Instagram is such social networking app made for sharing photos and videos from your mobile device (IOS or Android). Not only is this social media application insanely popular, it is hugely interactive and dynamic. Instagram is all about following and having followers who keep up to date with your virtual sharing, the more followers you have the more popular your page becomes and the more it is seen and shared. But, how do you make sure that you have many followers? There are many ways to do this. but hashtags are one of the most effective tools to achieve this. Let’s look at, how to use hashtags to get more followers on Instagram.
Image: mlabs.com.br
What are hashtags?
A hashtag is a type of metadata sign used on social media. A hashtag is a word or phrase followed by the hash sign # . On Instagram, as well as other social media applications, hashtags functions as a form of online linking, and is essentially a type of hyperlink that when clicked (searched) will take you to a search results page. For example, if I post a photo of coffee on my Instagram and share it with a caption #coffee: anyone who searches this hashtag from their device will enter a forum where my photo will appear, along with all other photos that contain the same hashtag.
It is also important to remember that with hashtags shouldn’t space phrases. For example #I love you should be written #Iloveyou.
How to be different
Some hashtags are very popular like #love, #cute, #lol etc. If you caption your image with a similar hashtag, it will be a part of a group containing millions of pictures with the same hashtag. So, it is recommended to try and create unique or less likely to be popular hashtags. For example, you want to caption your wedding photo. You might use #weddingfun or #hitchedforlife instead of #fun or #life or #wedding. Look at this list for more tips on how to hashtag:
- The popular photo editing app VSCO Cam also has its own hashtag. So if you use this app, you can hashtag these Instagram pictures with: #vsco or #vscocam #vscocamdaily, etc. This hashtag holds many followers.
- We also recommend hashtagging in categories. Who’s attention are you wanting? Think about where you want your photo to go and who you want to see it. Also, bare in mind. Keep the hashtag relevant. If you are captioning a photo of dogs you will not #cats.
- When you hashtag photos, you can also make it location specific.
- There are also hyper-popular hashtags that are increasingly searched and made specifically for people who are looking for followers. These include : #like4like , #follow4follow .
- Check out the website hashtagify.me to see: what hashtags are trending, what hashtags are influencing, what is being searched and keep up to date with the world of Instagram hashtags.
- Add hashtags to your Instagram stories! This way your page will get more exposure with people who search the hashtag will also see your live feed and if it is interesting to them they will follow you.
- To find interesting and different hashtags, you can also check the website Keyhole. This website will allow you to track hashtags and see what is trending, similar to hashtagify.
- Understand instagram analytics, this will allow you to see where you are on the application and keep an eye on your content performance level. Once you know where you are, you can figure out which hashtags you can use to get more followers.
Number of hashtags to use
Opinion is divided on this one. Some recommend not using more than 3, while there has been data about the interaction level in relation to the number of hashtags on an image. You can technically include a maximum of 30 hashtags in one caption, however, we do not recommend that you do this. It’s been observed that pictures with at least 11 hashtags have the highest searches followed by 9+ and then 5+. So when you are looking at increasing your number of followers, do keep this statistic in mind and appropriately caption your images. Less but popular captions will make sure your pictures are noticed, but they will be lost in the ocean of images, while more interesting captions might make it unique and hence more relevant.
How Do You Caption The Pictures?
There are some pretty simple “rules” that you can follow to get more followers on Instagram. Always include the location/place where the picture was taken like #Venice, #DisneyLand, #School. You could also include the type of camera you used like #SonySLR, #iphone5s, #Samsung. The occasion is another factor, so #Graduation, #Wedding, #NewYearsEve are good hashtags to use. Adding your username to all pictures will give them a unique identity too.
If you want to read similar articles to How To Use Hashtags To Get More Followers On Instagram, we recommend you visit our Internet category.