Wk8-A: How to Expand Your Reach on Instagram by Using Hashtags

 

      Between my two businesses, Whatwolf works best with the visual support that Instagram can provide. I do my best to spread my posts through relevant hashtags when I can remember; it was much more difficult, in my opinion, before Facebook updated their Business Suite to include differing descriptions between the two platforms. With casual freelancing being my current goal using hashtags is an extremely effective way to get my art and my name out with little effort on my part. Studying how other people use hashtags on Instagram has been extremely helpful to me to know some of my target keywords on certain posts. The following are a few of the more recent businesses I've had my eye on in terms of what to do to successfully market myself on Instagram.

Mud N Glass

     I recently discovered Mud N Glass through a Facebook group focused on introducing local artisans and buyers to help support small businesses in your town. I followed a handful of businesses in a link exchange in the group and began to watch for their posts in my feeds to see how an established business uses Instagram to push local and artisan products. One thing that stood out to me with Mud N Glass's hashtag use was they used their business name as a hashtag. I'm not sure why that had never occurred to me but that would help centralize my art if people are looking through posts via tags.

CR Mommy Designs

     CR Mommy Designs uses a lot more hashtags to spread their designs than I usually do. With that I see pros and cons, on one hand, that opens you to more opportunities for growth but on the other, it also opens you up to large amounts of spam or unwanted comments. That being said as CR Mommy Designs is a local-focused business I see that they tag the surrounding cities that they live in as well as relevant phrases to their designs. I.E. on one shirt design they have a quote that says "Just don't give up on yourself" and one of the hashtags used is #youareenough. The use of common verbiage and turns of phrase could be very helpful in reaching product posts further than they may go otherwise.

Fin and Rae

     Fin and Rae make gorgeous handmade macrame wall hangs, planter hangers, and more. They don't use many hashtags but the ones that they do use seem to be quite effective.  Fin and Rae has a focus on macrame-related and hand-made-related hashtags that they use consistently, as macrame is a rather niche market I would assume having a range of macrame hashtags would spread your work further than a generic wall hang or planter holder hashtag.

Lilac and Lace

   Lilac and Lace is an event planning and services business that is locally owned and operated. They make picnic set-ups, weddings, birthday parties, and more. As their business is more far-reaching they use a very wide range of hashtags on each post that covers the range of their services. Using a wall of hashtags can seem overwhelming when seen on the post, unfortunately, but I think in some cases for advertisement that detriment can eventually be used to your advantage by finding customers where you otherwise may not have looked.