BECOMING #INSTA-TASTIC

Engagement with brands on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook, 54 times higher than Pinterest, and 84 times higher than Twitter. 51% of users say they access the platform daily, with 35% saying they access it multiple times a day. The platform is insanely popular – everyday new people are coming to Instagram, posting pictures and it’s becoming harder to stand out.

HOW TO #HASHTAG LIKE A PRO

It’s important to identify your audience. In order to achieve the most success on Instagram, you don’t just want followers, you want engaged followers. You can feature up to twenty-eight hashtags. According to one study, posts with at least one hashtag average 12.6% more engagement. The best hashtags relate to both your post content and your audience. Using hashtags is a key component of your audience engagement.

Remember, you do not have to use all the hashtags that Instagram allows you per post, but each hashtag is an opportunity, so don’t scrimp on featuring the right ones. Instagram users have found that posts with at least 11 hashtags have the best engagement, but there is more to it than just popping a few at the end of your post.

#HOTEL HASHTAG CHECKLIST

Check out what your competitors are using for hashtags

See what works for them. Don’t just blindly copy all of them, but go through them one by one and think about which ones might really apply to you. Think aspirationally, and don’t be afraid to hashtag what you’d like to appear for or be associated with. Think laterally – if it’s an interior shot with a bathtub, interior-lovers will be interested so seek out relevant interior and bathroom décor hashtags. Too many hospitality businesses aren’t really bothering, so a little effort can go a long way here.

Follow hashtags

Once you follow hashtags, Instagram will generate similar tags you may be interested in following based on the ones you already do. This will give you ideas for more hashtags to add to your posts, as well as insight into similar content that may work for competing businesses.

Pay attention to the numbers

When you search for hotel hashtags, you will notice a number below that (see below). That number indicates how many posts are currently tagged with that hashtag. The higher the number, the less likely your post will be noticed or included in the top posts for that specific hashtag, BUT that doesn’t mean you should ignore any hashtag that’s been used a lot. Ideally, you would find a mix of hashtags, with the usage ranging from a few hundred to 500,000, and maybe throw in some larger popular hashtags that are relevant to your content.

As you start to type in a hashtag, Instagram will make suggestions, alternatively, go into search and type the topic that your picture is of, so if it’s of Edinburgh, go to search, enter this, and go to tags to see what comes up so you can start to see some of the most popular tags. Some people say that you should just look at the size of the hashtag and decide this way, but top influencers recommend that you don’t discount big hashtags on this basis.

Click into them and see how easy, difficult or competitive it is to get into the ‘top posts’ for the hashtag. Take a look at what is showing there, and how many likes the posts have. You might find that you could get into the top posts if you get something fairly low like 200 likes. This is a bit more manageable.

The aim is to find hashtags that are accessible to us all, so we’re going to keep scrolling. Keep following the same process (see below).

Don’t use the same set of hashtags on every Instagram post

If you keep using the same set of hashtags on every post, you are at risk of being marked as a spam account. If this happens, your posts won’t show up under any of the tags you used, rendering them completely useless. To avoid this, you can save different groups of hashtags in your notes to copy and paste onto your posts.

Keep learning

Keep looking at what other Instagrammers are up to and what’s working for them. Revisit your posts, see whether you made it into ‘Top Posts’ for a #hashtag, and keep doing what works.

“HASHTAG RESEARCH CAN, AND SHOULD, TAKE A FAIR AMOUNT OF TIME. BIG INFLUENCERS MAY TAKE UP TO AN HOUR IF THEY ARE REALLY GOING FOR IT. YOU GET WHAT YOU PUT IN HERE.”
Girl vs Globe, Travel Blogger & Influencer
(93,000 followers)