Begin to Brand Yourself

Start by creating your own hashtag. For example, #DigitalFaces.

There’s also two important questions you need to answer:

1. Are you a local business?
2. Or, are you an online/virtual business?

If you are a local based business, then research what hashtags are currently being used by your city and the people within it. You can begin this by simply going into the search page in your Instagram app, switching to the “tags” section, and typing in your city name. The results of that search will show you how many people are using that particular tag, and when you click on it, it will also bring up related searched for you to gather ideas about what hashtags are trending and how they can be applied to your business.

Bonus tip: Make some time to research the hashtags in the surrounding areas as well, you want to know everything the local community is talking about so you can best apply relevant Instagram tags to your business in order to optimize your discoverability.

If you are a virtual based business, then begin by identifying 2-3 key niches that you want to dive into. For an online marketing company like Digital Faces, typing in #WebDesign as an Instagram hashtag will yield over a million search results.

If a hashtag has 1M+ results, don’t use it!

That’s because the results feed is too saturated. By the time you make a post with the hashtag #WebDesign, it will be hidden by other more recent or popular posts using the same tag. You want to find Instagram tags that have between 1500 and 250K results. The reason for this is because it will allow your post to last longer in that results page without being hidden or suppressed like it would in a more saturated hashtag feed.

In Summary

If you’re a local business, start researching local tags that can be applied to your business. A good starting point is to simply search for your city name in the “Tags” tab. For example, #Los Angeles or #Corona. Then you can follow those hashtag feeds to find other relevant searches.

For a virtual business, you want to begin by identifying 2-3 niches that you want to associate with your business. Instead of broadly searching for something like #WebDesign, search for #LosAngelesWedDesigner or #WebDesignCorona. Once you gather enough relevant tags for your business, you are ready to post.

For both local and virtual businesses, you want to find tags that have between 1500 and 250K search results. Any more than that and your posts will never last on the results page because the tag is too saturated or “busy”.

Remember, hashtags provide a way for your clients to find you! If you can effectively find relevant Instagram hashtags, then you will be able to put your content in front of the right people and drive more interest and leads to your business.