The way photographers and small business owners are using social media is rapidly evolving. When I started my business, Facebook was the ultimate in promoting your business. Since then they’ve changed the way it works a lot and the way we use it has had to adapt. One of the things we’re doing differently is focusing on other forms of social media in addition to Facebook. Instagram is one of my favorites! As a photographer and someone who is very visual in general, Instagram is wonderful!

Hashtags are hugely important to getting seen on Instagram. They’re a way for people to find your work AND they are a way to catalog your work so that someone who clicks your hashtag can see a large variety of your images at once. Here are a couple of my best tips for hash tagging!

1. Use relevant hashtags on each of your photos. I use hashtags that are relevant to my work, like #weddingphotography or #weddingphotographer because people who are looking at those hashtags are likely to click my image and like it or even follow me! Hashtags are huge for getting your work found and for developing a following. I also keep the hashtag #katienesbittphotography going so that I have a home for my images where someone can see a bunch of my work! A key to setting up a hashtag for your business is making sure it’s unique! For example, there are lots of people who might use #knp as a hashtag for one reason or another, but #katienesbittphotography is a lot more unique! If I used #theworkshop for my workshop hashtag, you’d see a lot of things not related to my workshop. But since I use #katienesbittworkshop, almost everything there is unique to my workshop!

2. Add your hashtags in the first comment, not in the image caption. If you’re using a lot of hashtags, it’s a good idea to add them to the first comment of your photo, rather than the caption. It tends to look cluttered if you put them in the comment (depending on how many you use) and if you make them the first comment, when others comment on the photo, the comment with your hashtags will be hidden!

3. Save your most used hashtags to a note on your phone. I typically use a lot of the same hashtags on my photos, so a big time saver for me has been simply saving all of the ones I normally add to a note on my phone. I then copy and paste them into the first comment on the image rather than taking the time to type them all out. Obviously some photos will call for different hashtags, but if you’re generally using a bunch of the same ones, this tip is super helpful!

Bonus tip! To mention people you’re not following, you can search for them by going to “Tag people” and searching for them by their name. Once you see their username you can just type it into the caption to “mention” them that way!

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