We all know that Twitter has invented the hashtag strategy, but you also need a hashtag strategy while you are building your business on Instagram or any other social media platform.

The hashtags do not only help you categorize your Instagram content, but it also improves the engagement rates of posts and stories. High engagement rates directly translate into more leads, and we all know it’s the end goal here!

Social media marketing agency, Orange County, states that several applications can help you track social media insights and measure the performance of your hashtags. Nothing comes easy! You will have to do some thorough research to find the most popular hashtags in your niche that are not already used by the people. If you are targeting hashtags that are already used by a million people, chances are you will get lost in the shuffle!

Do the research 

The first step by social media marketing agency Orange County is to do the research. Before you could finalize the list of hashtags, it’s great to take time and do the required research. Play around with the different combinations of the keywords and complete a list of 20 or 30 hashtags and use them in your stories – an underused feature. More like how hashtags direct your target audience to your post, a story hashtag will lead them to your stories.

You can add up to ten hashtags in your stories, so make sure the hashtags are the ones which you have already listed before.

There are several numbers of hashtags, and the purpose of each hashtag varies. Before you craft the overall strategy of Instagram, it’s great to design an effective hashtag strategy.

Some of the hashtags could be campaign hashtags, content hashtags, trending hashtags, and branded hashtags. Let’s discuss each of them below: 

Branded hashtags

These hashtags are the ones that you create for your own business. Your brand hashtag could be your company tagline or company name. It should always be unique. So, for example, if you have a competitor and it has already used it, you can’t use the same branded hashtag for yourself. Even if you use that, it will be useless. Your branded tag is your signature tag that people already have an idea about. You can use your tag line as a central business tag that your customers can use on Instagram or any social site. Before you could implement any branded hashtag, make sure you research on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram. If the name of your company is too frequent, choose a different hashtag name. 

The hashtag should not be hard to remember. It must be easy to spell so that your customers use it without making mistakes. For example, if you have discount designer interior decor items, you can use #discountdecor but never use #discountdesignerdocritems 

Famous brand Kit Kat a hashtag as simple as #haveabreak to build a brand, this hashtag is easy to remember, and you may find authentic images flowing in. 

Campaign hashtag

A campaign hashtag is specifically for a set of your marketing campaigns. If you have a sale going on at your store at the moment, then you can make a unique hashtag to promote your short term sales. Encourage people to use your campaign hashtag, and it will have a higher reach. 

Again before you could choose a campaign hashtag, do your research. Choose a phrase or word which is unique to your promotion. If the hashtag that you are planning to use is already popular on social media, then use a different one. 

Once you choose a unique hashtag, then promote it to engage your customers throughout your exclusive offer. You can ask them to include the hashtag in their posts as a requirement to enter your contest. 

Trending hashtags

A hashtag, which is very popular due to any specific reason, is called trending hashtag. You must have heard of the phrase, what’s trending among youngsters. This way, they often refer to the hashtags that are trending on social media. 

These hashtags are continually changing over time. You can expect a trending hashtag to come and go in no time. Whenever you notice a trending hashtag is similar to your business, engage with it. You can potentially get your business voice seen using some trending hashtags and ultimately drive traffic. This way, you can increase your content reach beyond your friends and followers, and to a broad audience. The good thing is, it’s entirely free! You can adopt this strategy to get 15 seconds of fame getting a one-second spot at the Super Bowl, how cool yeah?

Never spam trending hashtags – Do not post to many trends that are not relevant to your business. It is considered poor etiquette, and spamming can cause your account to be suspended. You can monitor trending hashtags using trends map, statigram, or hashtags.org. Trending hashtags allow you to develop relationships and connect with the targeted market. 

Do you use the hashtag social media marketing strategy provided by the Orange County agency for your business? How successful were you? Let us know!