We love the way Instagram has made it super easy for our customers and fans to share photos with us, and for us to share photos with them! We are definitely big fans of Insta and all the connections we've made through it, like our amazing Brand Reps! (Find out more about Brand Repping on Instagram in this article.)
If you are wanting to get into Brand Repping, or just share your photos with your favorite boutiques and brands on Instagram, there are a few things you need to know to get noticed.
Instagram is a bit different for a brand with lots of fans than for a personal page, so tagging the right way can help keep your photos from getting passed by!
Ways to Tag on Instagram
You have probably heard of hashtags, @mentions, and tagging people on Instagram, but when does it make a difference and which one should you use?
Tagging People
This is one of the best ways to get noticed by a brand! You'll notice that when you post a new photo (or edit and existing photo,) you get the option to "Tag People" below the photo. If you are posting a photo that includes an item or outfit from The Hair Bow Company, just tap the item in the photo and type our Instagram name (@thehairbowco) to tag us!
Why is this the best way to tag?
For one reason, we get a notification any time someone tags us in a photo.
The second, and probably most important reason, is that the tagged photos always show up in our "Photos of You" tab in Instagram so we can go back and find these tagged photos at anytime, even if we missed the notification!
# Hashtagging
We bet you've already used these fun tags to share you photos and add to the meaning of your captions! If you want to use hashtags to get noticed by your favorite brands and boutiques, you need to pay attention to the hashtags they ask you to use. For example, we share fan photos weekly and ask our fans to use the #thehairbowcofan for a chance to be a featured fan.
We include a reminder to use this hashtag with every order too! We look at this hashtag every week to find fans to feature, so if you are not using this tag, your photos are not in the running for the featured fan photo! Just make sure to pay attention to the brand you are trying to reach out to, they will most likely tell you in their posts which tags to use to get noticed.
@Mentions
When you use a person or brand's Instagram handle (like @thehairbowco) in a caption or comment to tag them, that's an "@mention."
This is not a great way to get your photo noticed by us unless you also use a hashtag or tag us directly in the photo (see Tagging People above.)
We get a notification when there's an @mention, but we have no way of looking up @mentions later, like we can with hashtags or our tagged photos (in our "Photos of You" tab.) Since we have a pretty big following, we get hundreds of notifications a day (every time we get a like on our photos!) We can only see a limited number of the most recent notifications at a time, so many @mention notifications get lost in the fray!
Just a little summary:
DO tag us directly in your photo by choosing "Tag People" and tapping on the photo.
DO tag us by using our favorite hashtags (#thehairbowcofan for featured fan Friday!)
@mentions in a caption or comment may be missed in our notifications feed, use the other forms of tagging to make sure we see your photo!