**Guest post by Vinnie Hines of Artist Collective, as featured in their Instagram Growth Program newsletter.

"Geotags are one of the most underused aspects of Instagram posts and stories. This is much more useful than just showing off where you've been. As a musician, you'll be able to leave a trail of influence behind your daily life, bringing more fans to you with ease.

What is a "geotag"? It is an electronic tag that assigns a particular location to a pic or video, a posting on a social media website, etc. The same way that a regular tag will identify the people in your posts, this will create a direct link to the location of said post. It's a big deal for a few reasons. But before we get into that, let's learn how to access them.

When a person clicks a particular geotag from Instagram's search bar, three types of content will come up. The top posts recently created at said geotag will be first, highlighting a small number of featured posts. (PRO TIP: this is the goal of your posts! Get featured once and watch the followers and engagement explode!) Below that, you'll have the most recent content tagged at the location. But the most exciting feature, in my opinion is the Instagram Story of the location (aka the geotag). This consists of any of the posts geotagged at the location from any user and is in chronological order of time posted. The feature is gaining a lot of traction in users and is linking up party animals and homebodies alike as "stories" are being more widely used.

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To view a geotag's story, click their profile picture (if a business/account) or the story located below the search bar (generally for broader location parameters). If you haven't searched anything, it will be the city in which your GPS currently shows and if you search a particular place, it will target only posts at that particular location. (PRO TIP: Use vague locations such as "Downtown Nashville" as your initial tags, then get more specific as the story unfolds.) Now that you know where/how to access them, let's talk about how you can optimize them for your artistry.

Build Your Draw

This feature not only gives an artist the ability to showcase their lifestyle, but it's a great way to show people where you're playing, what music venues you vibe to and where they can find you next! Sounds a little creepy, I know, but we're in the business of creating a draw. And this new feature can funnel folks straight to your location.

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Your Venues Will Thank You!

Each view of a geo-tagged post or story is free publicity for a venue. Using your social following to bolster your numbers at the time of the event is great, but get a couple thousand views on a post saying that "Wah-wah has THE best burger in Chicago. Ya'll gotta try it," and you've got yourself a measurable long term impact on the business.

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Creates Super Fans

Birds of a feather flock together. Damn, that was good, I just made that up on the spot…. Anyways, this feature has been huge for me to connect with those who love the places I love. Certain places I love aren't for the average human. A black metal themed burger bar or a straight-friendly gay bar are a couple places where I've found "my people". Whether my friendships start online or in person, I don't care. The more the merrier.

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There's not too much evidence leading to this other than the fact that I've seen many apps and startups try to create an app that could tell a user whether or not a place is poppin'. They've tried to charge venues, charge users, have a subscription fee, etc but it's never worked in a nationwide way. However, I believe that Instagram will monetize their company even further by providing regional access to geo-tagged posts in the near future, targeting locals and tourists alike. They already have a huge market and by slowly making the geotag an integral part of their layout, I see it leading that direction.

All in all, the geotag is one of the best ways to expand your social reach on Instagram. Whether you're trying to rally a late night drinking crew or just want to highlight some of the awesome things about your recurring venues, it gives an artist a chance to add another spice to the mix. Complementing the other things we've taught you, I urge you to incorporate geotags into as many posts as you can, highlighting your lifestyle and showing some love to the venues paying your bills!"

You can check out the Artist Collective Instagram Growth Program HERE.

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