Instagram created a wave in social
media because it was the first social networking platform that exclusively used visual content to communicate
rather than conventional text. Since it was designed ground-up for smartphones,
the Instagram app makes it very easy for users to shoot photos, beautify them,
and upload the images to their Instagram accounts on the fly. This convenience
has made it extremely popular with the smartphone generation, especially those
involved in creative pursuits like graphic designers to take to Instagram to
show off their creativity.
However, with more than 95 million
photos being posted by users every day, it can be very easy for users to miss
out on seeing your posts unless you take care to evolve a brand and make use of a
consistent hashtag strategy to improve your visibility and the chances of your
being discovered in Instagram searches by users. Hashtags are essential if you
want to get your posts noticed by your target audience, especially potential
clients.
Good Reasons for Using Hashtags
A clever hashtag strategy can be used
by users, influencers, brands, and businesses to connect and engage with their
potential audience. As a graphic designer, it is not enough to have excellent
design skills, you must also be able to make yourself discoverable to potential
customers, and your peer group so that you can connect with them and engage
with them to open up lucrative opportunities. With regular interaction and
exposure to your creative designs, they could very well become clients or
recommend you to others.
As a graphic designer, some of the most obvious
benefits of a well-chalked-out hashtag strategy include the sharing of
resources, and the ability to highlight your creative portfolio. Building your personal brand, creating networks, following influencers, and with
time building enough authority and follower base to become an influencer yourself.
How Graphic Designers can benefit from Hashtags
Even though both Instagram and the
world of graphic design are extremely dynamic, you can be sure that the
importance of Instagram hashtags will never decline. Proper use of hashtags can
translate into acquiring more followers, increasing the level of engagement, as
well as being able to find more customers. Some specific benefits of using
hashtags for graphic designers:
Stay Updated with the Latest Trends
When you search content by the most
happening hashtags or follow influencers with the help of the hashtags, you can
stay current with the latest trends in graphic design and news in the graphic
design communities. By following these trends, you can keep your creativity
current so that your potential customers will also find your work relevant and
contemporary.
Measure the Performance of Your Content
As a graphic designer when you publish content to your account, you are doing it for the specific purpose of
gathering as many eyeballs as possible. Instagram has now added a new feature
that allows you to monitor and measure the performance of your hashtags. With
this insights tool, you can easily find out about different performance metrics
of your post like the reach, impressions, and from where users came to view
your content.
Increase Viewership of Your Instagram Stories
By adding relevant hashtags to your
Instagram Stories, you can increase the chances of your followers being able to
discover content that they will really like. Using hashtags in Stories is no
different from the usual procedure of adding hashtags to your photo content
captions.
Use the Facility of Clickable Hashtags in Your Bio
Clickable hashtags are a recent
addition to the features being unveiled by Instagram. This update has the
capability of turning profile usernames as well as hashtags embedded in the bio
into clickable hyperlinks with the inclusion of # or @ in the text of the bio
section. By doing this, graphic designers are able to facilitate users to click
to view the content in that account. If you use branded hashtags, you can
highlight branded content and add extra functionality to your Instagram bio.
Create Campaigns Targeted to Specific Audiences
One of the most fundamental reasons for
graphic designers to use Instagram is that they can create targeted campaigns for specific audiences. You can use hashtags in
all your promotions so that they get increased use by way of word-of-mouth
publicity. When your followers use hashtags to view the contents of your
account, their followers also get the opportunity of using the same hashtag and
this results in a multiplier effect that creates a larger base of followers.
Creating an Effective Hashtag Strategy
The inclusion of hashtags in the
graphic design content that you publish to your account cannot be arbitrary if
you want to get the best results. It is essential to have a proper hashtag
strategy. You need to plan ahead regarding what you want to achieve and think
of the most relevant and important hashtags that you can apply. With a
structured approach, you can create posts that connect with the audience you
want to reach. You should only use hashtags that are relevant and for this, you
need to engage in research as well as find out what the current trends are.
It has been observed that if you use
location-specific hashtags, more users tend to reach out and connect as they
are attempting to solve their own problems locally. Even videos that are
helpful in adding more detail than what is possible in a still photo can be
posted with appropriate location-specific hashtags to attract the attention of
users looking out for local solutions.
Using location-specific hashtags also enables you to reach out to specific audiences faster and more effectively than the competition and that can be a great advantage. Apart from the generic hashtags that you need to use, you should also brand your hashtags as well as use custom hashtags that are more relevant to your niche in graphic design. A Simply Measured study quoted by Sprout Social affirms that today, some 70% of hashtags are branded.
Using location-specific hashtags also enables you to reach out to specific audiences faster and more effectively than the competition and that can be a great advantage. Apart from the generic hashtags that you need to use, you should also brand your hashtags as well as use custom hashtags that are more relevant to your niche in graphic design. A Simply Measured study quoted by Sprout Social affirms that today, some 70% of hashtags are branded.
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