How to Instagram Part 2 of Many!!!

Hi everyone and thank you for reading my blog.

Welcome to Part 2 of the "How to Instagram" Series of my blog. This blog is obviously about #Hashtags so let me get right into explaining what they are, how they work and why you should be using them when you post to social media. #Hashtags, when I was younger, were simply known as the pound or number sign, but sometime in the year 2007, Chris Messina, a social technology expert, came up with the very first hashtag on Twitter. He first posted the hashtag #barcamp in August 2007. The whole tweet appeared like this: ? (On Twitter) how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]??

This idea caught on fast and now you can see #Hashtags everywhere. #Hashtags are now used to categorize or "Tag" our posts. Simply add a # in front of the word or words of your choice, that post is now attached to that category or #Hashtag. The way you can use this on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter is very simple. Use #Hashtags that are relevant to what you are doing, using, sharing or hope to accomplish. This will put your posts in front of people who have similar likes or interests. There are some #hashtags that are used to generate post likes like #L4L (Like 4 Like). Always keep your marketing goal in mind.

What has really helped to progress the usefulness of #Hashtags is something called "metadata." Metadata is data that describes other data. In the case of #Hashtags, it is the data that you look at or search for on your devices. Because everything is linked together, when you search for a home on realtor.com or zillow, your devices relay the metadata to your other apps and devices, so that when you open Facebook, Instagram or any app with advertising, you will see advertisements related to your recent searches. When you like a post that has a hashtag, that metadata is used to put more posts with similar or the same hashtags in front of you. Then eventually, on Instagram, it will ask you if you would like to follow that #Hashtag because you have liked posts that share it.

HOW DO YOU APPLY THIS?

Let's say you have a new home for sale in Belmar, NJ. When you post the photos and slideshows that I have created for you, you post them with your message followed by #belmarnj #njhomesforsale #njrealestate #jerseyshore #njrealestateinvestors #monmouthcountyrealestate #oceancountyrealestate #whateveryoucanthinkof. Now this post will be attached to those #hashtags. People can search and follow #Hashtags on the different social media platforms or even google. People who have already liked those hashtags will have your post put in front of them. Of course there are other factors like time of day, location and their other metadata that comes in to play, so don't be surprised to learn that out of the 13,127,985,457 who follow #RealEstate on 10 saw your post. There are a lot of posts with in that category or hashtag, so be a little more specific and don't be afraid to use multiple hashtags until you find the ones that get you the best results. There is always the option to pay for marketing as well. We will cover the "BOOST" options on a different blog.

Simplified Explanation

A more basic explanation might be to say that when you #Hashtag a post, you are saying it belongs with a specific or broad group of other posts rather than simply alone on your page or profile. They help to call attention to posts that would otherwise not be shared with such a large group of people.

I hope this all made sense to you. Feel free to email me any questions you might have.

ShoreThingMkg@gmail.com

When you get to this screen you are ready to type your message, add your #Hashtags and Publish. In the space they give you, type what you would like to say, this is not always seen or looked at. Then add your #Hashtags. When you type #(anything) a list of previously created or used #Hashtags will come up. Try is by typing #realestate. You can select from there or just type out your #hashtags. After you finish entering your message and #Hashtags Click OK in the top right of the screen. Then Click Share in the top right of your screen and your post will be published.

There are other options to explore after you click OK, but we will have to go over that in another blog.