Week 8 Expanding Your Reach on Instagram By Using Hashtags

 

To hashtag or not to hashtag

In the field of interior design, it definitely works best when having visual support of photos and videos.  It helps to show photos of each room when designing.  Allowing the follower to visually see fabrics, tile, paint colors, and decor items is very important.  When doing DIY projects it helps to post videos as well as step by step instructions so that they can hopefully achieve and complete a design project of their own. It helps to give them info on what products to use and one way you can let them know is by using hashtags. 

Most of the similar businesses that I looked at and now follow all use Instagram for their main platform and do use hashtags, some more than others. I did notice that it is nice to be able to look up a subject like bookshelf styling using a hashtag like #shelfstyling.  One designer, @kismet_house, that I really like does use a lot of hashtags per post. She has 360,000 followers and has done 1,720 posts. She uses some of the following hashtags:

#homedecor

#decor

#homeinspo

#diy

#kitchen

#styled

I then looked up the following similar businesses and they also use hashtags but not many:

@studiomcgee-they have 1.4 million followers and only 3,750 posts. They hardly use hashtags.

@Jeanstofferdesign has 210,000 followers and 1,300 posts and occasionally uses hashtags too.

@Tiffanyleighdesign 33,400 followers and 1,700 posts.  She uses one hashtag and that is her other business #tldcurated as well as one hashtag per client project for example #projectwilliams.

@kindredvintage has 355,000 followers and 1,385 posts. She does use hastags here and there with a paint company name or product she bought and used.  They all pertain to her vintage old home style.

All of the above design instagram accounts receive lots of comments per photo and have beautiful photos.  After looking further into hashtags and their use, I will definitely try to use appropriate hashtags for my posts as I grow my account as I learned they help to draw more customers.