Hey y’all! Casey here, one of FSC’s Community Managers, and I’m here to tell you that I live and breathe by hashtags. Hashtags are very important for our clients because they help create new relationships, find content, and build a loyal following.
Now that I’ve introduced myself, let’s begin!
Are you a New Orleans business on Instagram and Twitter trying to get more eyes on your brand? One thing you should know about and use are hashtags.
Hashtags are those short links preceded by the pound sign (#) in front of any word or combination of words. Hashtags make these keywords searchable on Twitter and Instagram, and they are essential to the way we communicate online. Hashtags allow brands to organize content, track discussion topics based on those certain words, and jump into real-time conversations happening on each platform.
Hashtags can serve brands in many ways. For individuals, hashtags are popular for events, conferences, national days, trending topics, or for a user’s own personal, branded hashtag.
Everything in NOLA is unique. So it’s no surprise the city has its own set of New Orleans hashtags that you might see on Twitter and Instagram. We recommend taking advantage of these popular hashtags! Some of them may seem obvious, while others might get overlooked…
Popular New Orleans Hashtags
Here are popular New Orleans hashtags. Take note!
#OneTimeInNOLA
In case you didn’t know, New Orleans is celebrating its Tricentennial this year! With its 300th birthday in full swing, Visit New Orleans launched its new One Time, in New Orleans campaign. This hashtag encourages users to share their #OneTimeInNOLA stories while they’re in town. Who knows— with a good story and pretty image your photo might just be shared!
#NOLA300
This is another great hashtag to use to really get in the Tricentennial #MOOD.
#NewOrleans
This is by far the biggest hashtag associating with the city of New Orleans. With more than 6 million uses on Instagram, this hashtag is one you’ll always want to use. Get in that New Orleans conversation, y’all!
#NOLA
Another very popular local hashtag. Since “NOLA” is 6 characters shorter than “New Orleans,” it is the perfect hashtag to use when you’re running out of room in that 140-character tweet. Anyone who is from New Orleans or has been to New Orleans will know what you’re talking about when you say NOLA, so don’t be afraid you’ll get passed up.
#OnlyLouisiana
This is the branded hashtag for Louisiana Travel and Tourism, which can really get you in the conversations happening across the state.
#ShowMeYourNOLA
A local Influencer, Danielle Nava (@showmeyournola) created this branded hashtag for her account, and it continues to grow throughout the city! Brands and individuals may also want to engage with Danielle.
#IHeartNOLA
Local website/influencer @iheartnola created this branded hashtag. If you see something you heart about NOLA, share it (and use the hashtag)!
#IgersNOLA
This is shortened for “Instagrammers” or “Instagram users.” In hashtag phrasing, #ig is often used as a prefix, as in #igshop and #igtravel, instead of spelling out Instagram. This hashtag is geographically just for the New Orleans Instagram community.
#ItsYourNOLA
Another local New Orleans Influencer who created this branded hashtag. This hashtag lets the user easily find content to share (as long as you use the hashtag). Be sure to engage with this user as well!
Event hashtags
If you know New Orleans, then you know that we have a festival or event for just about everything. Most of these groups are on social and use a hashtag to promote their events. This can also extend to different parades during the year, or any grand celebration that we’re known for. Sometimes, it can take a little digging to see which hashtag is being used the most, or which is the “official” hashtag of a event. Here are some examples to get your wheels spinning: #PoboyFest, #KreweOfBoo, #NOWFE, #RedDressRun
There you have it folks: hashtags to use if you’re in New Orleans. But remember, hashtags are used to unify a community around a common interest, like a chat room or social group, so respect that space by offering value to the conversations taking place.
What Hashtags Can Do For You
- Business
- Hashtags serve as a great way for local businesses to find content for which they can share on their own channels. This will create a brand loyalty with the user because you enjoyed their photo enough to share.
- Influencers
- For Influencers, hashtags serve to connect you with various brands and other people in the online community.
- Visitors in New Orleans
- Visitors can search through local hashtags as a great way to find things to do, see, or eat while they’re in the city.
- Regrams & Shares
- At FSC, we’ve had our own client success in using local New Orleans hashtags, like this regram from Eater NOLA, where they shared a @GoNOLA504 Instagram post because we used #eaternola on the post.
- With this regram, we got our client in front Eater NOLA’s followers (all 26.1K of them!). If the regram has comments on it like this one did, you can engage with those users, too! This could definitely bring some new fans.
- Engage With Users & Build Your Following
- Hashtags on Instagram and Twitter allow you to engage with others who are using the same hashtag. This tactic is helpful for finding new fans!
- Organize & Curate Content
- We use the branded hashtag #OneTimeInNOLA for both of our Visit New Orleans and GoNOLA504 clients. These branded hashtags make it easier for us to scroll through and engage with users. We also use the hashtag to find user-generated content (UGC), which we share on our profiles. So use that hashtag y’all!
The most important thing to remember with hashtags is to make sure that they make sense for your brand and are tailored to your target audience. Don’t use the hashtag #eaternola with a photo of a French Quarter house. Instead use #OneTimeInNOLA or #IHeartNOLA. It may even get your business a regram!
Hashtags are a great resource for your overall social and digital strategy, especially if you’re trying to curate content. The key to a solid hashtag strategy is research, research, and more research! Using specific hashtags tailored to your audience adds value to their lives and makes them become loyal fans.