Make Instagram Hashtags Work for You

The following is a guest column.

It’s no secret that the fastest way for travel brands to engage customers and prospects is through visual content.

With more than 200 million monthly users, Instagram has taken the social media world by storm and created the perfect platform for travel agents, suppliers and destinations to showcase their offerings in a unique way.

Because Instagram is such an ideal setting for new engagement, it’s surprising that more agents aren’t better leveraging this medium with more compelling hashtags to encourage more user-generated content and increase targeted engagement.

Strategic use of hastags
Chances are you can think of at least one or two accounts that use lines upon lines of over generalized hashtags, which is the digital equivalent of throwing you-know-what at the wall to see what sticks.

There is a way to strategically use hashtags and contribute to the conversation across platforms without annoying your followers.

Important questions
Ask yourself these questions: In looking at the hashtags you frequently use personally and on your agencie’s pages, do you notice any trends? Are you double checking for relevancy?

Create a list of your go-to hashtags and run a quick search to see if they’re as relevant as you think.

If there are too many or too few results, you may want to reevaluate your messaging strategy.

Identify your hashtags
Here are four ways to help you identify what sorts of tags you’re relying on by classifying the different types of hastags:

1.  Branded
Thesee are hashtags you create for your agency’s own event, milestone or campaign.
This enables you to track the reach and efficacy of the conversation surrounding a specific message your brand is trying to communicate.

Examples: #OnlyinSF, #IWannaGo Travelocity,   #TourismMatters (This does not include simply putting your brand in a hashtag:  #CarnivalCruise, #VirginAmerica.)

In order to gain traction with a branded tag, you will need to support it with relevant content and frequency, and of course, ambassadors to embrace the message. Try to leverage these on your other social pages to help increase adoption.

2.  Ongoing Conversations
These will happen whether you elect to participate or not.

Examples: #tbt, #MotivationMonday, #TravelTuesday or #SelfieSunday

Find a conversation that best aligns with your audience and embrace it with relevant content. Be respectful of the conversation and don’t try to shift it to heavy-handed branding.

If done correctly, this could be a great opportunity to connect with clients on the periphery of your brand targeting.

3.  Events
Current events will always be trending.

Examples: World Cup, Olympics, newsworthy events, celebrity gossip

If you’re not directly a sponsor or affected by these events, tread lightly and have a concrete vision of how the content you’re putting out ties back to your brand pillars.

4.  Junk / Miscellaneous
This is an area in which I like to lump general descriptors such as emotions, weather, places, etc.  This is also the place for hashtags so specific that there isn’t a conversation.  
 
These are best used for things like killer photography and recipes.

While technically this definition would include cities—which can sometimes be helpful as a best practice—it’s always better to be more specific.

For example: #Cincytravel would be preferred to  #Cincinnati #travel because when they are separated, they are both lost in a sea of unrelated and general posts.

General best practice
The best practice is general hold that the more directed you can be with your hashtags, the better you will connect with your followers.

Instead of overloading your posts with tags, try to selectively add one from each of these four areas and your own company hashtag.

Don’t forget to promote any branded or campaign hashtags via other outlets and share that great user-generated content.
 

Allison Schroeder is a public relations and social media strategist with experience representing major travel and tourism organizations as well as consumer goods and service brands. She is also an avid traveler. You can follow her marketing insights and travel musings on twitter: @abrinkman.