Honestly, there are different ways in which you can use hashtags for personal branding in the most effective manner. However, the most interesting and effective way of using the hashtag is by using the right number of hashtag necessary out of all 30 of it and placing them after your caption. You may use dots or underscores if you prefer. Make sure that you post these hashtag as the first comment on your post.
Experts say that for the best results you should use:
- 1/3 or 10 hashtags with over 1 million posts
- 1/3 or again 10hashtag on an average for more than a hundred thousand and less than one million posts and
- 1/3 or 10 hashtags as very specific or new ones for less than fifty thousand posts.
This specific approach will raise the chances of being visualized by other users by a lot. However, you must keep in mind that you are allowed to use only 30 hashtags in a single post.
When it comes to personal branding, following the rule of thumb is the best way when it comes to using a hashtag. The rule of thumb does not say that you should never fill your social media posts with lots of hashtags and give it a cluttered look and make it difficult to understand by your users. Instead, you must do the following:
Select the best and most appropriate hashtag or hashtag that will best represent your brand and niche
- Restrict your use to not more than two hashtags for one post
- Keep a proper track of the hashtag you have picked and
- Maintain consistency in using the hashtag for your posts.
Different social media managers and entrepreneurs even suggest that it will help you a lot if you tweet your contents again if it is shared by someone else. This will help you to build an instant and strong relationship and get noticed as well. Another significant benefit about re-sharing posts and updates from other designers and design brands is that your Instagram feed will not be all about you only.
Hashtags that suits best
To start with, you must find those hashtags that suit and serves your purpose the best. You can take help of experts and visit sites such as https://gramblast.com or others or can do it by you following these simple steps:
Content and audience: First you must identify your audience and content so that you can relate between the two when you use a hashtag. Since on Instagram, you have a maximum of 30 hashtags to use you are given a lot of options considering your target audience and hashtags.
You can choose those that will describe:
- The content
- The post
- The target audience and
- The specific subject.
Use only relevant hashtags and always check out what your competitors are using to make it work best for you as well. Never use random hashtags as that will create a negative impact about your account and the users may mark it as unrelated. It will potentially lead to your account not being followed at all or even been shown.
Follow the hashtags: Make it a point that you follow the hashtags. This is important because Instagram usually will generate the same tags that you are interested in following based on the ones that you already follow. This approach will, in turn, give you the basic idea about how you can add more hashtags to your posts. It will also provide you with valuable insights regarding the similar contents that may work for you.
The numbers: In addition to the type of hashtags, you must also pay attention to the numbers when you search for hashtags. This number will be shown below the hashtags. This will help you in several ways such as:
- You will know the number of posts that are currently tagged with the hashtag. If the number is high, it is less likely that your post will be included in the top posts for it or even being noticed with that same hashtag.
- It will help you to find the right mix of most used hashtags along with a few that are more popular and relevant to your content.
Hide the hashtag: Make sure that your Instagram post does not have a caption that is cluttered with all 30 hashtags. To prevent this, you must hide a few of your hashtag. You can do it in two specific ways such as:
- Not including the hashtag in the caption but adding them as a comment once the photo is posted or
- By adding a break after your caption with an inclusion of a dot and pressing “return.”
You can repeat this for five times after which you eventually add your hashtags. However, remember that you are not required to use all 30 hashtags that Instagram allows you to include in each post. It is best that you keep your number to eleven on the highest side to have the best user engagement level.
Lastly, you should use location and day-specific hashtag for better branding and more engagement.
Adding location-specific hashtag will allow you to reach out to your local audience and let them know what is happening in their hometowns. This will help you to garner new users and interests on that to share their experiences.
Also, make sure that you use the Instagram daily hashtag as per the days of the week. This is a great way to stay connected with your users and also be up to date. According to a Hootsuite study, Mondays and Thursdays are considered to be the most result driven day to post on Instagram. You will find a plethora of options to choose from here depending on your needs. Apart from that, you can use Tuesday and Wednesday hashtags though these may not be as productive as the other weekday hashtags.
However, the concept of the daily hashtag is a broad church and you can customize these as per the need of your industry or your company culture.
