How Do You Use Hashtags on Instagram? 5 Tools to Measure Performance

Last Updated on September 10, 2020 by Kuldeep Bisht

Hashtags are indispensable and are a must in your online marketing. If you’re not using them, then should aware of what you’re losing. I recommend you reading this beautiful article by Kim Garst on Why Hashtags are a MUST.

Even though Facebook continues to dominate the social media space, Instagram, despite being a relatively young platform, has quite admirably managed to amass over 600 million active users as of April 2017. Therefore, Instagram advertising has become an essential channel for small business marketers.  And one of the instantly recognizable features of Instagram is the hashtag (#hashtag).

Users employ hashtags to get more views, and it makes sense considering the fact that posts with at least one hashtag experience 12.6 percent more engagement on average.

credit: simplymeasured.com

But when you’re a business owner you cannot just leave it to chance; hard numbers are more reliable. And what better way to gauge the performance of your Instagram hashtags than using tools designed specifically for the task.

When you select one of the five tools discussed below, you’ll be able to achieve your goals through the analysis of hashtag performance:

#1 – Command Analytics and Stats for Instagram

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• This is a great all-in-one analytics and tracking tool for the Instagram platform. Available only for iPhone users, customers can go for a free trial of 14 days after which they’ll have to pay a monthly fee.
• The “Post Stats” part of this application helps you discover the hashtags that provide the maximum engagement for your posts.
• You will also be able to see the average likes and comments your post receives through the use of various hashtags.
• You can use a command to find out which posts have individual hashtags. Such detailed information will come in handy if you’re planning to analyze the efficiency with which your hashtags drive engagement.

Once your engagement begins to rise, it is an indicator that your posts are reaching their intended audience.

#2 – Sprout Social

This is a popular tool for social media management that provides robust reporting capabilities for the Instagram platform. The report offers a simple but comprehensive analysis of your hashtags.

This tool can effectively find out which of your hashtags are used the most often and which of them have the most engagement.

You’re able to map your progress on Instagram as you experiment with new hashtags.

The analysis is pretty simple – a hashtag at the top of both lists means it is working for you; if it is only in the left column, then you might need to reconsider your hashtag strategy.

This tool is extremely helpful if you’re attempting to create an Instagram community. However, you’ll have to track your engagement over time for maximum effectiveness, and this means paying a monthly fee.

#3 – Simply Measured

This is a detailed social tool focusing on listening, analytics, and reporting that provides users a detailed Instagram hashtag report.

Simply Measured allows you to analyze multiple hashtags together, or individually. The latter is the better option as it allows you to compare them against one another. The reports generated by this tool have three sections:

• Charts: Offers a visual representation of deeper insights, like the most engaging moments, who were the most engaged, and the locations of those accounts.
• Scorecard: The results for the hashtag being measured are featured as a snapshot.
• Appendix: Contains a list of posts featuring the hashtag for the duration of the report.

This tool even suggests when you can post the hashtag you are currently measuring. All these features come at a price, however, which depends as per the individual needs of the company.

#4 – Iconosquare

The Iconosquare tool is an expert at scheduling posts, tracking comments, responding to them, and offering in-depth analytics.

Hashtag analysis is available in the higher-priced tiers. The reason why it is so popular because this tool is capable of measuring the engagement of the hashtags used in the posts and assessing the growth of campaign or branded hashtags.

You can use the “Overview” chart to compare different hashtags. The “Engagement” tab found under Analytics also allows you to track engagement levels.

Another reason for the expansive user base of this program is the layout customization features that allow you to choose things like:

• Choose the report’s time period.
• Filter results by type of engagement or type of media.
• View stats in the form of a table or chart.

#5 – Keyhole

This is the tool of choice for various marketers, executives, agencies, and journalists due to its specialized keyword and hashtag tracking features for the Instagram and Twitter platforms.

This program monitors usage statistics on a real-time basis at the account level, giving you access to both campaigns/branded hashtag data and account-level hashtag data.

This tool differs from the rest in one way – it also suggests the ideal number of hashtags to use in a post for the best engagement. This app charges you annually.

Hashtags are important and you need to become an adept at using hashtags properly in your posts. The better you are at the process, the better they will perform, increasing your user engagement.

Like this post? Share your feedback in comments and also let me know your experience with #Hashtags.