12 years ago if someone mentioned a hashtag they would look at you with a confused look on their face and wonder wtf you were talking about. Fast forward to 2019 and you can’t be on social media without knowing what a hashtag is.
Hashtags can be overwhelming and confusing and you’ve probably heard a million different theories about where to put them, how many to use in a post, and what the good hashtags are to use. It can be overwhelming and confusing to say the least!
So why do we use hashtags? Think of them as indexes to help you get your name out to your ideal audience. If you’re putting your content in every hashtag possible, you’re not targeting your ideal followers. Think of it as putting it everywhere and hoping for the best. Will that help you achieve your end goals? Probably not.
We’ve put together our exact 6 steps we use on our clients for a winning hashtag strategy.
Research, Research, Research
When it comes to using hashtags research is your new best friend (and not the boring research that you have to do in school). If you’re just starting to grow your Instagram, hashtags are VERY important and they’re something that you definitely need to pay attention to. So instead of using whatever comes to mind put some effort into them and do some research. We promise it’ll help you in the end!
Less is More
There’s those that use up the full 30 and then there’s those that use a small amount of really good hashtags.
Why shouldn’t you use a lot of hashtags you ask? Good question.
When you use up the full 30, whether it be in the caption or the post, it can look spammy and desperate. You want the attention, but you don’t want people to think you’re desperate for it. So keep it short and sweet. We suggest using between 11-15 high quality hashtags in your posts and you’ll be good to go!
Relevance
This tip goes hand in hand with tip #2. Now that you have those 11-5 hashtags, let’s think about the quality of them. When trying to decide what type of hashtags to use, make them relevant to the photo that you’re posting. For example, if you’re a musician but you’re posting a photo of coffee you wouldn’t want to use the #musician or any other music hashtag because chances are people following that hashtag will scroll right by and don’t care about coffee. Use quality hashtags that are related to the photo to give you the best exposure for your brand.
Hashtags in Caption vs. Comments
It’s a constant debate on which placement will work better. The answer is, every account is different. Some accounts grow faster than others and social media is all about trial and error and what works best for you and your brand. In our experience the comments bring us the most success but be sure to try both and see what works best for your page!
Quality over Quantity
When it comes to using hashtags it’s one of the key components of growing your Instagram following. If you’re using hashtags like #f4f or #likeforlike first of all you’re making your page look spammy which turns people off and second of all you’re also hurting your growth in the long run.
You may be asking, “how does it hurt my growth? I’m getting the likes and followers,” well let us tell you. Think of why you’re using the #f4f or #likeforlike hashtags. Most likely you’re using them to increase your likes and followers but are you thinking about WHO you’re trying to target and find you? 99% of the time the people are just liking and following for the likes and follows and don’t care about the content so it leaves your engagement low (sometimes people even unlike and unfollow after they’ve gotten their like) and makes your page look disconnected.
And there you have it! Using these tips will help you elevate your brand on social media and help you increase your engagement and followers!
Happy Hashtagging!
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