. Use branded hashtags When you have created your initial hashtag list, try using branded hashtags as well. Using them in relevant posts will help you create brand awareness and will urge your target audience to use them as well. You can also test adding brand-related hashtags in your Instagram bio along with a call-to-action for using them. Furthermore, using brand-related hashtags gives you the opportunity to re-post any stories or posts that your customers tag you in. Use relevant hashtags in your Stories Using relevant hashtags in your Instagram stories is another great way to show up on IG’s search results. Bonus tip: If you have too many hashtags to put on your story post, simply enter them all in a text, decrease the size and hide them all behind a gif or a sticker. Bonus tip 2: Never stop testing new approaches to reach more customers and be consistent with your post, stories and overall social media presence. The best way to be consistent is to plan ahead. How do you achieve this? Try our Publisher platform free for 14 days and see how easy planning can be.