As a business, it’s an utmost priority to engage as much of the audience as possible. Social media platforms have provided us with the luxury of staying connected with each other so billions of people are using the network to get in touch with their friends, loved ones, and colleagues.
Some of the topmost used social media apps are Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc.
Instagram is known to attract numerous users all around the world. This picture-sharing app is no longer solely for the purpose of personal use. Most businesses are now branding themselves using Instagram as it helps them to connect with their marketplaces and potential customers.
But how could you productively use Instagram to attract prospective customers to your business? The use of hashtags is very effective when it comes to branding your business. These tags work like keywords when used in Instagram posts, media presentations, and videos.
What are hashtags?
Hashtags are a single word or small phrase followed by a pound sign (#). They convert a simple word or term into a searchable keyword, let’s say if your business is about legos, you can create relevant tags by using a pound sign with it.
Your hashtag would be something like #legos. Hashtags are clickable and lead you to similar accounts or posts that use the same word or phrase.
Some basics for hashtags
- They must start with the # sign without any punctuations or spaces.
- Instagram Account should be public for it so whenever someone clicks on the hashtags you have created they would be able to land on your Instagram page.
- Hashtags should be short-length and precise.
- Make sure that the word/phrase you are using in these tags is relevant to the post.
- Spamming hashtags does not ensure better results. Therefore, you should not flood each post with hashtags.
Why are hashtags Important?
1. Brand Awareness
The use of hashtags greatly helps in brand awareness. For example, when Nike launched the “Just Do IT” slogan, people shared designs of products with their loved ones and friends after buying them from the company.
Eventually, this word-of-mouth marketing from the customers directly gave a boost to the company’s online business and the sales kept rolling in a massive number every single day.
Similarly, the use of hashtags can make prospective customers know about your catchphrase, brand, new products, and services. Using the same promotional hashtags can lead to a high volume of traffic to your product landing page.
Make sure that your hashtags are searchable as well.
Even if you are using multiple hashtags for different products, you must use a couple of specific hashtags in all of your posts. For instance, Nike would always include the hashtag #nike in the posts to keep spreading awareness about its brand.
It creates a powerful impact on brand recognition and growth itself.
2. Targeting the desired audience
Hashtags are a great asset to promote your business to a particular audience or followers. Almost all business accounts rely heavily on optimizing their posts with hashtags these days because they help in boosting the search volume to their posts organically.
The usage of hashtags attracts even those users who do not currently follow your account. They might find your page, post or video through a search tool and come to know about the products that you are selling.
It can increase your follower count which eventually and leads to better sales for sure.
The more followers you have the higher your chances of growing your business. You can also buy Instagram followers as some websites are providing that service if you are currently a startup business or have less follower count.
3. Connect with followers
One thing that people love the most is to feel important and connected. The use of hashtags makes your customers and your followers feel connected. Any customers would write “Nike” in the search bar first if they intend to look for new promotions and the hashtag would help them directly to the new promotions.
There might be many great hashtags that people are searching for daily. You must conduct research on the most relevant keywords that the customers are using to find products related to your niches.
Using more keywords or hashtags that present your content would help you amplify the sales drastically through the social network.
4: Smart Marketing
Although using hashtags is somewhat important in the promotion of content, visual media, images, and posts that you intend to share on your Instagram account yet you must refrain from overdoing it.
Too many irrelevant tags might kill your posts, making them appear like nothing but a promotional advertisement to the customers.
Use smart marketing methods to convince your customers to purchase the items. Meaning that you need to first focus on designing a good ad of the product or services using creative story, script and graphics.
Once your ad is ready, you need to come with good captions, a contextual description, and a pitch line.
Add a call to action button at the end of the video. Use the main hashtags of your brand along with new ones that you believe would present your new products and services in a satisfying manner.
In the end, I would suggest you be more productive and creative when it comes to creating content for your Instagram business profiles.
Sometimes you don’t even have to opt for third-party marketing services and invest a large sum of money on running ads for your company if you succeed in getting enough exposure for free on major social networks like Facebook and Instagram.
The key to optimizing your posts on these networks is hidden in using hashtags correctly, modestly, and wisely.
