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5 Ways to Use Branded Hashtags to Build Your Community

Branded hashtags

If you want to build a wonderfully engaged Instagram community, it might be time to consider making a branded hashtag. Branded hashtags are a great way to build an engaged community around your brand.  Instagram challenges with branded hashtags are fun, encourage participation on your channels and build your authority in your niche!

How to Create a Branded Hashtag

Remember, hashtags are great for branding and a way to bring like-minded Instagram users together.  When creating your own branded hashtag, the first and obvious thing to do is to and  First, make sure that the Hashtag is not in use. Second, make sure it is a hashtag that can be easily identified as part of your brand and easy to remember.  And third, Keep is simple. You want your hashtag to be easy to remember and spell.

Examples include my own: #everydayphotoaday  and #eyecandyholidaychallenge. Each one uses some form of my blog name in it ( Everyday and/or Eyecandy) to make it easy to associate with my brand.

5 Ways to Use Branded Hashtags to build your Community

1. Build a hashtag around a challenge

My own hashtags are built around my quarterly photo-a-day challenges. Everyone who participates uses the hashtags when posting the photo of the day. The hashtags become their own communities and people come to associate my brand with these challenges.

Examples include my own #everydayeyecandy! 

2. Use a branded hashtag to collect user-generated content

Hashtags come in handy to keep track of entries you are running a contest or a giveaway. Brands often ask followers to use a specific hashtag and post it to their feed for a chance to win a prize.

Visit our friends and Twitter party masters at Forward Influence for examples of how to use branded hashtags for their #GNO giveaways and contests. 

3. Create a branded hashtag for your event

If you are running a retreat or a conference, use a branded hashtag for your event!  Pick a hashtag before your event and encourage participants to share content surrounding your event with the hashtag. This helps to drive engagement around your event and helps you to organize all the posts from your event under one hashtag.

Examples include our own #mom2summit hashtag for our yearly Mom2Summit, plus year-round conversation in our community.

4. Use a branded hashtag around a product, course or community outside of Instagram.

When you launch a course or product or create a community OFFLINE, use a branded hashtag to spread the word! When you create a branded hashtag for your product, you can reach new people who are interested in the content of your product or community.

A great example is Natasha Nicholes#WeSowWeGrow. 

 5.Use a Hashtag to Create a Movement

Finally, use a hashtag to inspire your community. There is a lot of negativity in the world, but you can use your platform for good. Use your branded hashtag to inspire your community and to bring people together.

A great example of this is the body positive #Justwearthesuit by Lipgloss and Crayons. All summer, moms shared photos of themselves in swimsuits, with stories about confidence and overcoming physical insecurities. It’s a powerful community. 

Now go make a branded hashtag! What are some of your favorites?


Photo by Randalyn Hill on Unsplash.