With social networking sites, such as Instagram, becoming increasingly popular and an important part of our daily lives it is vital to stay updated on the latest trends. Did you know that something as small as one hashtag can predict the success rate of your post?

The fact is, that an Instagram post with at least one hashtag averages 12.6% more engagement, than a post without a hashtag. So if you are after a successful Instagram profile you’ll want to be using them, to the best of your ability.

Are struggling to keep your audience engaged on Instagram? Do you feel like you’re creating quality content but your efforts aren’t reflected in your engagement rate? Then you have come to the right place.

We all like the thought of a quick-fix solution when it comes to social media engagement. You’re not the only one who has bought into hashtag generators in hopes to bump up engagement. The truth is the likelihood of your Instagram engagement growing overnight is small!

The best advice we can give to you is to steer clear of these pesky hashtag generators all together! These generators generally create hashtags with large volumes. In short, this means that your, super cute, #ootd will end up in a sea of photos and won’t rank in the top posts.

With 95 million photos posted to Instagram each day, you want to make sure you are using quality Instagram hashtags that will help to grow your Instagram account. Do you see where I am going here? Instagram really is a sea full of photos! Therefore, I have compiled some tried and true methods to help improve your Instagram engagement rate using hashtags.

Get Your Workbook Out And Do Your Research!

We’ve all seen a list of hashtags on an Instagram post, right? Or even a branded hashtag carefully situated in content. Most of us have probably even used a trending hashtag plenty of times in the past. Well, it’s time to do your research and find out which ones work for you and your Instagram profile.

Do you have favourite content creators that you aspire to? Well, let’s start there then! There is so much information readily available to improve your growth rate. You just have to look for it!

Research tips

• Get inspired by larger accounts with a similar Instagram profile. They’ve been in your position so use their social media marketing wisdom.
• Find out what hashtags are being used on popular posts and borrow them for your own content.
• Look out for relevant hashtags that your audience is using. You know they are already interested in this content and usually looking for more to satisfy their needs.
• Figure out the best times to post the type of content you have created and you will see your engagement grow!

Let’s Conduct An Experiment Shall We?

So, now you are ready to post your photo or video. Before you get too click-happy remember to add some of those hashtags that you have previously researched. You have prepared for this and you should have specific hashtags in mind by now. The best way is to jump right in and see what works for your user-generated content.

Trial and Error tips

Start small with hashtags. I would recommend using around seven, to begin with. There’s nothing worse than overwhelming yourself or your followers.

• Start small with hashtags. I would recommend using around seven, to begin with. There’s nothing worse than overwhelming yourself or your followers.
• Create an excel sheet to track, which hashtags see the most growth.
• Check the performance of your hashtags through your Instagram analytics.
• After a while, you will be able to see which hashtags perform the best for your account.
• Keep a note of those hashtags that see positive results.

Get Creative, Picasso!

This is the fun part where you can create your very own hashtag campaign. Creating hashtags is regularly used in social media marketing, as a valuable marketing strategy. Although this does not always have to be the case, as anyone can create a hashtag. You get to be the creator this time and ultimately the decision is in your hands.

#createthathashtag

• Keep it short and make it memorable so that it will see higher engagement traffic.
• It has to be relevant to your topic, otherwise, it won’t make sense to your audience.
• Make sure that it is unique and hasn’t already been used or it may get lost in the world of social media.
• Consider spelling and avoid commonly misspelled words, as you want it to be easy for people to find.

All in all, hashtags will get your Instagram account noticed and will build up followers who are genuinely interested in your content.

If you follow these tips it will help your posts get discovered by the people most interested in seeing them. Remember to post consistently and actively engage with your audience and this will help to grow your audience. Hashtags are a great way to improve your Instagram engagement and gain visibility beyond your followers.

After all, the most common goal of having an Instagram presence is to grow and prosper. Like with any piece of work if you dedicate the time and effort into your research, conduct experiments and get creative you will definitely reap the benefits. In this case, it will be in the form of high, organic engagement rates.

Having a presence on at least one social networking site is the key to a successful business. Whether it be an active Instagram profile, an on-point Facebook Ad or a trending Twitter hashtag, it will have a positive impact on your business.

Implementing these strategies will see your business skyrocket! That is exactly why we are offering you our FREE, 30-minute, strategy session, where we will share our expert knowledge with you and will vastly improve your business prospects.