Instagram’s recent keyword search change may not be the platform’s “sexiest” update, but it is a very useful one.
As marketers, we’ve all been waiting for this one, because this update may help your posts get found even if you haven’t used a specific hashtag – which has been the only way to really search for content on the network until now.
In this post, I’ll outline three ways in which you can use Instagram keyword search to help ensure that your posts get found, even when you don’t use hashtags.
Customer Engagement and Account Growth
One of the biggest opportunities for business’ to take advantage of Instagram keyword search is being able to find customers.
With the state of social media, taking time to engage with your potential audience is key for growth. You can now search for posts by using the keywords your ideal customer might use within their caption.
This is great for finding new people to interact with, and to spark conversations to build relationships using social media. This method of growth takes really getting to know your audience, and what their interests are outside of your brand, in order to hone in on what keywords and phrases to search.
Instagram’s keyword search tool also enables you to find brand mentions that you may have missed before because your customer didn’t tag you or use your brand’s hashtag.
Market Research and Competitive Analysis
Social listening can help improve your social media growth because it enables you to conduct competitor analysis and get into the minds of your ideal customers.
With Instagram’s keyword search tool, you’ll now be able to look up your competitor’s keywords and see what their audience has to say about them. You’ll also be able to see if your customers speak about pain points, which you can help solve with your product or service.
All of this helps with creating better content that resonates with your audience, thereby boosting your social media presence.
Get Found By Your Ideal Customer
Last but not least, Instagram keyword search can help your business grow on social media because it can make it easier for customers to find you.
My agency has always made it a point to use keywords in the captions we create for clients, and now it will pay off more than ever. While, in the past, this tactic has helped posts rank higher on search engines, now it will also help customers find your business on Instagram.
Although Instagram’s addition of keyword search may feel like a very mundane update, it’s exciting to think about the possibilities it brings to expanding your audience and conversions from the network.
Which one of these tactics will you implement?
A version of this post was first published on the Dhariana Lozano’s blog.
