[Instagram strategies] Here’s why you should tag yourself in your Instagram Stories that have hashtags

Hashtags in Instagram Stories have evolved since they first rolled out in May 2017.

By the way: Check out my Hashtag Halloween costume here. Other Halloween costume ideas for marketers here.

That’s the nature of hashtags and social media as well as digital marketing strategies. Things change.

And hashtag use in your posts is especially important on Instagram to reach more people – as I discussed on here before.

Despite seeing some decent views of my Instagram Stories I often forget about that channel. Ugh. But I try to post more there!

Now when I post to my Stories I try to remember to use hashtags – especially ones I use often:

#Contentmarketing

#socialmedia

#digitalmarketing

#dadlife

In addition to the hashtag it’s also important to tag myself. Here’s an example of a repurposed Tweet as a Story.

I simply use the text function to add the hashtag. Then I close that one, click on add text again and tag myself.

Some purists might say: “why would you ever tag yourself?”

Here’s why: Hashtags that people follow show up prominently in the Stories bar:

Then within the content marketing hashtag story is my Stories post. That looks like this:

See, it says my name on the top, but it’s small and I find it hard to click on actually.

Calling it out like I did and even circling it gives me a chance to grow my Instagram audience.

Once people click my name, they see my profile CTA and can click over:

I’m a fan of catching up on topics I care about via hashtags on Instagram. It gives me the chance to see content I may have missed.

I’ve seen all kinds of cool things in the virtual reality area that way, for example.

Adding your Instagram name is a quick add and worth trying to see if you can grow your following.